Don’t Plateau in Geography!

Explicit Instruction/Teacher modeling

• Read the student objective and have them guess the meanings of the words plateau (large, flat area higher than land), canyon (deep valley with steep sides), butte (steep-sided hill whose top is narrower than it is tall), and mesa (steep-sided hill whose top is wider than it is tall). Even if they are wrong, write the answer down.
• Write the three key questions on the board:
  1. What do you see in the picture?
  2. What do you think about what you see in the picture?
  3. What do you wonder about the picture?
• Write the following sentence stems on the board:
  • I see ____.
  • I think ____.
  • I wonder ____.
• Model your thinking for the Landscape Labeling! section of the What is a Plateau? worksheet using the sentences stems. (For example, “I see land formations that rise up at different levels. I think there might be more than one type of land formation because there are numbers on each of them, and I think we may need to label them. I wonder why the sides of the land formations have different shades of brown.")
• Demonstrate how to change your wonder statement into a question. (For instance, “Why do the sides of the land formations have different shades of brown?”)
• Ask, “What are some features of each of the landforms in the illustration?" and list some on the board with the landform name as a heading.
• Allow students to share some of their own think and wonder statements.

Guided Practice

• Distribute the What is a Plateau? worksheet.
• List details about the butte illustration together, and ask the students to use the sentence stems when sharing their details. Do this for the I see and I think sentence stems.
• Pair students to complete the wonder sentence stems.
• Choose students to share their wonder sentence stems about buttes, and show them how they can change their wonder statements into questions.

Independent working time

• Distribute lined paper.
• Have the students complete the three sentence stems with questions about the mesa illustration in the What is a Plateau? worksheet.
• Ask students to read the text and determine the correct answers for questions 1–4.
• Provide the four vocabulary words students will use to answer questions 1–4 (canyon, plateau, butte, and mesa).
• Instruct students to share their answers to questions 1–4 with the class, choosing students randomly and having them justify their choice.
• Allow students to turn and share their sentence stems with partners.