All About Wolves

Grade Levels: 6 - 8

Objectives

• Students will use vocabulary related to wolves.
• Students will navigate through an interactive website to gather information about wolves.
• Students will summarize information gathered.
• Students will critically analyze the media's portrayal of wolves.
  

Materials

• All About Wolves worksheet
  
• Wild Wolves website
  (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wolves/howl.html)
  

Procedures

1. Introduce key vocabulary: ancestors, confrontational, domesticated, extermination, hybrid, predator, spectrograph, vocalizations.
2. Have students work individually or with partners to complete the All About Wolves worksheet as they explore the Wild Wolves website.
3. Set aside time for students to compare their summaries and discuss what they have learned about wolves.
4. Encourage small groups to critically analyze the way wolves have been presented in books, television, and movies. Are they portrayed accurately? 
5. Challenge students to express their opinions and support them with specific examples from the website.
   

Assessment

• Use a rubric to evaluate students' ability to gather, summarize, and analyze information about wolves.
  
• Find a variety of assessment techniques to use with this lesson.

Extension Activities

• Choose from a large collection of cross-curricular activities for all grade levels.
• Have students work in small groups to write encyclopedia articles summarizing what they have learned about these animals.
• Invite students to use the Interent to learn of the natural and human forces that affect the survival of the wolf. Have each student complete a concept web to illustrate the information they find.

Standards Correlations

Standards for the English Language Arts
Students:

• read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to acquire new information.
• gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources.
• use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes.

National Educational Technology Standards
Students:

• are proficient in the use of technology.
• use technology to locate, evaluate, and collect information from a variety of sources.