Passenger Pigeons
This resource provides two articles from famous speeches looking at the extinction of the passenger pigeons. Students can read one or both articles and then analyze them. There are comprehension and critical thinking questions for both articles and an opportunity to compare and contrast them.
By completing this activity, your students will be able to:
- Identify the reasons why the passenger pigeon went extinct.
- Evaluate the challenges of managing migratory species.
- Evaluate the tone, mood and theme of two different articles on the same topic.
More About this Lesson Plan
The Arizona Game and Fish Department has put together various reading sets. Each set is a collection of two or more nonfiction articles focused on a single wildlife topic or issue. Each text in a set can be read individually or together. Critical thinking and comprehension questions are provided for each text as well as a separate set of questions to be answered for the entire set.
In this specific set of articles, students will read two speeches by famous wildlife conservationists. The speeches memorialize the extinction of the passenger pigeon. Students will have the opportunity to learn about the causes of this extinction, what the loss means for us and what lessons we might have learned.
For each article, you will find some general information below about the reading level of the text. This includes the word count, lexile level, ATOS readability and Flech-Kincaid readability.
Education through AZGFD
See resources for teachers, including lesson plans. Learn about hunter education, and classes to earn bonus points.
teacher resources
The goal of the AZGFD education program is to promote awareness, appreciation and stewardship of the state’s wildlife resources by using wildlife as a context for learning.
hunter education for bonus points
Classroom and online instruction, and field days for hunter education. Online “Ethically Hunting Arizona” class allows hunters to earn a lifetime bonus point.