SINGLE SUBJECT CREDENTIAL PROGRAM

EDSC LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE

Revised 4.15
For directions on how to complete this form, see EDSC Lesson Plan Directions and Scoring Guide in the SSCP Handbook at
www.sscphandbook.org.

Name
Joshua Leish/ Acid Rain (Jessica
Scolaro, Jose Martinez, Amit Patel)
Class Title

Biology

CWID

Subject Area

Biology

897881348
Lesson Title

Meiosis

Unit Title

Cell Division

Grade Levels

Total Minutes

9-12

60

CLASS DESCRIPTION
The class size is 40 students. The classroom is located in a section of the school designed for science curriculum;
therefore, there is both seating for students at regular desks, and a second section of the room designated for
experiments. There are no classroom environment issues that should affect the classroom. Many of the students are
involved with extracurricular activities outside of the classroom.
STANDARDS AND LESSON OBJECTIVES
CCSS Math, CCSS ELA & Literacy History/Social
Studies, Science and Technical Subjects, NGSS, and
English Language Development Standards (ELD)
Content Standards

HS-LS3-2 Make and defend a claim based on

evidence that inheritable genetic variations may result
from: (1) new genetic combinations through meiosis,
(2) viable errors occurring during replication, and/or
(3) mutations caused by environmental factors.
SL.11-12.5 Make strategic use of digital media (e.g.,
textual, graphical, audio, visual, and interactive
elements) in presentations to enhance understanding of
findings, reasoning, and evidence and to add interest.
Lesson Objective(s)

ELD 9-10 1.B.6. (Expanding) Reading closely literary

and informational texts and viewing multimedia to
determine how meaning is conveyed explicitly and
implicitly through language.

Evidence

Students will be able to connect concepts from past

lessons to current lessons.

Students will be able to describe the "big ideas" of

meiosis (significance for life, type of cells, resulting
cells) in their own words.

Students will cooperate with group members and use

their collective prior knowledge of mitosis to create a
provisional model of meiosis through written
annotations.
Students will form and revise a coherent paragraph
based off of evidence (model, text) that details the key
points of meiosis.

Students will be able to compare and contrast the

processes of mitosis and meiosis.

Students will complete a Venn Diagram that accurately

depicts the similarities and differences between
mitosis and meiosis including, but not limited to: how
the resulting cells differ, the process of crossing over,
which type of cells undergo each process, and the
main functions.

Students will be able to apply their knowledge to

evaluate a written case study.

Students will highlight and annotate a case study

according to their understandings of the processes of
cell division.

STUDENT ASSESSMENT
Type
Purpose/Focus of

Implementation

Feedback Strategy

How Informs Teaching

Assessment

EL

PM

Engage student mind

set, introduce the
lesson, and gauge
student prior
knowledge.

Warm-up, Discussion
Questions

To gauge student
understanding of the
material, redirecting
and clarifying if
needed.

Quick Write
"Pretend you are going
to describe to someone
what happens in
meiosis. You should
include the purpose,
how it is different from
mitosis, and how the
new cells differ from
the original cells."

To measure student
obtainment of the
learning objectives.

Exit Ticket
"Complete the Venn
diagram showing
similarities and
differences between
mitosis and meiosis"

Immediate discussion
and feedback with
class.

Possible
misconceptions about
mitosis/meiosis will be
revealed; student
comfort level with
mitosis will also be
revealed; prior
knowledge of mitosis is
required for identifying
similarities and
differences between
mitosis and meiosis.

Immediate discussion
of feedback with class.

Any possible lingering

misconceptions;
students understanding
how meiosis functions.

Returned to students at
a later time; checking
for individual
understanding.

Individual student
understanding of the
lesson objectives, as
well as any remaining
common
misconceptions to be
addressed next class
lesson.

INSTRUCTION
Instructional Strategies

Graphic Organizers (Venn Diagram)

Internet Video
Choral Reading
Word Wall
Annotating
Sentence Frames
Lesson Introduction/Anticipatory Set
Time
Teacher Does

5 min

Student Does

Before instruction begins, students will receive a

1. Students will receive a Venn Diagram
Venn Diagram worksheet while entering the class; worksheet that will be filled out throughout the
lesson as students learn about meiosis.
to be completed during the lesson.

1. Teacher will begin the lesson with a Warm-up

question: Give one specific example of when a
cell in your body has performed mitosis. What
kind of cell was it? What happened before, and
as a result? Responses could include cases of
growth, healing of wounds, replacing dead cells,

Students know that at the beginning of class they

must complete a Warm-up question in their
science notebooks. For todays lesson, they must
respond to: Give one specific example of when a
cell in your body has performed mitosis. What
kind of cell was it? What happened before, and
as a result? (Ex response: I skinned my knee,

etc. Teacher will remind students to fill in their

Venn Diagram as the lesson progresses.

