RELATIVE AGE
TEACHER: CHUCK FABER
SUBJECT: SCIENCE – LIFE
GRADE LEVEL: 7
CONTENT STANDARDS
CALIFORNIA CONTENT STANDARDS
Grade 7 SS: 4. c. Students know that the rock cycle includes the formation of new
sediment and rocks and that rocks are often found in layers, with the oldest generally
on the bottom.
LANGUAGE CONTENT STANDARDS
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
Participate in social conversations with peers and adults on familiar topics by asking and answering questions and
soliciting information.
READING
Apply knowledge of common English morphemes in oral and silent reading to derive meaning from literature and
texts in content areas.
WRITING
Write brief expository compositions (e.g., description, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and
solution) that include a thesis and some points of support.
LESSON OBJECTIVES
COGNITIVE/BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES
LEVEL 1 OBJECTIVES: RECALL
Through a hands-on activity, students can arrange images of fossils by relative age by identifying the
strata they originated from.
LEVEL 2 OBJECTIVES: INTERPRETATION
Through a work-sheet, students will be able to deduce the relative age of deposits of complex
stratigraphic features, including folding and thrust faults.
LEVEL 3 OBJECTIVES: PROBLEM-SOLVING
Through a writing activity, students will determine the relative dates of various fossils, then infer the dates
of fossils found in a different geographical location or in strata that have been transformed by geological
processes, and support their conclusions with evidence.
PSYCHOMOTOR OBJECTIVES
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Students will classify images of fossils (magnetic) by relative date and place them onto physical time
scales observable by the teacher.
Students will draw diagrams of stratigraphy based on a written prompt, and stick the fossil images in the
appropriate places according to the prompt and their response.
CLASSROOM DEMOGRAPHICS
25 Students Total
4 English Learners
1 Student with ADHD
2 Gifted Students
LESSON MODIFICATIONS
Throughout the year, students are paired up into dyads, which include specially planned lab partners. For
English Learners, this will include a student who is one or two levels above their own in regards to reading
and language. By the principle of Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximity, this will help English learners and other
students grow cognitively.
In addition, this lesson makes use of manipulatives and has an inquiry based framework, which is intuitive
or visceral for most students, and encourages them to practice their language in the whole-class and small
group instructions.
Students are always given time to write or think before answering an important question, such as the
day’s prewrite or the elaboration unit of the lesson before they share their answer with the class. This will
allow all learners to formulate what they’re going to say, how it is important to the topic at hand, and
how they will execute their statements to optimize for the best answers they can produce.
English Learners in my class will always receive readings both personally, or through e-mail, with all
difficult or important terms underlined and listed a few days to a week ahead of time. They are
responsible for the same reading tasks as the other students, and I expect them to perform on the same
level they do, by the time class or assessments come around. However, as they have difficulty performing
at the same pace as other students, this expedited delivery of materials should help them to stay in step
with the rest of the class or possibly exceed the rest of the class. When it comes to fairly difficult texts, I
may highlight the part of the text that I will have them personally read in class ahead of time to allow for
maximum practice.
Gifted students will receive additional reading materials if they are interested in the subject, for instance,
I might give them the entire Record of Time article to read on their own after class.
MATERIALS
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Class Notebooks
Writing Utensils
Computer
Projector
Whiteboard
Whiteboard Markers
Large Laminated Cards with a fossil assemblage on the front and one of the letters from the word
ORGANISM on the back
INSTRUCTION
ANTICIPATORY SET
Students will have previously learned about gradualism in previous
lessons, and that slow processes shape the earth over long periods
of time. They also have learned that major extinction events
occurred in the past due to catastrophic events. They know that
extinct species populations may be represented by fossils, and they
understand the process for the formation of fossils. Most students
are generally interested in puzzles, and many students are
interested in basic methods for determining the relative age of
fossils and rock layers. I will introduce the concept of the law of
superposition, and provide activities that frame the objective in a
series of puzzles. This lesson will prepare students for the concepts
of radiocarbon dating, and understanding that fossil evidence supports the theory of evolution.
TIME ALLOTMENT
Daily Pre-Write (10 min)
Reading Record of Time (10 min)
Stratigraphy Activity (15 min)
Discussion and Recording (10 min)
Short Lecture (15 min)
Board Activity (15 min)
Whole class discussion (15 min)
TOTAL – 90 Minutes
ENGAGE
Students will enter the class room and answer the pre-write question on the board in their class notebooks.
“Review the conditions required for a fossil to form. How are fossils dated?”
Students will share their answers with the class in a short discussion.
Students will begin reading the first two paragraphs of the “Overview of Dating” from the Record of Time article by
Dennis O’Neil out loud in class while being called on. The words “paleoanthropologist”, “relative”, and
“chronometric” will be front-loaded before the article is read. English Learners will have received the reading
ahead of time including important or difficult key words which they should practice before coming to class.
EXPLORE
Students will begin a short activity which will help them understand the concept of the Law of Superposition.
Superposition Activity
Materials:
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 Clear glass or small clear acrylic box
 Various small colored beads or colored sand (separated by color)
 Class Notebooks
Group students into 7 small groups of 3 or 4 (try to keep lab partners together because of planned
dyads – see Lesson Modifications)
Assign each group to a station. (Each station includes 3 or 4 acrylic boxes and a variety of the colored
substrate, as well as the method for their dispensing)
Each group will add a layer of color by dispensing the substrate one over the other on the top of the
previous layer, using a different color each time, and carefully recording each color in their lab
notebook in the order of which it was dispensed.
Students will then observe the cut-out view of their constructed stratigraphy.
Students will note which layers are newest and which ones are oldest by comparing them to the
order in which they were deposited, recorded in their notebooks.
EXPLAIN
Students will take their seats and I will call on a few students to explain to the class what they just explored. They
will now understand the principles of the Law of Superposition in which later rock layers remain near the top,
while earlier layers are deposited at the bottom.
I will provide a short lecture* detailing the Law of Superposition posited by Nicholas Steno and ask students “What
does this apply for things embedded inside the strata?”
*Lectures will NEVER exceed 20 minutes in my class and will always include images and interactive videos which
will engage the student’s interests.
ELABORATE
Each of the groups will receive one of the ORGANISM cards, and I will tell them that the M card is the oldest, but
will not give them the significance of the rest of the letters, nor allow them to share their letter with any other
group. They will also receive cut out paper versions of the rest of the cards without the letters on them to work in
small groups to attempt to arrange. Students will try to find out the correct position of their card in the sequence.
I will place the M card on the board and have them attempt to infer the next card by comparing the fossil
assemblage on the M card with their own fossil assemblages and seeing if they have at least one fossil species in
common. I will remind them that extinction is permanent, and that fossils that disappeared earlier on cannot
reappear in the sequence again. Groups will come up one at a time to place their card where they think it goes on
the board. Discussions and respectful arguments will be allowed. By the end of the activity, the cards should spell:
“ORGANISM”.
We will then discuss which fossils are the oldest in the sequence, and which ones are the newest and ask them
why. Students should make reference to the Law of Superposition.
EVALUATE
Students will reread the objectives for the day and confirm whether or not they have met them. I will be evaluating
the students throughout by monitoring discussions and activities. The homework for the day will include
assessments to see if they have understood the correct concepts.
ASSESSMENT
Formative Assessments
Exploration Discussion:
This is a small group and whole-class discussion
exploring the activity I had them do with the
sands or beads and deposits. They should be
able to infer that earlier deposits are deeper
and lower on the sequence, and later deposits
are higher on the sequence.
If they don’t grasp this information, I will cover
it in the short lecture.
Reading Discussion:
During the reading, I will cold call students to
read every one or two sentences to give them
all practice in reading and academic language.
Students who aren’t called on to read will still
be reading along silently to not lose their place
in anticipation of being called.
Interspersed through the reading, I will ask
level one questions, and have students
respond to them to assess whether or not they
are gleaning the important information from
the reading. If they do not understand the
reading, I will clarify it for them, or ask another
student to attempt to clarify a
misunderstanding.
Elaboration Discussion:
Students will discuss as a class how they
sequenced the fossils by strata and relative
age. If students were unable to complete this
activity, I will guide them or introduce Activity
A of the Who’s on First lab which further
Summative Assessments
Prewrite:
I will cold-call students and have them give me
the answers they were writing in their class
notebooks.
This will help jog their memory about fossil
formation, and assess their recall of it, as well
as engage the students in thinking about
dating, and introduce them to the topic for
today’s lesson.
If they cannot recall fossil formation, I will have
to rehash it.
Homework:
The homework will rehash the day’s lesson,
and will help me assess whether or not
students grasped the concepts when I collect
them for grading the next day. It will further
build on previous concepts they have learned
throughout the year.
Entry-ticket:
Before entry into class, students have to
answer a random level one question that has a
simple answer and is something they covered
previously. This will help to aid in recall and
ingrain the ideas in their minds for later. If they
clarifies ‘sequencing’
answer incorrectly, they will be given the
correct answer and return to the end of the
line to provide the right answer when their
turn comes again.
REFERENCES
Record of Time – Dennis O’Neil (teachersdomain.org) [first 2 paragraphs of “Overview of Dating”]
Who’s on First – Marsha Barber and Diane Bartos [only activity B]
REFLECTION
Insert Lesson Notes and Alternatives Here During Lesson
ELD DEVELOPMENT PROFICIENCY (INTERMEDIATE: LEVEL 3)
LISTENING AND SPEAKING: COMPREHENSION
Can use simple sentences, to ask and answer questions about supporting elements, and listens to identify
important concepts.
LISTENING AND SPEAKING: ORGANIZATION AND DELIVERY
Uses Standard English grammar and participates in social conversations with peers by asking and answering
questions. Student makes some grammatical errors.
READING: PHONEMIC AWARENESS, DECODING AND WORD RECOGNITION, CONCEPTS
ABOUT PRINT
Can produce English phonemes and recognize sound/symbol relationships in written text. Student uses this
knowledge to derive meaning from text.
READING: VOCABULARY AND CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
Uses more complex vocabulary and recognizes simple synonyms and antonyms. Student can read narrative with
correct pacing and expression. Student can understand figures of speech and words with multiple meanings.
READING: COMPREHENSION AND ANALYSIS OF GRADE-LEVEL-APPROPRIATE TEXT
Can follow simple directions, identify main ideas in text, identify text features, and respond to comprehension
questions with detailed sentences.
READING: STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS
Can identify text structures and sequences of events.
WRITING: PENMANSHIP
Can write legibly, in simple sentences.
WRITING: ORGANIZATION AND FOCUS
Can follow models given by teachers to write short cohesive paragraphs that develop a central idea, but may
include inconsistent use of correct grammar.
WRITING CONVENTIONS: CAPITALIZATION, PUNCTUATION, AND SPELLING
Can produce independent writing that includes partial consistency in use of capitalization, punctuation and correct
spelling.