Science Lesson Plan: Viruses: Alive?

/ Course: Living Environment / Created by Janel Granum, 2009

Lesson Plan Overview: Classroom Preparation for Lesson:

In this lesson students will be applying the learning strategies of making
connections and determining importance to understand more about viruses. Think about how you will want to prepare your think aloud. Do you want the
Students will read about the key characteristics of viruses and why viruses are text displayed on a projector so students can follow along and you can also
considered nonliving entities. Students will track their thinking while reading display the double-entry journal? Or, will you enlarge the text and double-
by using a double entry journal. Then, the students will use the information to entry journal on chart paper if technology is a concern? And, will students
categorize which characteristics make things like viruses either nonliving or have their own individual copies of the text to follow along?
living.
Make sure you have copied all the excerpts ahead of time and differentiate any
of the reading materials as needed.
Lesson Objective:
Students will be able to respond to the question “How can viruses be nonliving
entities while sharing characteristics with living entities?”

Learning Strategies Used: Resources Needed For This Lesson:

 Making Connections  NY Times article "Swine Flu Was No Lab Accident, W.H.O. Says."
 Determining Importance New York Times 14 May 2009.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/health/policy/15flu.html
 Levine, Joseph S., and Kenneth R. Miller. Biology. Toronto: Pearson
Key Concepts, Terms, and Vocabulary: Prentice Hall, 2006
 Studies, Biological Sciences Curriculum. BSCS Biology: An
 Virus  Mode of Transport Ecological Approach. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Pub Co, 2006
 Host  Parasite  Concepts and Challenges of Life Science. United States: Globe Fearon
Co, 2003
 Pathogen  Bacteriophage
 Handout of two-column table
 Organisms  Capsid
Lesson Launch – Building Background for New Learning:
1. Give the students the following question on a handout with an empty two-column table (labeled living and nonliving) below the question:
How do we know if something is living or nonliving?
2. Instruct the students to think about the question and to generate some characteristics of living and nonliving things and to write them in the
correct columns in the empty table. Remind the students to think about other entities besides human beings. Give the students about five
minutes to work on the table while walking around the room, conferring with students.
3. Have the students share out their ideas and create a master table of nonliving and living characteristics. (If the students give broad
answers, challenge the students to think more deeply about how they know certain characteristics are living and nonliving. For example, if
a students says that reproduction makes you living, then ask the student why reproducing makes us living? What is it about reproduction
that characterizes a living entity? And, can nonliving entities reproduce?)
4. Introduce the lesson’s objective and explain to the students that they will be reading several excerpts about viruses today and learning
about how viruses are nonliving but share many characteristics of living entities. Explain to the students that they will be using a double-
entry journal to track their thinking while reading and will then re-categorize their living and nonliving characteristics based on that
reading.
5. Explain to the students that we have used other methods to track our thinking while reading and this is another method that involves note-
taking and will help us gain a deeper understanding of the text. Show the students how to divide a sheet of paper into two vertical columns
by folding it lengthwise in half. Explain to the students that the left column is reserved for a direct quote or summary from the excerpt.
The right column is where you write either a connection or a determining importance response. Explain that while you are reading, you are
taking time to connect information to your own background knowledge and figure out what is important and recording that information on
the double-entry journal.
6. Begin to model how to create a double-entry journal while reading one of the example excerpts. Read the first paragraph of the excerpt
aloud for the students and show them your thinking by writing down a quote that you can make a connection to. Show the students how
you write the quote in the left column and then respond to the quote with a connection that reminds you of something in the right column.
Show the students how the connection you made helps you better understand the reading. Next, re-read the first paragraph and find a quote
or summarize something from the text to write in the left column of the double-entry journal. Then, determine the importance of the quote
or summary by stating “This is important because….”.
7. Next, have the students read the second paragraph and write one connection and one determining importance response. Have the students
work in pairs and confer with the students while they are doing this work to make sure they understand how the double-entry journal
works.
8. Have a few of the pairs share out their responses and ask the rest of the students to listen and share if they had the same ideas or have
thoughts regarding what was shared.
9. Remind the students to write the name of the excerpt and page number when writing the quotes.
Students Investigate New Learning:
1. Have the students work in small groups or pairs to complete the reading of the excerpts and the double-entry journals.
2. When conferring with students regarding their work, make sure and challenge any banal responses that don’t offer a greater understanding
of the text. Ask students about their responses by using some of the following questions.
 How does this connection add to your understanding of the text?
 Could you be more specific about why this part is important?
 Think about your own life, how does this connection help you better understand what is going on in the excerpt based on what you
know about the world and science?
 Where in the text can you find evidence for this response?
Students Synthesize New Learning:
1. Have the students look at their tables from the first part of the lesson. Instruct the students to use their double-entry journals to take
another look at their tables and to revise them based on the reading. Give the students another blank handout of the two-column table
(living and nonliving) to complete.
2. Next, have the students discuss the following: From your reading today, how do viruses fit into both of these categories of living and
nonliving? How might you explain this to a 3rd grader so that they weren’t confused by the contrary characteristics of viruses?
3. Have the students answer the following questions on the back of the two-column table handout:
 Discuss the process of the double-entry journal. How did it help or hinder your comprehension of the text? Would you use it in
other classes when reading nonfiction text? Why or why not?