This question accesses prior knowledge from the

previous lessons and gauges how well students
can remember and apply what they have learned
so far.
Remember (Webb's DOK level 1 recall &
reproduction)
Recall, observe, & recognize facts,
principles, properties.
Follow up with a video highlighting an example
from the animal kingdom of regeneration in a
whole body part.

Lesson Body
Time

45 min

Teacher Does

2. Teacher will ask questions to bridge into

meiosis:

Do all cells have the same function?

How come you dont look exactly like
your parents?

Create (Webb's DOK Level 1 Recall and

Reproduction)
brainstorm ideas, concepts or
perspectives related to a topic
3. The teacher will also use the discussion to
review important vocabulary from the previous
lessons with students in order for them to be
prepared for the lesson. Groups will be assigned a
number and corresponding vocabulary word. The
group will then collaborate to formulate a
definition in their own words. The teacher will
then call numbers, students will then read aloud
their formulated definition. The definition and
vocabulary word will be written on the
whiteboard for students to reference throughout
the lesson.

Diploid cell

the somatic cells in my knee needed to reproduce

to heal the injury so they went through mitosis,
and my knee eventually got better.)
Students will be using what they know about
mitosis to make predictions and draw conclusions
about the process of meiosis, so it is important
that they revisit and review what they have
learned already.
Students will watch a short video of how a newt
can regrow a limb using mitosis.

Student Does

2. To bridge the gap between mitosis and meiosis,

students will discuss questions from the teacher.
Students are expected to answer that not all cells
have the same function because they will have
read the meiosis section of the textbook the night
before as homework. Students may speculate as
to why they are not clones of their parents if cell
division (they have learned about mitosis)
produces identical daughter cells, however
teacher can guide them to the conclusion that
meiosis produces cells that are genetically
different.
3. Students will review vocabulary from the
previous lessons on mitosis as well as learn new
vocabulary about the topic of meiosis. They will
use choral response in order to help with
remembering the words. The choral response will
also help students with pronunciation of the
words.
4. Students will use their current understandings
of one type of cell division (mitosis) to make
meaning of a new type of cell division (meiosis).
They will annotate the diagrams with provisional
descriptions of what they predict the image of
each stage depicts. They will also note any

Haploid cell
Gamete (oocyte + spermatocyte)
Homologous chromosomes
Crossing over

4. The teacher will pass out colored diagrams of

the phases of meiosis that are only labeled with
the phase names, not descriptions, to each group.
The teacher will instruct students to use what they
know about mitosis (a similar process) and the
cell structures to annotate the diagram with what
they think is taking place in each phase.

Understand (Webb's DOK Level 2, Skills &

Concepts)

make basic inferences or logical

predictions
make and record observations

5. The teacher will play an animation that details

meiosis on the overhead projector:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=CMXjBgLjjxo
The teacher will pause the video after each phase
of meiosis and instruct students to compare the
video with their annotations and make corrections
or add to any learning gaps or misconceptions (or
preconceptions). This will go on until each phase
of meiosis is complete and students have finished
with their corrected annotations.
Analyze (Webb's DOK level 3 strategic
thinking/reasoning)
Analyze and draw conclusions from data,
citing evidence
Analyze similarities/differences between
procedures or solutions
6. To make sure students are understanding the
concept of meiosis the teacher will lead a
discussion of the importance of each stage. The
teacher will ask facilitative questions with
sufficient wait time to check for student
understanding. With each stage of the cycle the

differences they observe between meiosis and

mitosis, filling out their Venn Diagrams along the
way.

5. Students will watch a video that accurately

depicts the phases of meiosis. As students watch
each phase of meiosis the video will be paused
and they will be able to make corrections to their
annotations if their knowledge has changed. This
will go on for each phase of meiosis until students
are done with annotations.
6. Students will take part in a whole class
discussion lead by the teacher. They will answer
facilitative questions which will check their
understanding of meiosis. Students will also view
pictures of the stages on the overhead projector as
they are being questioned about them.
7. Students will take part in a quick write that will
have them explain meiosis to another student.
Students will not only demonstrate their
knowledge of the process of meiosis, but transfer
their understanding of the process to the bigger
concepts surrounding meiosis.
Students that are having trouble with the
quickwrite will be given sentence frames to help
them throughout the writing.

