Download Pedigree Lesson Plan 9/7/06

TE 407: Lesson and Unit Plan Guide
Note: Notes in red italics (including this one) are advice on writing the lesson or unit
plan that you can erase from the final version.
Name:
Mentor Teacher:
Partner:
School:
Part I: Information about the Lesson or Unit
Topic:
Type of Class
Choose the appropriate descriptors from the lists or substitute your own
descriptions.
 Grade level(s): 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 High school basic elective/high track
advanced (e.g., AP)
 Type of school: Urban Suburban Rural
 Tracking level: Untracked Lower track College bound Inclusion
Abstract
Write a short description (100 words or less) of the main activities of your
lesson or unit. Include information about what your students will do as well as what
you will do as a teacher. For example, in this lesson we will be doing a full activity
cycle on the types of clouds. As a problem, we will ask what types of clouds are
visible today and what do they mean for our weather? We will model with labeled
pictures of different types of clouds and then have students identify new pictures
taken from websites for coaching. The homework (fade) will be to answer the
original question and include a drawing of the clouds.
Part II: Clarifying Your Goals
This section lays out a general understanding of the topic at a level that is appropriate
for your students. Note that Big Ideas, Objectives, and
Experiences/Patterns/Explanations are rarely covered completely in an individual
lesson. (If necessary, you should add material (background material) not included in
your lesson in order to develop a more complete picture of the content that you are
teaching.)
Big Ideas
Describe the most important patterns, models, and theories for this topic in
300 words or less. Use the language and ideas that you would like students in your
class to be able to use. Benchmarks for Science Literacy or the National Science
Education Standards are good resources for this section, but this section should be
written in your own words.
Big ideas are rarely confined to an individual lesson. If you are writing plans for a
single lesson, you may need to include ideas from other lessons to write a coherent
statement of the big ideas you want your students to understand.
Checklist for Big Ideas. Check to see if your big ideas meet the criteria below.
Erase this section if you feel that you have met all the criteria. If you are having trouble
meeting some of the criteria, use this section to explain your difficulties.
 Do you have a coherent, connected summary of the most important patterns,
models, and theories for your topic? Big ideas should express the key patterns
and explanations, not just name them.
 Have you used important ideas from Benchmarks for Science Literacy or the
National Science Education Standards?
 Is the language (e.g., vocabulary level) appropriate for students in your class?
Big ideas don’t include every vocabulary word in the unit (though they should
include the most important ones), and they don’t have many specific examples.
The language you use in your summary of big ideas should be the language you
would like your students to use.

The word “students” does NOT belong in your statement of big ideas. Think of
big ideas as what you would like your students to be able to tell you after the unit
or lesson is over.
Genes come in pairs. Human have 22 pairs of chromosomes plus 2 sex chromosomes.
You get one of each chromosome from each parent. Genes are made of DNA.
Dominant traits mask recessive traits. Genes are passed from parents to child.
Pedigrees show how a trait is passed down through generations. Different
chromosomes carry different traits are passed down independently. One trait does
not affect the inheritance of another.
Experiences, Patterns, and Explanations
In the table list:

Observations or data that you want your students to be aware of and work with.
These could be personal experiences or data that are collected during this lesson
or data that students get from demonstrations, websites, etc. They should be
direct descriptions of objects, systems, or events in the material world.

Patterns that you want your students to see or be aware of in the data.

Theories or models that you want your students to use to explain or understand
the observations and patterns.
In the Observations column, you may find it useful to group your examples into
classes, naming the class and giving specific examples. For example: “Mass changes
in growing plants (e.g., bean plants growing, bean plants making beans, oak trees
growing, spirogyra (an alga) growing.
Checklist for Experiences, Patterns, and Explanations. Check to see if your
observations, patterns, and explanations meet the criteria below. Erase this section if
you feel that you have met all the criteria. If you are having trouble meeting some of the
criteria, use this section to explain your difficulties.
 Are your observations/experiences specific real-world objects, systems, or
phenomena, not the concepts we use to explain them. For example, “lightdependent reactions” and “light independent reactions” are not good real-world
examples for photosynthesis. Similarly, “temperature,” and “convection” are not
good real world examples for heat transfer.
 Are the observations experientially real to your students. They should be either
systems or phenomena that your students have already experienced or that you
could help them experience, first hand or vicariously. (This does not imply that
your list should consist only of examples actually included in your class
activities.)
 Do your Observations, Patterns, and Explanations fit into a coherent whole?
Your observations, patterns, and explanations should be connected to one
another. For example, each model or theory that you list should have
observations and patterns to go with it.
 Are your observations, patterns, and explanations connected to your big ideas?
The key models, laws, and theories in the big ideas statement should be listed in
summary form in your table.
Observations or experiences
(examples, phenomena, data)







Offspring have characteristics
that look like their parents
Parents can have diseases
and their children might not
Siblings don’t always have the
same disease
Disease can be expressed
only in one gender (we
generally see some diseases
only in males)
People can be carriers of
disease, but not display
disease
Students’ examples of
Mendel’s Laws
Kids can have Mom’s red hair,
but Dad’s blue eyes
Patterns (laws,
generalizations, graphs,
tables, categories)







