Lesson Plan: The Drought of 2012

Here is a lesson plan for you using information text and focusing on a current event: the drought of 2012.

Predict: Have students start out by making a web. In the center of the web is the word "drought". Around the center, they should brainstorm different kinds of people who could be hurt physically or economically in a drought (farmer, politician, etc).

Next, show the students the PBS Newshour segment entitled "The Drought of 2012". http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/thevote/story.php?id=19477&package_id=634

Reevaluate and Adjust: After showing the video, have students go back to their web and make adjustments based on the new material they have learned.

Discuss and Describe: Ask the students the following discussion questions:

What is a drought?

How does the 2012 drought differ from other droughts the United States has experienced?

How have farmers/politicians/citizens responded to the drought?

Expand: Have students do a cloze read of the New York Times article "Severe Drought Seen as Driving Up Cost of Food". http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/26/business/food-prices-to-rise-in-wake-of-severe-drought.html?_r=1&hp Students should read the article through once. Then, students should read the article again and highlight the information that indicates how people are being impacted by the drought. Finally, have students discuss with a partner or small group what they have chosen to highlight and why.

Prior Knowledge/Making Connections/ Write: Show students the graphic on products containing corn. http://www.kycorn.org/documents/cornuses.pdf Have the students use what they have learned (that the drought is going to cause a hike in the price of corn) and this list of corn based products to come up with main idea statements and supporting details to explain how specific people will be hurt by the rising price of corn.

Example:

Students may be negatively affected by the drought because of higher corn prices. The drought of 2012 is causing the price of corn to go up. Older students will have to pay higher prices for paper and pens because paper and ink both use corn. Younger students will also be affected because crayons and glue also contain corn. Students will may even have to pay a higher price for those new school clothes! Yes, the fabric that makes our clothes can also contain corn.

For a list of further resources and more lesson plan ideas on the drought, see the resource http://www.pbs.org/newshour/thenews/materials/Drought2012.LALessonPlan.pdf - a lesson plan from the.news.