8. The students will receive a case study on

mitosis, meiosis, and mutations. The students
have already done the portion of the case study on
mitosis and will now continue with the meiosis
portion.
Before reading the case study students will be
skimming and looking at the pictures to discuss
the similarities and differences of mitosis and
meiosis. The students will be grouped as pairs
with the person they are seated next to.
9. Students will read the case study with their
partner, making sure to highlight and annotate
sections showing similarities and differences, as
well as points that they think are
significant/interesting or that they have questions
about.

teacher will have a visual representation on the

overhead. Teacher should remind students to
keep adding to their Venn Diagram.
7. The teacher will then transition the class into
doing a quick write and tell them:
Pretend you are going to describe to someone
what happens in meiosis. You should include the
purpose, how it is different than mitosis, and how
the resulting cells differ from the original cells.
Teacher will provide sentence frames for students
who need help.

Meiosis is
__________________________.
This process occurs ___(where?
when?)____.
The purpose of meiosis is
______________.
The resulting
cells______________________.
Meiosis is different than mitosis in several
ways. For
example,_________________________.
Cells produced by meiosis are different
from original cells because
.

Understand (Webb's DOK Level 3, Strategic

Thinking/Reasoning)

Explain phenomena in terms of concepts

8. The teacher will pass out the case study to the

students, continuing with the case study pages 712. Teacher will remind students to fill in their
Venn Diagram as the lesson progresses.
Teacher will then ask students, "Quickly glance
over the case study, paying close attention to the
pictures; discuss the similarities and differences
between Mitosis and Meiosis with your elbow
partner." (allow 1 min max)
9. The teacher will then ask students to annotate
the case study highlighting similarities and

differences between Meiosis and Mitosis, as well

as other important aspects. Teacher will instruct
students to use a different color for similarities,
differences, and additional points. As students are
making their annotations the teacher will be
walking around the classroom and viewing
student work. The teacher will ask students
guiding questions if he/she sees they are having
trouble with the annotation.
Analyze (Webb's DOK level 3 Strategic
thinking/reasoning)
Compare information within or across
data sets or texts

Lesson Closure
Time

Teacher Does

Student Does

9. The teacher will issue an exit ticket to the

students in the form of questions based on the
article. The teacher will tell the students they can
reference the article as well as annotations to
answer the questions. The exit slip must be
stamped for them to leave the room.

10 min

Exit Slip:
1. List the key differences between mitosis
and meiosis.
2. Crossover occurs between homologous
pairs of chromosomes, but can it occur
between two different chromosomes, say
between #1 and #17?
3. Do we get exact copies from mitosis and
meiosis? Why or why not?
Evaluate (Webb's DOK level 4 Extended
Thinking)
Gather, analyze, & evaluate information
to draw conclusions
Apply understanding in a novel way,
provide argument or justification for the
application

Instructional Materials, Equipment, and Multimedia

Internet videos
Meiosis Diagrams
Venn Diagram
Case Study
Co-Teaching Strategies

One-Teach, One-Assist

9. Students will answer questions from the article

in the form of an exit ticket and will only be able
to leave the room after the teacher has approved
the exit ticket. Students will be able to reference
the article to answer the questions.
Students should not be working with a partner to
answer the questions. The questions are to test the
students' individual knowledge and should be
completed individually.

DIFFERENTIATION
English Learners

Annotating text will

provide ELLs with a skill
set in understanding text
through active
participation.
Understanding the main
ideas and key words will
allow ELLs to gain a
general understanding of
the text. Also, allowing
ELLs to manipulate text
through drawing and/or
adding translations for
words will strengthen
their understanding of
English and their native
language.

Striving Readers

Students with Special

Needs

Advanced Students

The use of Annotation

will provide Striving
Readers with a skill set to
better understand
information through the
understanding of key
words and topics.
Students will be able to
actively engage with the
material; asking questions
and forming connections
with the material and
prior knowledge.

The use of Annotations

allows SNNs to follow
along and include any
information that seems
important towards
creating connections to
prior
knowledge/reinforcing
new content. By allowing
students to modify the
text with inclusion of
images, translations, and
student-created
supporting information,
reinforcement through
students' prior knowledge
will be achieved; allowing
for a deeper
understanding and
connection with the
material.

Advanced students are

likely to understand the
content of the lesson right
away. They would have a
good understanding of
mitosis which would
make the differences
found in meiosis obvious
to them. By having
advanced students
annotate, they are able to
find key terms, interesting
facts that will further their
understanding, and a
quick reference to look
back on.

