Planning Stage & Analysis/Reflection Stage*

*Read blue font for analysis/reflection

Grade: 9-10th Subject: Biology (Living Earth) Duration: 1 hour and 20

min
Topic: Matter and Energy in Organisms and High School Instructor: Spencer Holmes
Ecosystems

NGS Standards
HS-LS2-5: Develop a model to illustrate the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the
cycling of carbon, among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere. [Examples of
models could include simulations and mathematical models.] (NGSS, 2013)
Standard(s) Broken Down
Students understand how cellular respiration and photosynthesis can play small roles in
individual plants/animals and create larger impacts to an ecosystem.
Lesson Objectives
Big Q (Frame for students) Knowledge (Concept to be Skills (What will be explicitly
How do living things acquire understood) taught)
energy and matter for life? • Consumers store and use • The trophic levels fit into a
energy through ATP and pyramid based on their
ADP impact in an ecosystem and
• Consumers can play small how many
and large roles in an consumers/producers there
ecosystem are
• The ecosystem can affect a • Consumers store energy via
consumers ability to live glycogen and receive
energy by consuming other
things
• ATP has 3 phosphates and
stores energy for the cell
while ADP has 2


phosphates and releases

energy in a cell
• Consumers can be affected
by environmental factors
such as oxygen availability
Did students understand the learning objective? How could you tell?
• Students were able to connect how important it is for consumers and other living
organisms to receive energy via eating other substances. At the end of class, students
were able to connect this concept to what I taught them about how ATP and ADP are the
two molecules responsible for storing/releasing usable energy.
• By verbally addressing the learning objective that I wrote on the whiteboard at the
beginning and end of class (see ‘Big Q’) students were able to easily respond to the
question and add scientifically accurate details that they learned from my from lecture.

Language Objectives/Expectations:
• Students can use scientific language to describe and teach other peers what they have
learned.
Literacy Objectives/Expectations:
• Students can understand the difference between ATP (tri-phosphate) and ADP (di-
phosphate). Based on the root words, students can differentiate how tri- means three and
di- means two.
Student Social-Emotional Goal:
• Students will turn to their partner after reading their small text on either ATP or ADP.
Both students will take turns explaining what they have learned from the text and
discover the difference between the two terms after speaking with one another. Having
students interact with one another and to verbally teach their partner, allows them to
become confident in explaining what they have read and using proper scientific
terminology.
Barriers to Learning:
• After speaking with Mr. Holmes, some students are known to have a negative mentality
that they simply are not good at science. This can provide a challenge since the students


have a preconception that no matter what they do, they will always preform bad in
science classes. To overcome this, it would be best to check up on the student
periodically to make sure they are actively participating in the class and to give verbal
positive reinforcement.
• When approaching these students, I remained calm and kind in order to promote a
positive tone and attitude about the subject. Doing this helped the students to push
themselves even when appearing frustrated.
• A few students have an IEP or 504 because of their anxiety or diagnosed ADD/ADHD
(see student accommodations).
• See chart bellow
• There are no ELL or SEL students in Mr. Holmes’ classes nor many present at the high
school I am completing this assignment at.
Student Accommodations/Intervention
Student #1 w/ IEP
Student has accommodation for preferred seating, so they are allowed to sit anywhere in the
class. This student is known to have anxiety and sits in the back of the class away from other
students so that they can clear their mind and calm down when necessary.
Student #2 504
Student has ADD/ADHD and struggles to pay attention for long periods of time. They have been
seen to work best in groups or short timed scenarios. This student should excel in the partner
teaching exercise since the article is a short read (less than five minutes) and it will allow them to
work with another student. If the student does become off task, I will need to make sure I give
subtle reminders to get them back on track (ex: proximity tactic or verbally asking them if they
need any help).
• On the day of my instruction only one of the students came to class (student #2). During
class I would occasionally check-up on this student to make sure that they were on task
and if they needed any help. By occasionally checking up on them, I didn’t draw the
attention of their classmates nor of the student’s extra academic needs. When interacting
with this student, I was calm and kind when asking if they needed any help or addressing
them to stay focused.


Lesson Break Down

Activity #1
Purpose: Summative Assessment Duration: 10 min
Description:
• Students will answer three questions projected from a PPT slide that reviews concepts
addressed from the previous class. Two of the questions will be multiple-choice or short
answer and one of the questions will allow students to draw/diagram their answer.
• This assessment is a great way to follow the Structured Instructional Observation Protocol
(SIOP) in allowing students to build new knowledge based off of the material presented
from the previous class (Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas, 2014). After building this new
content off of previous knowledge, students can develop their academic vocabulary (see
activity 3).
How did the students do on the review quiz? Specifically, what question did a majority of the
class get correct and incorrect? Is there a better way to format future quizzes/reviews that are
more UDL inclusive?
• On the review quiz students were initially surprised that there was a ‘pop quiz’. After
explaining to them that I was using this as a tool to assess what concepts needed to be
reviewed, and that it wasn’t a graded assignment, students relaxed and answered the
questions honestly.
• The majority of the class got the first question right which addressed a demonstration that
their teacher did from the previous class on what macromolecule is most commonly burned
for energy. Then the most common question students got wrong required them to think
about what I was going to lecture. The question required students to think where they would
find most carbon dioxide on Earth. Many students thought about cities or cars but not how
carbon dioxide floats to the Earth’s atmosphere and accumulates there. I was able to address
this same point during my direct instruction.
• For future quizzes I could always mix up what type of question I can ask my students to
answer (multiple choice, short answer, fill-in the blank, true or false or to draw a diagram).
The quiz that I gave students at the beginning of class was UDL inclusive and I also allowed
students to verbally express their answers as I reviewed the correct answers with them after


the quiz.
Activity #2
Purpose: Direct Instruction Duration: 10-20 min
Description:
• I will instruct students via a PowerPoint on how consumers store and use energy as well as
what environmental impacts can affect consumers.
• Students will be encouraged to take notes during this segment via fill-in the blank notes that
will be passed out
• I will engage students during the notes by asking them questions and proving interesting
insights with how one insect is an exception to the rule that all consumers do not have
chloroplasts
How did the students react to me lecturing them? What could I improve on in the future?
• The students were very polite and I had little to no issues with students talking over me. This
in part, could be due to the fact the their teacher was also in the back of the classroom while
I was teaching.
• After watching the video of me lecturing I should try to avoid using ‘um’ or ‘you guys’ as
much in the future. To avoid saying ‘um’ I should slow down when talking and promote
students to answer more questions about the slide rather than having them written in the
slide. To avoid saying ‘you guys’ I could learn to replace this with other phrases such as
‘everyone’ or promote questions by stating ‘Are there any questions?’ or ‘Does this sound
confusing to anyone?’.
Activity #3
Purpose: Student Discussion/Teaching Duration: 20 min
Description:
• Students will be given one of two handouts. One handout will have a short reading about
ADP and another about ATP.
• After students read their handout for 5 minutes, they will turn to a partner who has a
different handout than them and explain what they have learned. Then they will listen to
their partner as they explained what they have learned.
• After the students discuss the differences they learned between ATP and ADP, an animated
video will be shown as a review on what they students should have learned from the


readings.
How did this activity address academic literacy and promote social-emotional learning?
• The students did a great job of reading, annotating and explaining what they read to their
partner. While the text was simple in structure, factors such as motivation stamina reading
ability and prior knowledge can affect how well a student can absorb and understand what
they read in a paragraph (Hinchman & Sheridan-Thomas, 2014). By allowing students to
annotate and verbally explain what they read from their text, they are able to expand upon
their academic literacy and scientific vocabulary skills.
• Students enjoyed talking with their partner and were able to successfully stay on task
without many distractions. Social-emotional learning was promoted via having students step
outside their comfort zone to visually and verbally use of proper scientific terminology. Too
often students are limited to just reading scientific texts with the assumption that they
understood what they read. This activity allowed students to teach and ask questions to their
partner of choice about the relationship of ATP and ADP.
Activity #4
Purpose: Simulation/’Bigger Picture’ Duration: Rest of Class/Period
Description:
• Students will get a laptop and go to the following link that will show how the environment
has affected life on Earth for the past 3.8 Billion years:
https://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/geological-history-oxygen
• Students can work with a partner on this activity and answer five questions that will help
guide them through the simulation
How did the students do on the online activity? What question was most commonly correct
and incorrect? What could I do differently to address students with an IEP or learning
barrier after assessing their results from this activity?
• The biggest struggle students faced with this online activity was locating the website and
connecting to the Wi-Fi on their laptops. Besides this, students enjoyed and easily navigated
through the website’s various prompts. In overall a majority of the students asked and
answered the corresponding worksheet without any problems.
• The most commonly correct question was the first and second question which were simple
short answer/fill in the blank type questions that were visually shown on the first page of the


website (in stage one and two of the graph). While there was no single question that a
majority of the students answered incorrectly, a lot of students did ask for my help on
finding the correct video for question four. This was just a matter of the lack of instructions
that I wrote to properly navigate students to the correct video.
• (See ‘Low Performing Student Work on the HHMI Activity)

