Grades 6-8: Galileo – Revealing the Universe
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http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/galileo-revealing-universe
Common Core Standards
College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1 Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
English Language Arts/Literacy Standards in Science and Technical Subjects
RST.6–8.4 Determine the meaning of symbols, key terms, and other domain-specific words and phrases as they are used in a specific scientific or technical context relevant to grades 6–8 texts and topics.
RST.6–8.7 Integrate quantitative or technical information expressed in words in a text with a version of that information expressed visually (e.g., in a flowchart, diagram, model, graph, or table);
RST.6–8.9 Compare and contrast the information gained from experiments, simulation, video or multimedia sources with that gained from reading a text on the same topic.
Next Generation Science Standards:
MS-ESS1-1. Develop and use a model of the Earth-sun-moon system to describe the cyclic patterns of lunar phases, eclipses of the sun and moon, and seasons.
ESS1.A The Universe and Its Stars: Patterns of the apparent motion of the sun, the moon, and stars in the sky can be observed, described, predicted, and explained with models.
ESS1.B Earth and Solar System: The solar system consists of the sun and a collection of objects, including planets, their moons, and asteroids that are held in orbit around the sun by its gravitational pull on them.
Description of Lesson
This Grades 6-8 lesson titled “Galileo: Revealing the Universe” was developed by Edsitement in collaboration with the National Endowment for the Humanities. This lesson plan contains three untimed activities that address Common Core English Language Arts/Literacy standards in Science and Technical Subjects, as well as specific content standards drawn from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Lesson activities are designed to build scientific knowledge and vocabulary about a topic, as well as to help students develop the content literacy skills needed for College and Career Readiness. Students are given multiple opportunities to read closely as they examine primary source documents, news articles, and images in order to evaluate a scientist’s theory in an historical context. As a culminating task, students independently read a news release that presents new information on the same scientific topic. Using text evidence (from this article and those from the lesson activities), students write a comparison of the scientific progress and the current state of knowledge to what was believed long ago.
Cautions
Connecticut teachers should be cautioned that teacher notes and preparation materials require familiarity to be used effectively. Prerequisite skills are noted in the lesson. Standards for speaking/listening and writing are addressed in the plan and could be added. The lesson assessments do not include aligned rubrics and scoring guidelines that provide guidance for interpreting student performance along the three dimensions to support teachers in (a) planning instruction and (b) providing ongoing feedback to students. Additional instructional time and appropriate guidance to teachers to support differentiated instruction in the classroom so that every student’s needs are addressed may be necessary in order to achieve the rigor intended.
Rationale for Selection
This lesson is a good example of CCSS-aligned curricular activities that integrate close reading using text-based evidence and science content. In addition to addressing content in Earth and Space Science as articulated in the Next Generation Science Standards, the lesson also supports the development of ideas pertaining to Scale and Proportion, one of the NGSS’s crosscutting themes. Lesson activities have students constructing and evaluating evidence-based arguments, engaging in discourse by explaining phenomena scientifically, evaluating scientific inquiry, interpreting data and evidence scientifically, and synthesizing information appropriately. The lesson website also includes a plethora of resources, a small number of extension activities related to sky watching, assorted worksheets, vocabulary lists, video web links, and an extension assessment.