Teach First Planning

Proforma
Planning Proforma
Date: 17/11/21 Class: 9A1 Unit of
work/Topic:
Variation and
inheritance
Big Picture:
Where does this teaching episode fit within the scheme of work/topic? What do the pupils already know/understand
about the learning being taught in this lesson?
Natural selection Part 2
This lesson leads on from the first lesson on natural selection. The first lesson introduced natural selection to the
students and taught them the basic principles of natural selection, which was that the best adapted organism is most
likely to survive and reproduce. This lecture delves deeper into natural selection, showing that natural selection is
selfish and prioritises the individual and not the whole species.

Misconception: Natural selection is always good for the species

TLAC - Begin with the End

Lesson Objective: Assessment: Activity:
What do you want your pupils to know / be What will you ask your pupils to do to demonstrate What activities
able to do at the end of the lesson? their learning? are pupils
Evaluate whether natural selection favours an Students will complete a worksheet on fox and rabbit engaging with
individual within a species or the whole predator prey relationships. throughout the
species lesson to
Exit ticket: MCQ on natural selection progress their
Enquiry question: Is natural selection always learning towards
good for the species? the objective?
Do Now – 3
Short answer
questions based
on previous
learning to
engage them in
the lesson and to
form cognitive
links between
different subject
areas.

Students will be
taking part in
class discussions
with the aim of
improving their
oracy skills.

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 Students will
complete a
worksheet on
fox and rabbit
predator prey
relationships and
answer an MCQ
question on
natural
selection.

Preparation
(To be completed before the lesson)
Resources: Key vocabulary for the lesson:
Worksheet – Fox and rabbit predator prey relationship. Consider how will
introduce this and where
you will reinforce it. Does it
need to be displayed
anywhere in the room?
Natural selection
Species
Variation
Evolution
Organism
Fitness
Survival
Darwin
Additional Adult Role:
What role will an additional adult play if available?
Year 9 TA circulates year 9 classes, checks on individual students who require SEND support, does not give assistance to
whole class only those assigned to.

Timing Teacher Pupil

Do now – 3 MCQ questions based off previous learning. What will the pupils be
- What is continuous variation? Give three examples doing/thinking at each stage
- What is discontinuous variation? Give two examples of the teaching episode?
- Why could it be bad news for an organism if its environment changes Students will have to do
basic recall to answer the
first two questions.

Students will have to use the

knowledge they have learnt
so far in the topic and prior
knowledge they possess
themselves.

They are well versed in doing

Do now tasks at the start of
the lesson. The three
questions provide little stress

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 to the students and they
should feel comfortable
answering all 3.

Check What will you do to check for understanding?

Cold calling students for their answers.
For the first two questions I will cold call 2 students to answer what continuous and
discontinuous variation is. Then I will cold call a separate 5 students to give the 5
examples. The third question is more open ended so I ask two students for their ideas on
the question.

Introduction: (Present material in small steps) Students are

E.g. : TLAC - Name the Steps familiar with
Talking point – Natural selection is always good for the species talking points
and have good
Students will talk amongst pairs discussing the statement above. They need to say whether practice.
they agree or disagree with the statement before coming together as a class to present their They may be
ideas. I will cold call a range of students for their opinions on the talking point. confused as to
how natural
Responses that are expected: selection may
- Yes because natural selection makes a species more likely to survive not benefit a
- Yes because the weak ones in the species die out species as so far
- No because some of the species have to die for the species to get better natural selection
- has only shown
to act in favour
of a species as
the species
overtime
become better
suited to their
environment

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Check
(Ask assessment questions to gather understanding from all pupils)
Students will be cold called for their opinion. I will ask them probing questions based on their opinions to
detect for misconceptions and to gather information on to why they think the statement is right or wrong.

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 Provide Model: (Guide through practising the model and thinking aloud)
Students are presented with a concept cartoon of 4 people providing their opinions on sickle
cell anemia and malaria.
Recap : A quick recap on the basics of natural selection and what it is, this is so students
remember what they did last lesson and it informs them to look at their notes should they
get stuck at any moment in the lesson and they need to remind themselves of a model for
natural selection or the definition.

