Source: WILD TV: "The Animals We Live With"
Funding for the VITAL/Ready to Teach collection was secured through the United States Department of Education under the Ready to Teach Program.
Do you like insects? In this video from Wild TV, you will see and hear about many different kinds of insects. Some crawl like spiders and centipedes, while others fly, walk on water and even flip and click. You will learn the names of some interesting-looking insects. You will also learn how to be safe around dangerous spiders and how to identify male and female Dobson flies. By listening and watching closely, you can tell how the speakers feel about the various insects by the ways the speakers react to and talk about the insects.
Download and ShareThe following Frame, Focus and Follow-up suggestions are best suited for elementary school students using this video in an English language arts or science lesson. Be sure to modify the questions to meet your students' instructional needs.
What is Frame, Focus and Follow-up?
Frame (ELA) How might a person who likes spiders describe, talk about and react to them? In comparison, how would a person who does not like spiders describe, talk about and react to them?
Focus (ELA) As you watch the video, listen to the words the speakers use to talk about the insects. Note the actions and reactions of the speakers and the ways the insects are described.
Follow Up (ELA) Explain how the words used to describe something can make us feel one way or another about the item. Practice describing insects in different ways to cause conflicting feelings or opinions about them. How did you change your descriptions to cause listeners to feel a certain way? Discuss other topics besides insects that you could describe through your words, like food, and your actions to cause conflicting reactions.
Frame (SCI) What do you know about the many different types of insects there are? How are they alike and different from each other?
Focus (SCI) Observe the environment (habitat) of the insects in the video and how the insects interact with the environment.
Follow Up (SCI) Living things are found everywhere in the world. Discuss how distinct environments or habitats support the lives of various insects, such as the insects shown in the video.
WALI: Let’s see how they’re doing.
WALI: Mace, that’s a slug.
MACE: That’s a slug
WALI: And what’s that on your hand?
MACE: That’s slug slime.
WALI: That’s slug slime. Okay, for this creature, I give it -- (he holds up sign w/ number 8).
WALI: And what do we have here?
CAROLINE: It’s a click beetle.
WALI: Click beetle. And why is it crawling up your arm?
CAROLINE: It’s an escape reflex. Insects will either drop down into the grass and get lost or some will keep climbing up.
WALI: Whoa, do that again
WALI: What is that?
CAROLINE: It’s a millipede. You find them under flower pots, or rocks in your garden.
WALI: I can hear marching.
WALI: I give this creature a…(holds up a sign w/ the number 9)
WALI: Oh, okay, now what kind of spider is this?
CAROLINE: This is a fishing spider. It lives around river banks and these will actually get on the water surface to fish.
MACE: So, when a fish comes by it can feel the ripples in the water and then it grabs it. What’s pretty cool too is that they don’t look for their prey, they feel for their prey, so it may look to you like a Wolf Spider but because it feels for its prey it doesn’t need its eyes like the Wolf Spider does, because the Wolf Spider hunts by vision, this one hunts by feel.
CAROLINE: Spiders are amazing creatures, but some of them are quite poisonous, so they’re best to be looked at but left alone.
WALI: Yeah, like my last girlfriend.
CAROLINE: They sure move fast.
MACE: Yeah do you want to see?
WALI: Yeah.
WALI: Here, let me help.
WALI: It’s on my finger, it’s on my finger, it’s on my finger.
MACE: You’re doing great.
WALI: All right, look everybody, it’s on my finger, look the spider is on my finger.
WALI: You’ve got to be kidding me.
MACE: It’s a Dobson Fly, see those big jaws on the front of it?
WALI: Yeah.
MACE: That shows that it’s a male. They spend most of their lives in the stream.
WALI: Got a good grip on him right?
MACE: I sure do.
WALI: Okay. It’s the grand daddy.
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