Traits are passed from
parents to children
Some traits are
dominant
Some traits cannot
have carriers
Some diseases are
inherited not
contagious (caught)
Some traits are sexlinked
Some traits skip a
generation
Traits can show up in
children even if neither
parent expresses
them
Explanations
(models, theories)





Mendel’s Law of
Independent
Assortment &
Segregation 
Meiosis (randomly)
Need 2 recessive
genes to express
recessive trait
A single dominant
gene will express a
dominant trait
Sex linked trait
appear on sex
chromosomes
DNA codes for
proteins which
causes disease (or

(independent)
In hemophilia pedigree –
males were more likely to
have the disease than
females…
other traits)
Application: Model-based Reasoning – using models/theories to explain
experiences
Inquiry: Finding and Explaining Patterns in Experience
Objectives for Student Learning
Use the table below to list one or two Michigan Objectives and a small
number of specific lesson objectives that you will be addressing during this
lesson. The Michigan Objectives should be copied from the Michigan Framework
Objectives available via the course website. For each objective, use the second column
to say what type of objective it is (using, constructing, or reflecting as defined in the
Michigan Objectives).
You probably will not do a complete activity cycle for an objective in one
lesson, so use the third column to say which part(s) of the activity cycle you will
be addressing during your lesson.
Checklist for Objectives for Student Learning. Check to see if the objectives
in your table meet the criteria below. Erase this section if you feel that you have met all
the criteria. If you are having trouble meeting some of the criteria, use this section to
explain your difficulties.
 Does each objective describe student learning—something that your students will
be able to do after the class is over—not just a teaching activity to be completed
in class? For example, “understand photosynthesis” does not describe what a
student with that understanding will be able to do. Also, “Conduct an experiment
on plant growth under different environmental conditions” is a good learning
activity, but not a good objective. It doesn’t say what students will learn to do as
a result of conducting the experiments.
 Does each objective relate to a set of examples, not just a single example? For
example, “Explain how plants get their food” is a better objective than “Explain
how an oak tree gets its food.”
 Are your objectives connected with your Big Ideas and Experiences/Patterns
/Explanations? Does each objective describe ways that you would like your
students to connect experiences, patterns, and explanations?
 Do you have a small number of objectives that describe significant learning? Do
not write too many small objectives. Even a unit that is several weeks long
should be organized around a small number of significant objectives.
Objective
Type
Michigan Objectives
Stage(s) in
Learning Cycle
1. B4.1B Explain that the information passed from
parents to offspring is transmitted by means of genes
that are coded in DNA molecules. These genes
contain the information for the production of proteins.
Choose one:
Using
Constructing
Reflecting
Choose one or more:
Establishing the
problem
Modeling
Coaching
Fading
Maintenance
2. B4.1c Differentiate between dominant, recessive,
codominant, polygenic, and sex-linked traits. B4.1d
Explain the genetic basis for Mendel’s laws of
segregation and independent assortment.
B4.1d Explain the genetic basis for Mendel’s laws of
segregation and independent assortment.
Specific Lesson Objectives
1. read a pedigree, recognize patterns of heredity,
interpret physical characteristics from genetic makeup,
differentiate btw recessive and dominant and sexlinked
Choose one:
Telling the story
Using
Constructing
Reflecting
Choose one or more:
Establishing the
problem
Modeling
Coaching
Fading
Maintenance
2.
3.
Part III: Classroom Activities
This section contains your plans for the activities that you will actually do in the
classroom. They should be real plans for real activities, not made-up plans that you will
not actually carry out.
Materials
List materials you will be using. Attach the files of materials that you have in
electronic form.
Checklist for Materials. Check to see if your materials list meets the criteria
below. Erase this section if you feel that you have met all the criteria. If you are having
trouble meeting some of the criteria, use this section to explain your difficulties.
 Have you included everything you will need to teach?
 Do you have the materials ready before your lesson?
 Have you attached files for materials that you have in electronic form?
Presentation materials (Overhead transparencies or Powerpoint presentations, etc):
(attach files)
Copied materials (Handouts, worksheets, tests, lab directions, etc.): (attach files)
Pages in textbook: Book:______________________ Pages:_______
Laboratory materials: For the teacher or the class as a whole: (attach files)
For each laboratory station: (attach files)
Other materials: (attach files)
Activities
Describe the activities that you and your students will be doing at three
stages in the lesson: Introduction, one or more Main Activities, and Conclusion. Make
sure that your Introduction and Conclusion help to connect this lesson with the lessons
before and after.
Checklist for Activities. Check to see if the activities in your table meet the
criteria below. Erase this section if you feel that you have met all the criteria. If you are
having trouble meeting some of the criteria, use this section to explain your difficulties.
 Are your lesson plans ready in time for your mentor and course instructor to look at
them and suggest improvements?
 Do the activities address the objectives you listed above? (If not, you should change
the activities or the objectives.)
 Have you planned lesson introductions that will (a) connect this lesson conceptually
with earlier lessons and (b) prepare students for the activities of the day?
 Management issues: Do you have routines in place for starting your lessons quickly
and smoothly? Do you have transitions planned that help students see connections
between one activity and the next? Do you have contingency plans in case the
lesson is longer or shorter than you anticipated? Are you using your time wisely,
focusing on your most important objectives?
 Do your main teaching activities involve all your students in active learning?
 Have you planned key questions that you will ask during class discussions, key
examples you will use, and key points that you want to be sure to emphasize?
 Have you planned lesson conclusions that will (a) review the main ideas for the
lesson, (b) prepare materials and lab stations for the next group of students, and (c)
connect this lesson to the next one.
Introduction (-- minutes)
Describe introductory activities that will:
• Get the class off to a well-managed start
• Make conceptual connections with previous lessons
• Help students anticipate problems and activities of the class
 Mentioned last week – translated into own words (5 minutes)

