Speaker | Teacher / Student Interactions | Analysis of Interactions |
Whaea A. | Today you are going to read The Zoo Debate by Philippa Werry. This nonfiction article asks the question: “Should we have zoos?” and gives reasons for and against. | Introduces title, author and topic |
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Whaea A. | What do you know about the work zoos do? | Prompts for background knowledge |
Lazer | At Auckland Zoo they keep animals people can go see like elephants, tigers, lions and all sorts of other wild animals. I’ve been there. | Shares background knowledge |
Cybelle | Me too. I’ve also been to Auckland Zoo. They have a new baby rhino. | Shares background knowledge |
Whaea A. | So some zoos have breeding programmes? | Prompts for vocabulary knowledge |
Cybelle | Yes. They have a baby rhino that was born last year called Amali. | Shares background knowledge |
Whaea A. | That would have been a real celebration! | Affirms students knowledge |
Whaea A. | Any other work a zoo does? | Prompts for background knowledge |
Uriah | Zoos also keep wild animals that are going extinct, so they need to be protected. | Shares background knowledge |
Kyla | Yes and also ones that have been treated badly or got injured. | Shares background knowledge |
Naizer | I agree with Uriah. I think Kea are in danger and they have them at Auckland Zoo. | Shares background knowledge |
Leigh | I don’t know much except what we watched in the video yesterday. | Shares information |
Whaea A. | Great! You know some things about the work zoos do. | Affirms students knowledge |
You’re also going to learn there is an ongoing, big debate about zoos. The author gives arguments for and against zoos that makes this a debate. | Draws students attention to reading purpose |
What does the word argument mean here?
| Prompts for vocabulary knowledge |
Uriah | Maybe people disagree with each other and they say why. | Shares information |
Whaea A. | Yes exactly!
| Affirms students knowledge |
Look at pages 17 and 18. Have a read of the yellow sticky notes and then we’ll talk about an important idea at the centre of the arguments. [Learners read]
What did you learn? |
Prompts for text information (or ideas) |
Kyla | The breeding programmes at zoos help to save endangered animals. | Shares thinking (about text) |
Cheyanne | But it also says most animals they breed don’t get put back in their natural environment. | Shares thinking (about text) |
Whaea A. | So say why that’s an argument for, or against. | Prompts for text information (or ideas)
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Uriah | It’s against because zoos just maily keep the babies, they don’t help them survive in the wild. | Shares thinking (about text) |
Whaea A | Right! So if you look at the layout of the page the left has arguments for zoos and the right has a matching colour for the counter-arguments, against zoos.
| Affirms students knowledge |
Many of these points are about zoos’ work in conservation. Look at the section called Glossary at the end and someone tell us what conservation is. That person choose someone else to tell us how conservation is part of the work zoos do.
| Prompts for vocabulary knowledge |
Kyla | It says conservation is the protection of animals, plants, and the natural environment. Nazier? | Shares thinking (about text) |
Nazier | Umm..Zoos have vets? So they protect wild animals by operating on them when they get injured? | Shares thinking (about text) |
Whaea A. | Yes, that’s one way zoos can be involved in conservation. | Affirms students knowledge |
You will soon get to read other examples. Most of the examples will help us think about one important idea in this debate: Let’s write this important idea in our modelling book because we are going to see why it's so important. We will also need to justify (or give reasons) why it’s so important. The important idea that keeps coming up in this article is: “people support zoos for conservation reasons, but others argue there are better ways to protect wild animals”.
Shortly you are going to read silently on your own to find evidence of this idea, but you will need the meanings of a few key words first. [Cycles through 3 cards with the words enclosures, endangered, habitat; learners pronounce after teacher and are told a brief student-friendly meaning - teacher gets students to attach to Word Wall]
Ok, now you have some of the key vocabulary, I want to read pages 10 -14 silently, by yourself. Then close-read slowly a second time. As you read, put a “stick it” arrow next to any evidence of this important idea [points]: “people support zoos for conservation reasons” [Hands out stick it arrows]
Write ‘for’ or ‘against’ on the ‘stick it’ to show whether the evidence is being used to support zoos’ conservation work, or not. Any questions? | Draws students attention to reading purpose |