Biology+Literacy+Lesson+1

Copy the learning objectives in your notebook; copy the homework in your planner:

Learning Objectives for Biology Literacy Lesson 1 Today's Homework Assignment:
 * Content Learning Objectives || Language Learning Objectives ||
 * Students will:
 * understand the goals of the course
 * learn about scale and size || Students will:
 * use the Cornell Note taking strategy.
 * write and speak about ideas.
 * translate for each other through structured think-pair-shares. ||
 * Summary section of your Cornell Notes

Check homework Due Today:
 * no homework due

Today's Agenda:

1. 2/28/11 Course Introduction Cornell Notes (students: when you see something in red, that means it's a new page in your n otebook--so get your notebook ready with this title)
 * Review how to set up Cornell Notes:
 * How should the page look?
 * What do I write on the left? What do I write on the write?
 * What do I use the summary section at the bottom for?
 * What is the title of this course?
 * (make sure students write the question on the left and an answer, in any language, on the right--these directions can be verbally repeated for each additional question)
 * What does the title mean?
 * What does it mean to be alive?
 * Here is the big question that you'll use to introduce Biology. Have students copy this question in their notes (and ask someone to translate the question), think about their answer, write their answer on the right side of their notes, share their answer in pairs/small groups, and then report out to the class. Write their answers on the board using a sort of cluster map. Challenge students to identify different types of life (they will probably focus on human/animal life, ask them about other kinds of life).
 * After this, develop a class answer for what it means to be alive. Challenge students to complete a sentence starter provided by you.
 * Something like: "Being alive means ....................................... . However, it can also mean .......................... ............................................. ."
 * Finally, based on student responses, share what you think is the best answer.
 * Remind students of the homework: complete the summary section of your Cornell Notes, in any language, for homework. Remember, you don't have to translate your notes, just write the big ideas about your notes in the summary section.

2. 2/28/11 Learning about Scale (what does the red mean, again?)
 * Briefly mention to students that this activity is meant to help them understand the size and scale of what we will be talking about in class.
 * Show students the 2nd part of this video:
 * Powers of Ten Video from 1977
 * Show the last part of this video, starting at 5:40 (this part starts with Earth an zooms in to a proton).
 * Be sure to open this video before class to give it time to load on YouTube--it takes FOREVER to load. At least, it did when I viewed it.
 * Have students think-pair-share about what they saw in the video.
 * Show students this concept again using this scale example of "common knowledge" objects:
 * [|Scale and Size of common objects and the universe]
 * Show students this concept again using this scale example given to us by Annika Goodin:
 * Scale and Size
 * Again, have students think-pair-share about the scale and size of the things we are going to be learning about in this class.
 * **Finally, have students complete the following sentence frames in their notes**:
 * In this class, we are learning about ......... Instead of studying whole plants or whole animals, we will study parts of living things that are very, very, very ..................
 * The things we are studying in this class are so small that ...........................................................
 * Even though the things we will study are very small, the are still very important because .........................................................................................................
 * Have students pair-share their responses.
 * Call on a few students to read their sentences to the rest of the class.
 * Call on a few students to read their sentences to the rest of the class.