Lesson Plan

Olympic National Park Annotated Bibliography

Grade Level:
High School: Ninth Grade through Twelfth Grade
Subject:
Literacy and Language Arts,Science,Social Studies
Lesson Duration:
90 Minutes
Common Core Standards:
11-12.RST.1, 11-12.RST.7, 11-12.W.8
Thinking Skills:
Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.

Essential Question

How do you write an annotated bibliography for the purpose of post-field research in a National Park?

Objective

How can we measure the importance of a National Park in an accurate and academically correct manner?

Background

Creating an Annotated Bibliography of 10 sources:

An annotated bibliography is a list of citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation. The purpose of the annotation is to inform the reader of the relevance, accuracy, and quality of the sources cited. These sources will comprise part of your Literature Review for your final presentation on your findings post-field research.

How can we measure the importance of a National Park?
In the United States, National Parks provide valuable currency for a number of reasons. They represent an environmental heritage that enriches our cultural legacy. Different groups attempt to develop/harness/protect/mitigate the parks’ rich resources. What are some ways that we can measure and protect our National Parks for generations to come.

Select from the topics below:
● Economic viability of the Hoh Rainforest
● Environmental impact of logging within the Olympic National Forest
● Increased tourism to National Parks : examine the impact
● Elwha River and Dam removal: revegetation or salmon migration
● S’Klallam Tribal Participation and concerns

Preparation

  • Computers with internet
  • Navigation screenshots to your school's databses
  • Maps

Materials

Lesson Hook/Preview

Show overview of several national parks with this video:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/25/google-now-lets-you-explore-u-s-national-parks-via-360-degree-virtual-tours/

Students can discuss the varying types of geographic landscapes seen in the video and share
visits they have taken (or never taken) to National Parks.

1. Video of Elwha Dam removal:
https://www.nps.gov/olym/learn/nature/elwha-ecosystem-restoration.htm

2. Promotional trailer of National Parks Discovery video, narrated by Robert Redford (important note for understanding “bias” in research: video was funded by Expedia and Subaru):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TBfWLZzha0A

3. Schedule a virtual field trip with park ranger (ONP preferably, but another national park
ranger will still stimulate thinking and research ideas):
https://education.microsoft.com/skype-in-the-classroom/virtual-field-trips

Procedure

Sample Annotation:
http://www.elwha.org/ELcultureandhistory/historicaltimeline.html

This 26 page document by Duda, Warrick and Magirl outlines the history, status and defining
characteristics of the Coastal and Lower Elwha River, prior to Dam removal. This source is
important because it documents the impact of the dam upon salmon habitat along with native
uses from multiple perspectives. The removal of his dam is unique and historic in both locationand time.

Navigate to school databases first.
Use Google Scholar and intelligent Google searches as directed from previous classes.

A few things to note:
All entries should be alphabetized by FIRST WORD appearing in the citation
All citations should be in ONE consistent style (APA for our purposes). Avoid citation generators (which often produce incomplete or inaccurate results); rather, consult a style guide and create your own citation.

An annotated bibliography asks you to think critically about WHY or WHY NOT a source will
help support the argument you’re crafting. The more information you can provide now, the
better off you’ll be when selecting evidence that appears in the final draft of your paper.

For each source you find, include:
Properly formatted citation
Then, in a paragraph, analyze and discuss the quality of what you found. Include (if relevant
A brief summation of the author’s main argument(s)
Credentials of author(s), titles earned (are there any letters after the author’s name)
Any information about the research/study the author(s) conducted
How/Why the author(s) were involved in the study
Will the source be helpful as you craft your written work? Why or why not?
How does it connect to any other research you’ve done for your IWA?

**As an extension, FROM EACH SOURCE, please print and/or photocopy the page(s) you
found quotable material on, and highlight the information you plan to include in your writing.
Attach those sources to the back of your annotated bibliography. All material should be in the
same order as presented on the final annotated bib.

**A link to the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) can be found here. If you have a question
about citation styles and formatting, check here:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

Vocabulary

  • APA Formatting Style
  • Annotated Bibliography
  • Credibility
  • Validity
  • Currency
  • Reliability
  • Mitigate/Mitigation

Assessment Materials

Submission of assignment in MS Word to Turnitin.com or other plagiarism
checker.

Supports for Struggling Learners

If a learner is struggling to understand the objective, essential question, or skills presented in
the lesson, what can be done to help this learner? Is there a lower reading level version of text?
Is there a more image heavy or simplified version of content? Can supportive devices be
provided such as calculators?

● Students on IEPS or 504s may do 3-5 sources

Enrichment Activities

They may create their final presentation in video format to upload to a
public forum.

Additional Resources

● They are in the “hook” component of this lesson. For below as well.
● http://nationalparksadventure.com/about/

Contact Information

Email us about this lesson plan

Last updated: March 23, 2020