Students must decide in pairs which person they agree with most and then share with the
rest of the class their opinion.

After cold calling a student to share their opinion, ask the class if anyone disagrees and ask
them to use their oracy cards to explain why they disagree and which person they agree
with most.

Following this class discussion, there is a teaching episode on the survival of the fittest and
that whilst you can be a carrier for a deadly genetic disease you can also still be the ‘fittest’
in a population if being a carrier holds an advantage over others.

After the teaching episode students return to the concept cartoon to make their final
choice on which person they agree with. They will then discuss this as a class. The hope is
all the students will be on the same page by the end of the second discussion point with
that being that it is an advantage to be a carrier of sickle cell anaemia as this makes you
more resistant to a deadly protist in malaria.

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Check (Check for understanding before the activity and obtain a high success rate)
Students will work on exam practice Q’s later in the lesson to assess their knowledge.

Students are cold called and required to discuss their opinions, after the teaching episode we are looking for
a single valid opinion from the whole class.

Pupil Practise: This will

How will you scaffold the learning so that all your pupils achieve the lesson objective? introduce the
Fox and rabbit predator prey relationship. idea to students
Students will discuss the hypothetical question: What would happen if natural selection that no predator
selected for the perfect predator. is perfect
Students will discuss this in pairs using their oracy cards to discuss the idea. otherwise
I predict that students will most likely conclude that either they will run out of food or that ecosystems
the predator will always catch its prey. would cease to
This relates nicely to the misconception that: natural selection is always good for the species, exist. This pairs
as in this hypothetical natural selection has gone too far and now the predator has removed well with the
all its prey from the ecosystem causing the species to die out. following lesson
This also relates to the questions as students must interpret a graph of rabbit and fox which aims to
populations. address the
The aim being that they can see that a when there is a high population of foxes they are well misconception
equipped enough to almost wipe out the rabbit population in turn wiping themselves out. that “evolution
produces
organisms that
are perfectly
adapted to their
environment.

Students are
high attaining
students in a
top set and so
should be able
to answer the
questions with
low levels of
help required.
It gives student
a clearer picture
on how
ecosystems
work and puts
into perspective
how natural
selection acts in
an
environment.

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Check (Monitor practise and independent practise)
I will walk around the class whilst students answer the questions, checking to see if they
have understood the lesson and checking whether they have understood the lesson.

Following this I will go through the answers for the test, asking students for hands up to
provide answers. To incentivise some of the more shy students to provide answers I will

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 offer positive points for correct answers.
Review of Learning: (Assessment of pupil knowledge) TO
check for understanding I will offer one final MCQ in the form of a Exit ticket. This is to check
for comprehension of the lesson and prevalence of misconceptions. The majority of the
students should be able to state that natural selection causes change in species over time
through the environment favouring individuals with the best phenotypes of survival.
Following this the students will hold up either red, amber and green to show how much
they understood the lesson and natural selection.

Check (Gather assessment data linked to objective)

Students should all be able to answer the MCQ and I expect most students to show Green or amber cards
and I am predicted no red cards to be shown. I will go around to SEN or PP students during the Worksheet to
check their comprehension incase they feel obliged to show amber or green in response to other higher
attaining students showing those colours.

Evaluation
(To be complete after the lesson)
Pupil Progress:
Pupils made good progress throughout the lesson and completed all work. Their behaviour was good and I
feel they no longer possess their misconceptions.
Implications for future learning: I will try to taper the concept cartoons more towards the age of the students
and what they will be more familiar with. The concept cartoon worked well but it could have been better. I
believe the best parts of the lesson was the Fox and rabbit population sheet.

Reflection
What aspects of the teaching episode were successful?
Strengths and achievements are important to celebrate and should be discussed.
How did the class respond to the session?
The class responded well to the session. They enjoy talking points as they are an argumentative group and like to get
their opinions out in the open.
What are your action points for your next teaching episode?
Identifying significant actions that lead to strategies that may change, develop or refine practice.
I will tailor the concept cartoons more towards the class than one that may include the perfect scientific
example.

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