Misty Mackay

February 22, 2017

GRANITE SCHOOL DISTRICT LESSON DESIGN TEMPLATE

Content Objectives:
(4th Grade Science) Standard 3 Students will understand the basic
interest in specific
engage students
What will I do to

properties of rocks, the processes involved in the formation of soils,

learning goals?

and the needs of plants provided by soil.

Objective 1 I can identify basic properties of minerals and rocks.
Language Objectives:
I can explain verbally the differences between a rock and a mineral.
I can explain verbally some of the properties of a mineral.
I can write down some of the properties of a mineral.

Small groups of students will be given a piece of granite to observe

and write down their observations.
We will have a class discussion about what they found. The key idea
What will I do to help students interact with new knowledge?

that I will ensure we talk about is that rocks are made up of minerals.
The little specks of dark color that students find in the granite are the
minerals. The type of minerals that are in the rock determine what
type of rock it is.
I will then explain to the students that scientists identify the different
minerals by looking at the properties (or characteristics) of minerals. I
will explain to the students that we are going to study two of the
properties that scientists use to identify minerals.
First, we will look at color. I will ask the students if they can identify
which mineral is quartz by asking them to hold up the mineral that
has white in it. I will explain that it is hard to identify a mineral just by
the color. Especially since some minerals, like quartz, come in
different colors. Such as clear, white, purple, pink, brown, black, gray,
orange, yellow, blue, and red. It is even made up of many colors
some times.
Next, we will discuss hardness. Because it is sometimes hard to
identify minerals just by color, we can also do what is called a scratch
test to see how hard a mineral is. At this point, I will scratch a piece
of chalk with a paper clip, penny, and my fingernail. I will then have
the students do the same thing. We will have a quick discussion on
which objects were able to scratch the chalk. Through our discussion,
they will be able to determine that chalk is soft because it can be
scratched by all three of the objects.
 Students will be given a scratch test worksheet (attached) that will

What will I do to
guide them through using the property of hardness to determine the

help students
names of the minerals they are studying. Each table will be asked to

practice?
identify quartz, gypsum, and calcite.
Once students are done, we will have a class discussion on which
mineral is which and how they were able to determine that
information.

What will I do if they still dont get

or they need more?

In future lessons,
students will be
What will I do to deepen students understanding at their level of learning?

asked to read
about the other
properties that For those students still struggling to
are used to understand how to identify minerals, I
identify minerals will pair them with students who
and put a chart in understand the concept and can give
their notebooks. them additional support in identifying
Additionally, we minerals. I will also have other
will learn about materials, such as books around the
another property classroom for the students to study.
called streak
color to identify
minerals through
a hands on
activity.
They will also
have the
opportunity to
identify several
more minerals
using the
knowledge they
gained in
previous lessons
during a mineral
sort activity.
 What will I do next with
the data I now have?
I will use the answers that I receive from our class discussion to help
direct my future instruction on identifying minerals.
I will also use the mineral scratch test worksheet to help me
determine if students understood the concept I taught.
Finally, I will give a formal assessment that will ask students to
identify certain minerals by the properties we discussed in class:
color, hardness, and streak. This data should help me determine if I
need to reteach the concepts taught in this lesson.

References
(2017, February). Granite School District. Retrieved from Granite School District Intranet:
https://gsdsites.graniteschools.org/departments/instructionalservices/curriculum/science/Docu
ments/Forms/AllItems.aspx?RootFolder=https%3a%2f%2fgsdsites%2egraniteschools%2eorg%2f
departments%2finstructionalservices%2fcurriculum%2fscience%2fDocuments%2fInqu