Sentence Starters will

provide Striving Readers
with a means to begin
their thought process and
The use of videos
avenues to spark thought
provides ELLs visual
process in gaining
support in understanding information from the
the material by providing material. Repetition and
them with material to
exposure to the sentence
spark prior knowledge if
frames will provide
they are familiar with it in Striving Readers will
their native language.
target phrases; giving
them an idea of what to
Venn Diagrams allow
include in their answer
ELLs to consolidate
and what to look for in
information in a guided
the text for support.
fashion by better
improving their
Choral reading will
organizational skills and
improve auditory
understanding of content. association with visual
English words, improving
Sentence Starters allow
reading through
ELLs to visualize key
understanding phonics.
words in the sentence
starters and look for
them/associate what
needs to be found in the
text. Sentence Starters
also give ELLs practice in
how to correctly answer
academic questions when
presented with them by
improving their effective
skill set in displaying
their knowledge.

Advanced students will

be looking for ways in
which to relate this
material to the outside
world. In order to do this
Venn Diagrams allow
we will have a bonus
SNNs an opportunity to
critical thinking question
organize thoughts and
"Was it an evolutionary
information; connect prior necessity that meiosis
and new knowledge, and
evolved at the same time
solidify connections that
as sexual reproduction?".
would have been missed
By having students
otherwise.
answer this questions they
will be able to think about
Video/Pausing will allow concepts that they have
SNNs an opportunity to
not learned in the class.
consolidate new
information as well as
Advanced student will
connect any prior
also likely finish with the
knowledge. Pausing will
"exit ticket" questions
also allow SNNs an
before other students. If
opportunity to ask any
this is the case the teacher
clarifying questions that
will ask them to assist
might have been missed
struggling students. By
because of SSNs trying to explaining to other
catch up.
students, they are also
gaining a deeper
Sentence Starters will
understanding of the
provide SNNs a reference content.
point in finding key
information as well as a
starting point in framing

Choral reading will

improve student
association of spoken to
written English.
Associating sound with
words will be highlighted,
as students read aloud and
give their group-created
vocabulary definition.

their information; guiding

them through the
information. Repetition
and exposure to the
sentence frames will
provide structure and
organizational skills in
framing information into
an answer.

REFLECTION: SUMMARY, RATIONALE, AND IMPLEMENTATION

At the beginning of class before instruction begins, students will receive a Venn Diagram that is to be completed
during the lesson. The teacher will tell the students that they should fill in their Venn Diagram as they learn
about similarities and differences between mitosis and meiosis. The class will then transition into warm-up
questions. The questions will be about mitosis, which the students have already learned about. After answering
the warm-up questions, the teacher will remind the students to fill in their Venn Diagrams. We will then watch a
video of a newt regenerating its limb in order to visualize mitosis in an animal. The teacher will then bridge the
class into meiosis by asking them questions that function to show that cells in mitosis have different functions
than cells in meiosis. It is important to learn vocabulary from the lesson and for students to be able to reference
the vocabulary as they go through the lesson. Students will then review important vocabulary from the lesson
and work in a group to formulate a definition. A group will be called upon to share their definition of the word.
The vocabulary word along with the definition, will be written on the board and students will take part in choral
reading to review the word and definition. Students will now receive colored diagrams of the phases of meiosis
and be tasked with annotating the diagram based on their knowledge of mitosis. After students finish with their
annotations they will watch a video showing each phase of meiosis. The video will be paused after each phase
to let students make changes to their annotations in case their thinking has changed. The teacher will then lead a
class discussion about the importance of each stage of meiosis. The teacher will also ask facilitative questions to
make sure students are understanding the process. Next, students will do a quickwrite where they have to
pretend they are going to describe meiosis to another person. Students will be told that they should include the
purpose, how meiosis is different from mitosis, and how the resulting cells differ from the original cells. If
students are having trouble with their quickwrite, then the teacher will provide them with sentence frames. The
next part of the lesson will be a case study that the students have already started working on. They worked on
the first portion while covering mitosis. They will now work on the meiosis portion of the case study. Before
starting work on the case study, the teacher will remind students to work on their Venn diagrams. First, students
will quickly glance over the case study and pay close attention to the pictures. After completing this, they will
work with their elbow buddy to discuss the similarities and differences between mitosis and meiosis. After the
discussion with their partner, the students will annotate the case study reading showing similarities, differences,
and interesting areas. The last activity will be an exit ticket which students will be required to finish in order to
leave the classroom. There will be three questions in which students will be able to refer to their case study,
meiosis diagram, or other materials in order to answer.