Grades 6-8: Template for Integrating the NGSS and Common Core into Lesson Plans – Photosynthesis Lesson
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http://www.exploringnature.org/db/view/1915 AND http://www.exploringnature.org/graphics/plants/photosynthesis_lesson_NGSS_Integrated.pdf
Both websites must be accessed to understand how the protocol for this lesson works; teachers should compare the two links before utilizing the posted material.
Common Core Standards
Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects
Reading in Science and Technical Subjects
RST.6-8.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts.
RST.6-8.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; provide an accurate summary of the text distinct from prior knowledge or opinions.
Reading Informational Text
RI.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).
Writing in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects
WHST.6-8.1 Write arguments focused on discipline content.
WHST.6-8.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.
WHST.6-8.7 Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow for multiple avenues of exploration.
WHST.6-8.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Math Standards
6.EE.C.9 Use variables to represent two quantities in a real-world problem that change in relationship to one another; write an equation to express one quantity, thought of as the dependent variable, in terms of the other quantity, thought of as the independent variable. Analyze the relationship between the dependent and independent variables using graphs and tables, and relate these to the equation.
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
MS-LS1-6 Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.
MS-LS1-7 Develop a model to describe how food is rearranged through chemical reactions forming new molecules that support growth and/or release energy as this matter moves through an organism.
MS-LS2-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence for the effects of resource availability on organisms and populations of organisms in an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-3 Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.
MS-LS2-4 Construct an argument supported by empirical evidence that changes to physical or biological components of an ecosystem affect populations.
Description of Lesson
This Grades 6-8 lesson titled “Template for Integrating the NGSS and Common Core into Lesson Plans: Photosynthesis Lesson” was developed by Judy Poticher in collaboration with Sheri Amsel and exploringnature.org. The lesson plan link listed above includes a template designed to help educators create or adapt curriculum to the Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards. The lesson that follows is intended to showcase how to plug a science lesson into the template design. The lesson plan requires approximately six 50-minute sessions to complete ten science tasks that include a short reading, analysis of a comic, a vocabulary assessment, a reading comprehension quiz, labeling a diagram, and a lab experiment with a worksheet.
Cautions
Connecticut teachers should be cautioned that while the template for curriculum development might be helpful as curriculum is adapted and/or created to align with NGSS and CCSS, the lesson plan itself has many limitations and will require revision before it is used in a grades 6-8 classroom. The activities and the content/text included in the plan (reading materials, worksheets, diagrams) seems to target considerably younger students. (The Lexile band for grades 6 through 8 is 925L – 1185L.) As described, there is limited instruction and/or assessment of the targeted standards. Scaffolding or modification for ELLs, struggling readers, or students with disabilities will need to be developed and incorporated into the instruction given during the completion of the tasks. The assessments included will need revision to represent the rigor required by CCSS and NGSS to challenge students in grades 6-8. Questions following task activities are literal in nature; they do not push students to think, analyze, or synthesize information. Aligned rubrics to inform instruction are not included and will need to be developed.
Rationale for Selection
This lesson plan template is a useful example of how to integrate science, math and literacy standards with the construct of three-dimensional learning. The template provides a useful listing of lesson plan components for teachers or curriculum designers to follow in lesson plan development.