Connecting Reading to the Real World

As I shared with parents at conferences we are working on some PARCC practice.  Yesterday the students read an article entitled "A Howling Success" by Gerry Bishop.  The article shares how wolves were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in an effort to increase their dwindling population.  In 1995, Yellowstone started the Wolf Project.  They captured 14 wolves in Canada and brought them to Yellowstone. Over time they have increased their numbers and changed the ecosystem of Yellowstone.

PARCC practice 

Because I am a teacher (and part nerd) I remembered seeing a video about how the scientists involved in the project shared their findings.  I searched for it and then found a great video that shared how the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone, after a 70 year absence, has now changed the entire ecosystem, including the rivers.  What?  How?

We watched that today in class.  I shared the link below.  Instead of just reading about wolves, they SAW them chase their prey and HEARD them howl. They saw the animals whose populations have increased due to the wolves.  They saw how the land changed and then eventually the rivers.  

Wolves and the Rivers!

As an added bonus... Some new words we talked about were :

• ecosystem
• prey
• predator
• livestock
• carcass (or carrion)
• reintroduction
• plentiful
• Endangered Species Act
• the "lower 48"