Lesson Plan Guidelines and Example
Teacher:
Lesson:
Total Time:
Miss Stoner
Characteristics of Life
3- 45 minutes periods
Standards:
What needs to be included?
The number should be included and the standard should be written out.
Example:
3.1.B.A1: Describe the common characteristics of life. Compare and contrast the cellular
structures and degrees of complexity of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. Explain that some
structures in eukaryotic cells developed from early prokaryotic cells (e.g, mitochondria)
Resources to help you: SAS website (Clear Standards, Vertical Viewer, Curriculum Framework)
Eligible Content:
What needs to be included?
The number should be included and the standard should be written out
Example:
BIO.A.1.1.1: Describe the characteristics of life shared by all prokaryotic and eukaryotic
organisms.
Resources to help you: SAS website (Keystone Anchors, Learning Progressions, Curriculum
Framework)
Essential Question(s):
What needs to be included?
You need to have at least one essential question.
Example:
How do we know if something is alive?
Resources to help you: Handouts from today to explain how to write essential questions, some
can be found on SAS in the curriculum framework, some textbooks contain essential questions.
Objectives: SWBAT…..
What needs to be included?
You need to have at least one objective.
Examples:
1. Relate the properties of life to a living organism.
2. Discover the difference between living and non-living things.
Resources to help you: Flip Book given out last year, Bloom’s Taxonomy, Many textbooks have
objectives at the beginning of the chapter, lessons on SAS have objectives listed.
Materials:
What needs to be included?
You should include all materials in your lesson. They can be listed in a bulleted or numbered
form.
Example:
1. Raisins, 10 to 20
2. Beaker- 1000 mL
3. Can of Mountain Dew
4. Individual White boards for students, markers, and erasers
5. Chapter 1 Study Guide
6. Comparing Living and Nonliving things Activity
7. Materials for Comparing Living and Nonliving Things: Fish, Plant, Candle, Fetal Pig,
Pencil, Stuffed animal, quartz, water, Fiber to put under the microscope.
8. Biology Partner Sheets
9. Weekly Sheets
10. Characteristics of Life Practice Quizzes
11. PowerPoint Presentation for Characteristics of Life
12. Smartboard Review Lesson
Resources to help you: SAS website (Instruction, Voluntary Model Curriculum), Books,
Supplemental materials
Procedures:
What needs to be included?
You need to have a detailed explanation of your procedures for the lesson. They do not have to
be scripted, but you must have enough detail so that someone could follow what you are doing in
the lesson. In order words, you should not be the only person that can understand your lesson
plans. They can also be in bulleted or numbered form.
Example:
1. Question of the Day: Discuss two safety rules we went over yesterday. Why are these
rules important to follow? (What might happen if you didn’t follow these rules)
2. Sewer Lice Demonstration
a. Begin by telling some variation of the following story: “I just got something in the mail
today from an old schoolmate of mine that he thought I might like to share with you. Dr.
Louis Johnson from the University of Wisconsin sent me a totally new form of life.
Perhaps you or your parents read about it last week in the newspaper. Some workers
involved in a sewer reconstruction project in Rhinelander discovered what seems to be a
mutated form of a familiar insect—the louse. I suppose the most familiar form would be
the human head louse, Pediculus humanus capitus, which is a parasite sometimes found
in people’s hair. The lice found in the Rhinelander sewers have evolved into very
different creatures. They are as much as 100 times larger than normal and they are no
longer parasitic—they live by eating sewage! They’ve gotten so large they can only swim
and not walk. All they seem to do is swim down into the sewer water to eat and swim
back up to the surface to breathe. Would you like to see them?”
b. Go into a prep or store room (or position yourself to conceal what you are doing from the
class), pour about 500 mL of your carbonated “sewer-water” of choice into the beaker and
drop in about a dozen raisins. Bring the “sewer lice” out to the class and continue the
story.
c. Ask these questions:
1. “Do you see them swimming?
2. Can you see their little legs kicking?
3. How many legs do they have?
4. Do you see their mouths open to eat?”
d. Walk up and down the aisles to give them a closer look. It might surprise you how many
of your students will actually “see” legs kicking and mouths opening. When you are back
at the front continue the story. “Dr. Johnson has done a little preliminary research on
3.
4.
5.
6.
these lice. He feels that they could possibly help to solve two of man-kind’s biggest
problems—hunger and pollution. These lice have been found to contain a great deal of
easily digested protein—they are edible.” A student always says, “Then eat one!! Ha!
Ha!” Eat one of the raisins after briefly protesting and offer one to the
Then continue:
“Not only are they edible but when they eat the sewage they apparently purify the
water. It still looks a little cloudy but I understand it’s quite drinkable.” Drink some of
the water. Then after that, if students still do not realize it is a joke. Tell them that you
were fibbing and that it was just mountain dew and raisins. Tell students that this is
good lesson on how important observations are and that even nonliving things can have
characteristics of living things.
Group Partner Work
a. Put students in partners. Choose a Biology partner (Lizard)
b. Have students answer this questions together
- What are the characteristics of living things?
c. Make up a list together on the smartboard. Have students come up and write down
things from their list.
Characteristics of Living Things Lab Activity
a. From the list they made, students should pick 10 characteristics that they will use for
this activity.
b. Spilt students into groups based on the Biology partner sheet. (Lichen)
c. Have stations set up at each table. Each table should have two.
d. Students should go around to each station and look at each specimen. On their sheet
they should be record what characteristics each speciman has.
e. When finished they should discuss the conclusion questions on their sheet and hand in
the lab with it is complete.
f. Any down time they have can be used to work on their chapter 1 vocab cards.
PowerPoint Presentation on the Characteristics of Living Things.
a. Have students fill in the section on the Characteristics of living things in their study
guide for chapter 1.
Review Characteristics of life
a. Hand out practice quiz to students. Student should complete the assignment. Then go
over it as a class.
b. Complete the smartboard review for Characteristics of Life
c. Ticket Out Question: List 5 characteristics of a living thing. Explain each
characteristics and how it makes something living.
Resources to help you: SAS website (Instruction, Voluntary Model Curriculum, Materials and
Resources), Books, Supplemental materials, other lesson plans and plan books.
Homework:
What needs to be included?
Your homework should reflect and extend from your lesson. You need to have a short
explanation the homework that is assigned.
Example:
1. Characteristics of Living Things Lab: If students do not finish the discussion questions in
class they need to complete them for homework – collected the next day.
2. Vocab Cards for Characteristics of Life: Students need to make vocab cards (following the
Collins writing method) for Characteristics of Life. These cards will be collected at the end
of the chapter on test day.
Resources to help you: SAS website (Instruction, Voluntary Model Curriculum, Materials and
Resources), Books, Supplemental Materials.
Assessment:
What needs to be included?
This needs to be a short explanation of how you will be assessing your students for this lesson.
You need to differentiate between informal and formal.
Example:
Informal: Practice quiz for Characteristics of life, Ticket Out Question, Question of the day,
Smartboard Review, Questions asked during PowerPoint Presentation, Vocab cards
Formal: Characteristics of Living Things Lab Assignment, Chapter 1 Test.
Resources to help you: SAS website (Assessment creator, Diagnostic Assessment), Books,
Supplemental materials.
Reflection/Modification:
This is an optional part of the lesson plan. It is a section in which you can comment on how the
lesson went. You can list any changes you would make for the next time you taught this lesson.
Extras that can be added but are not required:
1. Vocabulary
2. Big Ideas
3. Concepts
4. Competencies