Ms. Grunin

Ability to Reach All Students

In order to meet the diversity needs of my students, I have aligned my unit plan

closely with the connected practices from “The Criteria For New Teacher Readiness”. I

am currently a Partner Teacher at a Middle School in Far Rockaway, NY through the

NYC Teaching Collaborative program. The context of the unit plan “Genetics and

Biotechnology” is Eighth grade honors science classroom where students are following

the ninth grade Living Environment curriculum in order to take the Regents Exam in June

2019. The honors class for which this unit was created has a demographic of 90% black

and 10% Hispanic students. All students are fluent in speaking, writing and

understanding the English language. Of all the students in the class, 10% of students have

IEP’s with mild learning disabilities. There is no co-teaching model, classroom aid or

additional of a special education teacher in this classroom setting.

The mastery goals for this unit will ensure that students can identify the structures

and explain the functions of DNA and RNA and their roles in the process of protein

synthesis. Students will be able to describe three types of mutations, explain their effect

on proteins/genetic disorders and identify the causes of such mutations. Students will be

able to identify the differences between mitosis and meiosis cell division and explain

each role in the process of asexual reproduction. Students will be able to describe the

processes involved in population changes over time (adaptations) by the concept:

“survival of the fittest”. Finally, this unit ensures that students can describe the process of

bioengineering and explain the opposing view-points of biotechnology impacts on

 
  

populations. The purpose for the content in this unit is for students to understand the

importance of DNA, RNA and proteins in relation to expression of traits; to understand

how the process of sexual reproduction occurs by different types of cell division; to

understand how structural differences within a species, competition for resources and the

environment dictate the survival rate of members within that species; to understand how

we genetically modify organisms for our benefit and to assess the pros and cons of that

activity; eventually, to pass the LE Regents Exam.

Prior knowledge for this unit that students have are: a disruption in the balance of

living things causes an imbalance in homeostasis; Failure of organisms to maintain

homeostasis results in disease; Enzymes are proteins, but not all proteins are enzymes;

Structure (shape) determines function; Creating and testing a hypothesis; Determining

independent and dependent variables. As far as meeting learning targets, 70% of the class

is at this point on prior knowledge to the unit whereas 30% of the students are falling

short. Many students in the class read below their grade level and a few students (those

with IEP’s) are reading on an elementary grade level. Considering these factors, my

lesson plans offer multiple modes of exploring the objectives that include the use of

scientific texts that contain questions after each paragraph to enhance comprehension,

hands-on activities such as labs considering a decent number of students are kinesthetic

learners, additions of videos for those who are visual and auditory learners. In addition,

scaffolds such as visual supports are used in the classroom with chart paper containing

the information learned from previous lessons (for that unit only) around the room, the

use of stop&jot to gauge student thinking as well as turn and talks. This unit incorporates

 
  

the use of diagrams and students creating their own concept maps in order to reinforce

learned concepts in a more tangible style that is their own. Additionally, I understand that

some of these practices are new or not used by students often. Therefore, I model for

students how to go about creating a concept map and show them an example, I model for

them what a turn and talk should sound like and provide them with a sentence starter so

that they know my expectations for them in the moment. These considerations are visible

throughout the lesson plan by the activities listed, the materials necessary, the

supplemented handouts and the direct dialogue instruction.