Lesson Plan For Grade 12 English and Biology

Intro:

The guiding concept of these lessons is for students to learn to see environmental education as a complex, multi-faceted issue, with effects in many parts of life, concerning communication and community, social perspectives and social justice.


Lesson #1

Objectives: “To learn to analyze the relationship between cultural attitudes and exploitation and/or protection of the natural environment. The fundamentals of the relationship between humans and their environment are mental constructs that are learned and can therefore be modified.” Also, “[To] develop a deeper understanding of conservation.”


Outcomes/Indicators:

  • CR A30.3 (a,d,e) Listen to, comprehend, and develop coherent and plausible interpretations of grade-appropriate literary and informational texts created by First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, and Canadian speakers and authors from various communities.
  • CR A30.4 (e) Read, demonstrate comprehension of, and apply knowledge from grade-appropriate informational (including editorials, reviews, and articles) and literary (including fiction, script, poetry, and non-fiction) texts from First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, and Canadian authors as a basis for understanding self and the multiplicity of voices and perspectives that make up Canadian culture.

Duration: Two hours (two lesson plans) plus time outside of class. 

Materials: Lesson plan and links to video clips for the lesson 

Summary:

Day 1: The introductory activity teaches necessary terminology about cultural perspectives and environmental exploitation. (15 minutes) In the second activity, students work in groups to view self-selected video clips and identify the cultural perspectives evident in the videos, then present their clips and analysis to the class (45 minutes)

Day 2: For the third activity, students watch another self-selected video clip. Working individually, students write a short (1-2 page) essay that [Lesson plan adapted] summarizes the clip, discusses its thesis and main ideas about cultural perspectives, then relates the clip and its ideas to a news item about a local (Saskatchewan) or national environmental issue. Work on the essay may be done at home or in a third class period.

Additional resources: Resources for Rethinking, by Learning for a Sustainable Future (http://r4r.ca/en)

Further possibilities: Continue with the Elder lesson or cross-curricular ELA/biology full-semester project described below.



Lesson #2

Objectives: To debate perspectives on environmental exploitation or protection with fellow students, to reflect on the social and ethical nature of environmental use, and to learn a First Nations cultural perspective on environmental use from an Elder.

Outcomes/Indicators: 

  • CR A30.1  View, listen to, read, comprehend, and respond to a variety of grade-appropriate First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, and Canadian texts that address identity, social, and social action.
  • CR A30.3 (a, d, f, g) Listen to, comprehend, and develop coherent and plausible interpretations of grade-appropriate literary and informational texts created by First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, and Canadian speakers and authors from various communities.

Duration: Two hours

Materials: Reader/Listener Response Windows 

Summary:

Day 1: Have students briefly present (30 seconds-2 minutes) the issues discussed in their essays (previous lesson) to the group of classmates who wrote about the same video clip. Students should compare and contrast their thoughts on the video as well as their thoughts on the environmental news issues that they discovered, keeping a sheet of discussion notes (one per group) containing points on which they agreed or disagreed. (20 minutes) Have one randomly selected person from each group present the major points of the discussion to the class. As a class, come up with a list of lingering questions or points of interest concerning sustainable environmental use and the cultural perspectives behind it. Ask students if they think there is a social justice issue behind the current system of land use and ownership: who does it benefit, and who does it disadvantage? (20 minutes) Have students journal a reflection on the day’s discussion that includes two points that were discussed and their response to those points (agree/disagree), including their perspective on the ideal form of land use/ownership/environmental use. (15 minutes)

Day 2: Invite an Elder to speak to the class about his or her cultural perspective on the current and ideal systems of land use/ownership and environmental use. Students should use their reader/listener response windows while actively listening. Have students ask the questions the class came up with the previous day.

Classroom Management: Before the Elder's visit, discuss expectations for respectful conduct and strategies for active listening.