Assessment
• A quick summative assessment will be given at the beginning of class to see what students
remember from the previous class.
• Formative assessments will be given as I walk around the classroom during the ATP/ADP
partner reading and HHMI simulation to check up on how students are doing.
Classroom Management
• Project a timer on the board for students during the ten minute quiz to allow students to
pace themselves.
• Walk around the classroom during students sharing information on ATP/ADP reading and
the HHMI computer simulation. Help individual students with questions and/or guide some
groups struggling to do the computer simulation
• Be sure to check up on the IEP and 504 student periodically/when appropriate
How well did I pace students during the quiz/review? Did students enjoy the ATP/ADP and online
HHMI activity? What can I do differently when checking up on students who have an IEP/504?
How did I promote my classroom expectations?
1. I did not use a timer during the quiz/review but rather put one question on a slide in the
PowerPoint at a time. This helped the students to pace themselves one question at a time
with the entire class.
2. For the ATP/ADP reading students enjoyed explaining and learning form their partners
about what they read. During this discussion, I walked around the room to help any
students that didn’t have a partner or had a question. For the HHMI online activity, I helped
the entire class get to the website and set up their Wi-Fi connection. Once students got
started on the activity, I walked around to see how slow or fast students worked through the
activity. I also addressed any questions or clarifications to the instructions written on their
worksheet.


3. I believe that I did a great job with interacting with my 504 student. Whenever they got off
task I kindly asked them to get back to work. There were no major issues or negative
interactions with this student.
4. My biggest expectation for the students was to act respectful towards me. I was able to
promote this by attentively listening to students when they asked questions and maintaining
a positive attitude during the class period.

UDL Principles
Multiple • Direct Instruction: Students will learn from the teacher how consumer’s
Means of use and store energy and the ‘larger picture’ impacts this can cause. The
Representation
direct instruction will be active via note taking and asking students
questions throughout the lecture.
• Student Based Discussion/Teaching: Students will share what they have
learned from the in class reading about ATP (or ADP) to a partner. Then
their partner will share the opposite information about ADP (or ATP).
Multiple Students will be exposed to a direct lecture via a PowerPoint, an animated
Means of video as a quick review between ADP and ATP, and an online simulation to
Engagement
help students understand the larger environmental impacts the environment can
create on consumers.
Multiple Students will be given multiple means of expressing their knowledge during the
Means of pop quiz review. Rather than only providing multiple-choice options, students
Expression
will have the chance to respond to three questions via short answer and drawing
a diagram.


High Performing Student Work on the HHMI Activity



In this example the student received full credit for the HHMI activity worksheet. They were

able to answer all of the questions correctly and actively participate during the class discussion of

question number four. This particular student does not have any academic needs listed as an IEP or

504. While I wish that all of the students in the class could produce this type of work, I must keep in

mind that every student has different academic strengths and needs. In the future, if I were to

recreate this worksheet, I would try to create a more diverse set of questions that align closer to the

UDL principles. Adding a question that allows the student to summarize the information they read

via a diagram might challenge them to connect the smaller detailed information with the larger

concept/NGSS Standard presented in the activity.



Low Performing Student Work of the HHMI Activity



In this example a student with an IEP for anxiety received a fourteen out of twenty points on

the assignment. While the student did participate in all of the class discussions and tried to work

with their classmates, they were unsuccessful in correctly answering the questions. Even when I

kindly approached the student multiple times to get back on task, I saw how much they struggled to

focus on the task at hand. In the future, I could try having this student partner up with another

classmate who produces similar work to that of the ‘high performing’ example. I could also try

placing the student at the front or back of the classroom where they might have less potential

classmates distracting them. However if none of these tactics work, and the student is in danger of

not passing the class, I should seek to collaborate with their case manager and find a better solution

on how to assess their content knowledge.



Resources

Hinchman, K. A., & Sheridan-Thomas, H. K. (2014). Best Practices in Adolescent Literacy

Instruction. New York: The Guilford Press.

NGSS. (2013). HS.Matter and Energy in Organisms and Ecosystems. Retrieved from

https://www.nextgenscience.org/topic-arrangement/hsmatter-and-energy-organisms-and-

ecosystems