Inverted classroom-based Teaching Sequence (Obligatory Entry #2)
Title
Name: Loraine Gärtner
Semester: 5, winter term 2015/16
Subject: English
School: Marienschule Fulda
Lesson: 1 and 2
Time: 7.50 – 9.20
Teaching sequence: Science and Technology
Topic of the lesson: Biotechnology
1. Aims and competences of the teaching sequence
The scientific and technological development in its historical dimension and its contemporary manifestations and projection on the future contains individual challenges and challenges for society. The students should get familiar with the thematic field of modern science and technology and evaluate advantages and disadvantages of modern science as well as work on the effects of manipulating nature on individuals and society.
2. Classroom Analysis (Learner Group)
The class 12b is a basic course which consists of 26 students of whom 25 students are English L2 learners. One student is native speaker and exceeds the group’s average language level (B2). The topic of the lesson “Biotechnology” is curriculary embedded in the teaching sequence “Science and Technology” and is designed for two lessons (90 minutes).
The students are used to work in different learning arrangements such as partner or group work. Moreover, they are capable of macro functions (explaining, describing, interpreting) and text analysis. They can work with educational videos since the inverted classroom model has been introduced and practiced beforehand. Because every classroom is equipped with a whiteboard, the learners are confident in working with it. As power point presentations and other means of presenting content and PCs, tablets and smartphones are commonly used during lessons, the students show a high level of media literacy. The students are confident in using their own digital devices (PC, tablets, smartphones) in lessons in order to search for information.
3. Orientation towards competences and aims of the lesson
a) Focus
The central learning objective of the lesson is the evaluation of a critical attitude towards genetically modified food. The students should become aware of the pros and cons of biotechnology and should be able to express their opinions.
By looking at the picture of the blue strawberries, the students’ knowledge about the issue of biotechnology should be activated. They should be stimulated and motivated to explore the topic. Their competence in describing pictures and discussing their content is supported.
By creating a mind map on the topic, first ideas and expressions can be collected, explained and organised, which supports the learners’ transferable skills.
By preparing a talk show and working out a precise position on the issue, the students’ skill in collaboratively reorganising, selecting and bringing together several pieces of information is supported.
By working in groups, solution-oriented, structured and self-organized learning processes are strengthened.
By presenting a discussion, the students speaking skills can be improved. They learn how to participate in a complex debate and express their expert knowledge.
Social competences such as the ability to deliver and accept feedback and working collaboratively are supported by commenting on the talk show and working as part of a team.
b) Further lessons and Intentions
Before starting to use the inverted classroom model, a session on how the model works and what is expected of the students is essential. It has to be clarified how the learners should deal with the content they are supposed to work on at home and what the purpose of applying such a teaching model is. Additionally, the students should receive an overview on the teaching sequence based on the inverted classroom model.
After introducing the issue of “biotechnology”, the students are supposed to work on the topic of the next session “Cloning” at home and prepare a video which explains how cloning has developed and how it works. The next step in class could be creating a poster in groups explaining cloning and watching the movie “Gattaca” which deals with the issue of manipulated genetic information and its potential influence on human beings and society.
4. Didactic analysis
Within the lesson I want to focus on making the students familiar with the topic biotechnology and its assets and drawbacks and motivate them to explore the topic in more detail.
The lesson is curricularly embedded into the topic of grade 12 called “Science and Technology” and in particular fosters the competence of evaluating, as well as fluent speaking. Furthermore, it fosters the social competence within the talk show hence presenting a talk show in front of classmates can be a challenge for some students, which is why I decided to prepare the role in small groups.
The topic is of relevance for the sixteen to seventeen years old students, as it picks up contents of their everyday lives such as food and health and, furthermore, draws the learners’ attention to current scientific developments effecting and challenging society and personal moral values. By confronting the students with authentic material such as YouTube videos of health organisations and realistic articles, they should grasp the topicality of the issue which offers a problem-oriented approach.
5. Methodological Decisions
The inverted classroom model offers students the opportunity to self-regulated, self-paced, and autonomous learning since materials are accessible for the learners at home and the students can process information in their own pace. Additionally, authentic materials enable realistic language learning. Due to that, the inverted classroom
model offers student-centred lessons in which the teacher can focus on individual problems and can give a constant feedback to support self-assessed learning.
The inserted videos are supposed to be watched at home in preparation for the lesson.
Source 1: Eco-Vegan Gal. (16.08.2012). Monsanto Explained: What's Happening And How You Can Stop It. Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEFC4rsQ4B8. (Stand 04.12.2015).
Source 2: Scientific American. (07.08.2013). What Is a Genetically Modified Food? - Instant Egghead #45. Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMPE5wlB3Zk. (Stand 04.12.2015).
Furthermore, the following questions about the videos should be answered at home in order to make sure that every student has understood the input material and can participate in class. By means of indivdual learning according to every single student's pace, the processed knowledge can be applied in class.
Questions for videos (safe guards):
1) Monsanto explained
- What is Monsanto?
- Why do people call Monsanto evil?
- What are GMOs and are they really bad?
- Why is buying organic important?
- How can I make a difference?
- What's "Stop Monsanto" the movie and how I can support them?
2) What is genetically modified food?
- When did humans begin to modify plants?
- How was the process called?
- How does the process of modern genetic manipulation work?
- What do the terms “cisgenic” and “transgenic” mean?
Introducing the lesson’s topic by means of a picture, the students are confronted with a concrete situation to which they can apply the knowledge they gained beforehand. A group discussion in plenum fosters motivation to deal with the introduced topic.
Source: Stone, Dani. (15.03.12). Blue Strawberries raise more GMO questions. Online: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/blue-strawberries-raise-more-gmo-questions.html. (Stand 04.12.15).
In the development phase the students first of all read two articles silently and individually in order to establish a basis for sharing thoughts with classmates and discussion. Because all group members together design one role card according to their knowledge from the articles and the videos watched at home, the students’ social competences and communication skills are supported hence they work collaboratively and discuss. While preparing a role card, the learners practice rearranging and selecting purposeful information.
By actively listening or participating in the discussion, different learning channels are activated since input for visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learner types is provided. This helps to make the topic appealing to more students and achieve a higher amount of real learning time. The different positions towards biotechnology are presented more lively and realistically. During preparing and performing the discussion, learning strategies such as metacognitive, cognitive and social strategies can be applied and consolidated.
By means of collecting pros and cons of biotechnology on the whiteboard, the generated learners’ knowledge is structured and consolidated.
6. Schedule
7. Literature
Ch. 10:"Lesson planning and classroom management" In: Grimm, Nancy; Meyer, Michael & Volkmann, Laurenz (2015). Teaching English.Tübingen: Narr Verlag, 219-243. print.
8. Appendix
Articles used during the lesson:
WiseGEEK. What are the pros and cons for genetically modified food?, http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-the-pros-and-cons-of-genetically-engineered-food.htm. (Stand 04.12.15)
YouTube Video (homework for next session)
Source: DNA Learning Center. (03.08.2010). Cloning 101. Online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0B9Bn1WW_4. (Stand 04.12.15).
