Lesson Plan: Should This Elephant Go Free?

Essential Questions

• How should humans interact with animals? How can we protect and care for animals?
• What rights do animals have today? What rights should they have?

Literature Connection

• Novel: The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
• Novel: Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

Build Background Knowledge (10 minutes)

Before students read the article, provide some context with our fascinating video “What to Do About Zoos.” After watching the video, discuss the question at the end: Are the  changes to zoos in recent years enough to give the animals good lives?

Preview Text Features (15 minutes)

Guide students to locate the article. Then preview the text features by asking the following questions:

• Read the article’s title and subtitle (the text below the title). Consider the idea that “animals have rights, just like you and I.” If animals had the same rights and freedoms as humans, what would have to change about our society? Sample answer: If animals had the same rights as humans, killing animals for food would be out of the question. It also wouldn’t feel right to keep animals in captivity for our entertainment or to take their skin or fur to make clothing. 
• Look at the sidebar captioned “Zoos Through the Years.” How have zoos changed through the years? How have they stayed the same? Zoos of the past kept animals in small cages, while today the animals get more room and some activity to keep their brains active. What’s stayed the same is that animals are still taken from their natural environments and kept captive for humans to look at.

Preview Vocabulary (10 minutes)

• Point out the vocabulary box. Read the words (suing, sanctuary, interact with, stalk, grief) aloud and discuss the definitions.
• Play the Vocabulary Slideshow.

Make a Plan for Reading 

Before students start to read, walk them through a reading plan:

• Set a purpose for reading by explaining to students that the article “Should This Elephant Go Free?” will tell them about an elephant that’s living in isolation at the Bronx Zoo and an animal rights campaign to free her.  
• Point out the Pause and Think boxes. Tell students they can check their understanding of what they’ve read by answering these questions
• Point out the activity at the end of the article, and tell students they’ll complete it after reading. Encourage them to briefly scan the questions and to keep them in mind as they read.

Guide students to read the article. Once they understand it well, discuss the following close-reading and critical-thinking questions.

Close-Reading Questions (15 minutes)

• What does the NhRP want the Bronx Zoo to do? (central idea) The NhRP wants the Bronx Zoo to set Happy free in an elephant sanctuary.
• In the section “Smarter Than We Think,” the author suggests that many animals are fairly smart. What examples does he include to support this idea? (key details) The author notes that crows can make tools, apes can learn to use sign language, octopuses can tell one human from another, and Happy the elephant can recognize herself in a mirror. 
• The section “Smarter Than We Think” describes a scientist’s experience watching a mother elephant. What idea about elephants does this information support? (evaluating a claim) The information about the mother elephant supports the idea that elephants feel emotions such as grief. 

Critical-Thinking Question (10 minutes)

• Think about how we categorize animals—for example, pets, zoo animals, or animals that are raised for food. Why do you think differences exist in how we treat these animals? Should these animals all have the same rights? (critical thinking) Students may note that we pamper our pets and treat them like members of the family, while we accept the fates of animals in captivity and those of the animals we kill for food. Encourage students to discuss why we apply these different standards.
• In the section “Smarter Than We Think,” why do you think the author mentions animals’ intelligence and their ability to feel emotions? What do these ideas have to do with the rest of the article? (synthesizing) The author mentions these qualities in animals to make the point that animals are a lot more like humans than we realize. We would never consider keeping a human in captivity for the sake of knowledge or entertainment. The article explains why some people question whether it’s right to do so with animals, given their similarities to humans.

3. Skill Building and Writing

• Have students work in pairs to complete the Spotlight Skill activity at the end of the article.
• Use our Summarizing Skill Builder, available in higher- and lower-level versions. (Click here to view all your Skill Builders for this article.)
• Writing prompt: According to the Bronx Zoo, people who visit zoos are more likely to want to protect animals in the wild. Do you agree? Write a paragraph giving your opinion on this statement.