Chapter 10: Family at the Zoo

This chapter presents a unit plan which aims to provide students with a special resource to facilitate teaching about animal life, including endangered animals around the world. The plan was based on principles from de Oliveira’s (2016) language-based approach to content instruction, as well as research presented in de Oliveira et al. (2015). Each lesson is centered around the teaching and learning cycle (de Oliveira, 2017; Martin, 2009) in which the teacher helps students deconstruct a passage and scaffolds the joint construction of a new piece in the same genre. Lessons are based on Grapeseed English Solution’s “Family at the Zoo” (2010). The unit places particular focus on storytelling, emphasizing the skills of listening and speaking.