Grade Level: 1st Grade

WIDA Proficiency Level: 4 (Expanding)

WIDA Standard (2012): English language learners will process:
Connected discourse with a variety of sentences
Expanded related ideas
A variety of complex grammatical constructions
Sentence patterns characteristics of particular content areas
Specific and some technical content-area language
Words or expressions with multiple meanings across content areas.
Topic: Plant parts and needs.
Virginia Science SOL: 1.4 The student will investigate and understand that plants have
basic life needs and functional parts and can be classified according to certain
characteristics. Key concepts include a) plants need nutrients, air, water, light, and a
place to grow; b) basic parts of plants
Propositions:
1. A plant is a living thing.
2. A plant has five basic needs in order to live.
3. A plant needs nutrients, air, water, light, and a place to grow.
4. A plant grows in soil.
5. Plants make their own food.
6. A plant has seeds, roots, stems, leaves, buds, and fruit.
7. The sun gives plants light and energy to make food.
8. The roots of a plant are in the ground.
9. The first stage of a plant is a seed.
10. The stem holds the plant up.
11. The petals protect the inner part of the flower.
12. The leaves make food for the plant.

Selective Listening
Purpose: Assesses a students ability to listen to a passage while simultaneously
reading the written text and writing in selected omitted key words for plants basic needs.
Directions: Listen to the passage and fill in the blanks. You will hear the passage three
times. (1 point each; Bonus: point for every correctly spelled word) (Hint: Listen
to the passage carefully first. The second time, fill in the blanks as you hear them.
During the third, and final, time you hear the passage check your work.)
Students see and hear: A plant has needs. There are five things a plant needs in order
to survive. All plants make their own food. Its roots carry water and nutrients up the
plants stem. The nutrients come from the soil, where the plant lives. Sunlight is also
needed to help the plant make its food. Like all other living things, plants need air.

Extensive Listening
Purpose: Assess a student's ability to summarize main points after hearing extended
speech about the life cycle of a plant.
Directions: Carefully listen and watch the video (From a Seed to a Flower). After the
video, retell the story by cutting and gluing the following pictures to a separate sheet of
paper in order of how they happened. Underneath each picture, write what stage the
plant is in or what the plant needs to survive.
[Note: This activity should be implemented as an informal formative assessment task
that should be taught in the classroom within the subject unit. Below, the pictures and
labels are in correct order. When the task is given to the children, the pictures will be in
random order.]

Seed

Sprout

Sunlight

Leaves

Water (or Rain)

Bud

Roots

Flower