Main Teaching Activities (--minutes)
Describe teaching activities, including:
• Key examples, patterns, models or theories
• Key questions that you will use to start discussions
• What the students AND the teacher will be doing
• Embedded assessment activities that will indicate students’ understanding
• References to materials you or the students are using during this activity
• Procedural details, including transitions, materials management, etc.
 Set up scenario



Examples
o Pedigree symbols
Worked through a pedigree together (interpreting a sample)
o Came up with patterns that we saw (1st observations, then patterns)  as
a group and then as a class discussion (example of Pete)
o Did an EPE together on a pedigree
2 Pedigrees in groups  EPE
Conclusion (--minutes)
Describe concluding activities that will:
• Make sure students and materials are in order before students leave
• Help students review or summarize what they have learned
• Help students anticipate problems and activities of future classes
 Assign HW
4 part cycle in Teaching for Application
1. Establishing a problem
a. Give it a purpose for students (genetic counselors)
b. Relevant to students
c. Usually an EXPERIENCE
d. Concrete
2. Modeling
a. Model for students how to work through a problem (Pete’s experience –
what to look for in terms of patterns
b. Very teacher driven
3. Coaching
a. Feedback (relatively quick)
b. Encouragement
c. Ex. 2 pedigrees that students did in groups – students have more of the
responsibility, but teacher gives feedback
4. Fading
a. Teacher fades out and students do on their own
b. Ex. HW
c. What can students do on their own?
Teacher Roles
Establish a
Problem
Model
Coach
Fade
Part IV: Assessment of Students
Student Roles
Developing Assessment Tasks
Include an assessment task that will reveal your students’ progress
towards your objective(s) This task might be a single question or a series of
questions. It might take many forms, including: (a) embedded assessmen tasks such
as worksheets, journal questions, or lab reports that are also teaching activities, or (b)
formal assessments such as test questions.
Include the actual task, don’t just describe it. If it requires special materials that
cannot be copied into this section, attach them as Appendices or separate files.
Checklist for Assessment Task. Check to see if your assessment task meets
the criteria below. Erase this section if you feel that you have met all the criteria. If you
are having trouble meeting some of the criteria, use this section to explain your
difficulties.
 Have you included the actual questions that students will answer or prompts they will
be able to respond to?
 Will you learn from incorrect answers? Can your students respond in ways that show
ways of making sense of the topic even if they don’t know the scientific answer?
 Is the task relevant to the objective? Does it engage students in the practice
described in your focus objective?
 Is the task worded in a way that will be clear to the students? Will they understand
what you are asking?
 Would a good answer to the task require students to relate some of the theories,
patterns, and examples from Part II?
Putting science statements into your own words
Two pedigrees to do at home
Worked in groups. Identified observations and patterns
Open Qs to the class
PROS
Interpreting into own language Makes S’s make their own
connections between science
and experience.
Pretty quick.
CONS
Lack precision, esp. with
vocab. May lead to
misinterpretation. Writing
skills may be poor.
Group work
Promotes cooperative
learning.
Hear other views.
S’s may use more familiar
vocab, terms.
Attack larger ideas because of
scaffolding – student bring
different knowledge together
Management – S’s can get off
track.
Some S’s may draw back.
Can be a dominance battle.
Difficult for T to get feedback
on all S’s knowledge.
Dynamics can be problematic
Individual questions
Get to know if Student A
knows X
Brings S into discussion
Immediate feedback
Forces S to confront their
understanding
Engages particular Ss
Probing previous knowledge
Can help teacher adjust
teaching
Identifies misconceptions
Forces S’s to make
connections
Promotes logical trains of
thought.
Involves application not
memorization
Different way to think about
the same type of problems
Can put S’s on the spot
May focus on wrong S’s
Don’t hear from everybody.
Can be slow and boring for
other S’s
Can be narrow.
Can be used for the wrong
reasons.
Social dynamics issues
Can take a while and can get
off track
May make some student feel
inferior
Not good for grading purposes
Memorizing the process
Problem solving
Application homework
Class discussion
Performance assessment
Individual class assignments
Closed-ended exams
Open-ended essays
Lab work
Research projects
Presentations
Creative displays
Feedback is slow.
Not everyone will do it
Don’t hear from everybody