SIOP® Lesson Plan Template

Name: Grade: 7th

Content area: Life Science

Topic: 7 Characteristics of Living Things

Lesson duration: 55 minutes

Content Objective(s): Students will be able to list and describe the 7 characteristics of life and classify objects into living or non-living things.

Language Objective(s): Students will be able to list the seven characteristics of life by using the phrase Mrs Gren. Students will be able to classify living and non-living things and justify their choice using target vocabulary.

Lesson Preparation (including materials) Materials: a cardboard box, six small plastic cups, yeast, corn, parmesan shredded cheese, cork, leaf, mealworm, Video Graphic Organizer (Handout #1), Lab Activity (Handout #2), Review Activity (Handout #3), Powerpoint with images

As an introduction to the unit on cells and cellular organization, students will begin by classifying life and what it means to be “living.” Students will distinguish between biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) things in a typical ecosystem. The teacher will be able to gauge what information students already know by comparing their answers to the 7 characteristics of life.

Vocabulary terms: Living, nonliving, organism, biotic, abiotic M - movement R - respiration S - sensitivity G - growth R - reproduction E - excretion N - nutrition

English Proficiency Level: Advanced Beginners

Standards: Illinois Next Generation Science Standards: MS-LS1-1: Conduct an investigation to provide evidence that living things are made of cells; either one cell or many different numbers and types of cells. Motivation – 5 Minutes Introduce the content and language objectives as students write them in their notebooks. The class will watch the following Frankenstein video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuoKNZjr8_U The teacher will lead a class discussion on why the doctor would believe Frankenstein is alive? Examples of discussion questions: Why would the scientist say that Frankenstein is alive? Would it because he is able to move his arms now? Background Building Activity - 5 Minutes When students are done discussing why they think Frankenstein is alive, they will be asked to individually list 2-3 living and nonliving things in their notebooks. They will be reminded to think about things they have at home or have learned about in prior lessons. The teacher will ask 2-3 students to share their list and reasoning with the class. Comprehensible Input - 5 minutes Students will be introduced to abiotic and biotic vocabulary terms. The teacher will write the word “bio” on the whiteboard and ask the class if they can think of any words that contain those words. Students will be reminded to think about information or subjects heard previously from other classes. If students have trouble, the teacher can relate the word to the science subject biology which is the study of life.The teacher will then connect the words/ ideas from students back to the root word bio to convey that it relates to life. Next the terms biotic and abiotic will be introduced to the class. The teacher will ask questions like “We know bio means life. How could that connect to biotic?” Students will then define biotic as living things. Abiotic will be introduced in the same fashion, except the teacher will be able to say it is the opposite of biotic. Questions used could be like “We know biotic means living things, if abiotic is the opposite, what do you think it could mean?” Instruction (Video) – 10 Minutes Begin by passing out the “Video Handout” to students. Students will watch the following video clip to list the seven characteristics of living things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpO52VTHecQ As they watch the video, they will fill in the graphic organizer that asks for each characteristic and an example. When the video is complete, the teacher will begin a discussion by asking the class what characteristics they wrote down. The teacher will make sure each trait is discussed and that the class provides an example, so students can complete their graphic organizer with missing information. An example would be “Movement, all living things must move. An example of this is how we play basketball or run outside”.

After students are introduced to the seven characteristics, the teacher will write “Mrs Gren” on the board while stating out loud “Mrs. Gren”. The class will be told that this phrase can help them remember all seven traits. The teacher will write the first vocabulary term next to it (M- Movement) to show how the letter M stands for movement. With the help of students, each of the remaining vocabulary terms will be written next to their letter. After writing this information on the board the teacher will scaffold how to use this phrase to remember the 7 traits of life. This will stay up on the board for the remainder of the class period. (M= Movement, R=Respiration, S=Sensitivity, G=Growth, R=Reproduction, E= Excretion, N= Nutrition) Practice/Application – 25 Minutes Arrange students in small groups of 3 or 4 and provide each student with the printed “Lab Activity” worksheet, as well as one mystery box for the group. Step 1: The teacher will introduce a lab activity and scaffold the procedures to show students how to complete the lab. The teacher will hold up a copy of the worksheet students will be filling out and read out the questions for each part of the chart. As an example the teacher will have a sample cup filled with paperclips and go through the first three columns to name the pencil, write a description and to determine if it is abiotic or biotic while talking to the class. The teacher will then explain how students are to justify their choices by using the 7 characteristics of life they just learned. An example could be: “This is a paperclip and its description would be silver and metal. Is it biotic or abiotic? Let’s look back at Mrs. Gren and see if it has all the characteristics needed. Does the paperclip grow or move? No, then it would be abiotic.” Step 2: Groups will be directed to open their box to pull out the sample cups. They will be filled with 6 small cups of the following: yeast, mealworms, corn, shredded cheese, a wine cork, and a leaf. Step 3: Working individually students will fill in the first 2 columns for the name of the sample and a short description about the sample on the handout. Step 4: As a group, students will determine if the samples are biotic or abiotic and fill in the column with their selection. Students will justify their choices by writing which characteristics influenced their choices. As students are performing this, the teacher will walk around the classroom making sure students are working together. Occasionally the teacher may remind students to reference the 7 characteristics of life on the board. Note some of the samples are biotic but may be dead; students may need extra clarification that being dead does not equal abiotic. Step 4: When all groups have completed the lab, the teacher will lead a class discussion by going through each of the six items asking randomly chosen groups to justify why

they believe the objects to be biotic or abiotic. When the groups respond they will be asked what characteristics led them to their decision. Review/Assessment – 5 Minutes Students will work on handout #3. Students will look at a picture of a Chicago neighborhood. Individually they will list 3 biotic and 3 abiotic things in the picture. Teacher will be able to assess students understanding of materials by their responses. Works Cited: https://www.isbe.net/Documents/Middle-School-6-8.pdf https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Characteristics-of-Life-Lab-2756983 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpO52VTHecQ

7 Characteristicsof Life

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Video Handout: Life’s 7 ProcessesDirections: Fill in the graphic organizer with each of the seven life processes mentioned in the video. List 1-2 examples.

Name: _________________________________ Date: __________________

Lab Activity Worksheet: Is it living or nonliving?Name: _________________________________Date: __________________

Sample Description Living or Nonliving? Why? (Use processes from the video)

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Directions: Open your box to view the 6 samples. Individually write sample’s name and description in the chart. With your group determine if the sample is living or nonliving and justify your claim using the 7 life processes from the video and class discussion.

Review Activity HandoutName: _________________________________Date: __________________

Directions: Identify and list 3 biotic and 3 abiotic things that you can find

Biotic Abiotic