Additional Resources: 


Full-Semester Project: EAL A 30/Bio 30

Objective: To develop and exercise research, critical reading, and communication skills necessary for finding, comprehending, evaluating, and responding to informational texts about local (Saskatchewan) or national (Canadian) issues concerning the effects of un/sustainable human activities on ecosystems, and to understand the cultural perspectives behind those activities.

Outcomes/Indicators: 

  • CR A30.4 (b, c, d, g, i) Read, demonstrate comprehension of, and apply knowledge from grade-appropriate informational (including editorials, reviews, and articles) and literary (including fiction, script, poetry, and non-fiction) texts from First Nations, Métis, Saskatchewan, and Canadian authors as a basis for understanding self and the multiplicity of voices and perspectives that make up Canadian culture.
  • CC A30.4 (c, g) Create a variety of informational (including an inquiry/research paper and an editorial) and literary (including a real or invented narrative and a literary criticism essay) texts that are appropriate to a variety of audiences and purposes including informing, persuading, and entertaining.
  • Biology 30: Optional ecology unit (reprise of Biology 20 unit 2, Ecological Organization). Objectives: investigate the impact of human kind on the environment; explore the concept of sustainable development. Adapted Bio 20 indicators: EO 1.9 [adapted: agriculture or other human activity], 2.3, 3.3. 
  • Additional indicators: investigate an instance of human activity that affects an ecosystem; discuss whether an instance of human activity within an ecosystem is or can be made sustainable based on research and knowledge of succession and interdependecs within ecosystems. 
  • Factors of the Dimension of Scientific Literacy: A1, A8, A9, B1, B10, C2, C8, D3, D4, D7, D9, F6, G1, G4 

Common Essential Learnings: CCT (to promote intuitive, imaginative thought and the ability to evaluate ideas, processes, experiences and objects in the context of the study of the environment), COM (to enable students to understand and use the vocabulary, structures and forms of expression which characterize the study of ecology), IL (to support the development of a positive disposition to life-long, self-motivated learning), PSVS (to support students in coming to a better understanding of the personal, moral, social and cultural aspects of the study of life), TL (to develop an understanding that technology both shapes society and is shaped by society).

Duration: 5 in-class hours over the course of one semester, plus time outside of class

Materials: Access to computers, Internet connection, access to a library with subscriptions to scientific journals, and/or access to a collection of print magazines, newspapers, journals, etc.

Pre-requisite knowledge: Recommended that students have 1 prior lesson with a teacher-librarian on how to properly conduct research on the internet (how to evaluate information sources on the internet, and how to use online journal databases in the school library). Recommended that students have at least 1 prior lesson with a teacher-librarian/ELA teacher on how to read informational texts critically, analyze text features, take notes, and summarize texts.

Summary of project: Over the course of the semester, students will find and analyze four different articles about the effects of human activity on an environment. (See assignment handout for instructions.) Due dates for each article analysis should be equally spaced throughout the semester. Provide at least one hour of in-class research time (so that students can have access to the school library’s journal subscriptions) for each article.

Project assignment handout 

Day 1: Introduce or re-introduce the concept of cross-curricular learning, and have a brief discussion on its importance. Talk also about the role of inquiry in science and learning in general. Hand out the assignment instructions for the inquiry and analysis project. Emphasize that these are only guidelines for the structure of students’ responses, and that all actual inquiry and analysis is student-directed and student-motivated. For remaining class time, students work on computers or with print resources from the library to find their first article.

Classroom management: Enlist the help of a teacher-librarian to guide and monitor research, especially during the first session.

Adaptive dimension: Prior to the first lesson, assemble a file of suitable articles for a variety of reading levels, and make it available to students who require scaffolding for the first one or two article analyses. If/when relevant articles appear in the local newspaper or in a new issue of a magazine, bring them to the attention of the class. However, also clarify that some of the mark for the project is based on the ability to critically evaluate information sources, which should be demonstrated at some point by students finding their own material. In other words, students should not rely on scaffolding material for the whole project. 

Resources to start from:

Additional Resources: