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Cancer Learning Cycle and edTPA Learning Segment

Learning Segment Background


Teachers name: Miss Rebecca Armbruster
School: Lakewood High School
Class: Anatomy and Physiology 9th/8th period
Dates: September 29 through October 8th (possibly until 10-10-14 if needed)
Segment 1 Lesson Plan 1-2 days
Part I of Case Study and Introduction
Engage and Explore: Case Study. Not Just Another Day at the Beach: Decision
Making and the Treatment of Malignant Melanoma
Standards: NGSS- HS-LS3-1. Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of
DNA and chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from
parents to offspring.
Ohio- cellular genetics, function of DNA in cells, genetic mutations, cellular processes
Common Core State Standards- Students should be able to use words, phrases, and
clauses as well as varied syntax to clarify relationships between reasons and claims,
reasons and evidence, and between claims and counterclaims. Students should
synthesize information from a range of sources into a coherent understanding of a
process.
Misconceptions: Cancer is contagious.
*http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/myths
All misconceptions came from this site.
Objectives: Students will familiarize themselves with scientific vocabulary pertaining to
cancer and the treatment of cancer. They will use vocabulary correctly and work in
groups to find a diagnosis for the case study patient as well as learn how cancer
changes the cell cycle. Students will apply prior knowledge to understand the tests and
procedures associated with cancer treatment as well as acquire knowledge from one
another to suggest a treatment plan for their patient.
Materials: Case study packet, pen/pencil/notebook, cell phone with internet or laptop to
research
Procedures:

Students will receive the first page of the case study and that is it. I will begin the
lesson with a short video clip from the television show Scrubs that diagnoses one of
the characters with skin cancer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_8GJhdo7ks
After this short clip, I would ask the students to read the paragraph about the
case study and think about the words used in the video as well as how they would
pertain to the case study.
First working alone, I would ask the students to answer the questions on the
bottom of the case study using their prior knowledge, cell phone with internet access or
a laptop from the laptop cart. After about 5-10 minutes, I would allow the students to
Think Pair Share with their table to fill in any gaps of understanding of scientific
vocabulary as well as the answers to the questions.
Think Pair Share (TPS) is meant to foster cooperative learning in this lesson so
that the students know and understand the base material. This base material is
important for the following lessons. If students are struggling to get through the material
on their own, their partner or group members should be able to help. If the whole class
is struggling then the instructor will interject as needed. Research finds that TPS helps
foster linguistic functions in students and thus reinforcing critical thinking. Students have
to share their idea and take ownership of their ideas as well as thought process which
allows them to take more agency in their learning and not solely rely on the expertise of
the teacher. Research also shows the TPS encourages student to develop high selfefficacy and self-confidence. This is achieved by students listening to one another and
being able to build their opinions with their peers. Students also are able to have an
insight into their peers thinking process so that would help low achieving students
realize things they might not thought of. TPS also makes classroom discussions more
productive and keep students on task because they are sharing what they were talking
about.
Differentiation: (high/extensions, grade level, at-risk/interventions): To differentiate this
lesson for my high achieving students, I would make sure the high achieving students
have laptops or their personal cell phones so they can research more thoroughly.
For my low achieving students, I would make sure to cycle around the room and
monitor their progress to ensure they are on the right track when researching the
introduction material. Also having the high achieving students share their strategies will
give the low achieving students a chance to use those ideas in their own studies.
In this class, I have two students with IEPs. They require extra time on tests and
quizzes. Other than that, the two IEP students do not require much more attention from
me other than a guiding hand to keep them on task and in both plans it is required to
check in with students on a regular basis during projects.
According to Carol Tomlinson, one of the pioneers of differentiated instruction,
there are four ways to differentiate instruction which include content, process, product,
and learning environment. So using this I have made sure the process is different for

each level of student so that they can easily work in our classroom environment.
Research by many other educational leaders as well as Tomlinson has shown the
advantages of differentiation. Some of these advantages are that students with a wide
range of abilities are able to be incorporated into a regular education class. This also
ensures that the needs of each student are being met. Differentiation also keeps the
lessons interesting and current. The classes I am teaching are not considered inclusion
classes because the IEPs we do have are very mild and only involve providing extra
time to two students. I have high, medium, and low achieving students so the
differentiation is tailored to their needs.
Each lesson plan in this learning segment is a continuation of the day before and
are modeled in the learning cycle style after constructivist theory. Engage, explore,
explain, elaborate, and evaluate are the 5 Es of the constructivist learning cycle and
each is addressed by a lesson plan. By structuring my planning this way, I am able to
make sure the learner and their prior experiences are always on my mind while I am
teaching. This lesson is engage and explore because the video clip paired with the case
study draw the students in while the questions and team work explore the topic of
cancer.
Evaluation: Students will be assessed informally at this point of the learning cycle
because it will give me a base knowledge of what previous experience they have had
with the material. I will take notes on my class roster and make sure to annotate it so
that I can have a full understanding of how the class is doing with the material so far.
Not assessing the students right away in a formal written manner also creates a low risk
environment which will continue to encourage them to participate in class discussions.
Using a mental checklist, I will make sure the class and individual students are on target
as well as aligned with the objectives of this lesson.
I chose an informal formative assessment because it allows me to see what the
students are thinking so far in the material and assess their prior knowledge without
pressuring them with the weight of a grade. It also gives me immediate feedback so I
can alter my lesson the next day to suit the needs of my students. Informal formative
assessments have been found to increase student awareness of their thinking process
because they are able to either write or verbally say what they are thinking about a
given topic. Research has also found that formative assessments strengthen the short
term memory of students thus increasing the chance that memory will become long
term and a learned piece of information.
Reflection:
Most students were familiar with the concept of cancer but did not know the
specifics of staging. They easily worked as groups to find the information needed to
answer the questions on the case study and we had a short class discussion about the
vocabulary as well as staging system. The students worked as teams at their tables
before they shared with the class which made this activity low risk and then shared with
the whole group. I was able to give immediate feedback if they students were misguided
in the research. If I were to teach this specific lesson again, I would give them students
a few more specific questions to guide their research. This would have given them a

better view of why their work was important and of value. I would have also used a more
engaging way of presenting the case study. The students liked the video from Scrubs
which did get them engaged in the unit but they seemed less excited to read the case
study. Because of this lack of interest, I could possibly drop the case study and develop
a different way to get the students to define new scientific words as well as the staging
systems of cancer. I was able to practice this lesson twice with my other two classes
before I presented it to my focus class. This helped me because after my first
experience with the lesson, I changed the time line of how I presented the lesson to the
students. I opened with telling the students to watch a video and write down scientific
vocabulary instead of just asking them to watch the video. This got the students to pay
close attention to the short video and linked the video to the next learning task of
defining vocabulary in the case study. I also realized that the students needed more
time to Think Pair Share by the time I got to my focus class. The students like the
routine of low risk practice discussions with their table before we share together as a
class. I kept that in my lesson and made sure that all students had enough time to talk
about everything they needed or wanted to.

Segment 2 Lesson Plan 2-3 days


Explain: Part II of Case Study and Lecture
Standards: NGSSHSLS3-1.

Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and


chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from
parents to offspring.

Ohio Standards: This lesson will fulfill the standards about cells and their diverse roles
in the body as well as the functions of the cell.
Objectives: Students will understand the difference between a malignant and benign
tumor, how cancer changes the cell cycle, DNA mutations associated with cancer, and
oncogenes/proto-oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes.
Misconceptions: All lumps found during cancer screenings are cancerous. Cancer
biopsy can cause cancer to spread.
Materials: PowerPoint, Promethean Board, student handout about presentation and
paper. Students will need their notebooks and something to write with
Procedures: Lecture on how cancer changes the cell cycle, gene mutations, tumors
and oncogenes/proto-oncogenes/tumor suppressor genes. The PowerPoint of the
lecture will be available to students through their online school site called
ProgressBook. I will not release the notes until after my lecture so that students pay
attention to what I am saying instead of worrying about copying the information off of the
projection screen.
I will connect material from class to real life by describing the progresses in which
cancer is diagnosed in reference to specific cancers and have students tell the class
what they already know about cancer staging.
After the presentation, students will be able to look over the list of cancers that I
have complied and rank the top three that they are interested in researching. They will
give me a paper with their name and top three choices before they leave class so I can
compile a list of who is doing what. Once the students turn in their top three and I have
complied the list, I will ask the students to begin researching during the next class
period. At the end of this period they must produce an outline of their paper on
GoogleDocs and share it with me via email.
This lecture is modeled instructionally in a direct instruction for a few different
reasons. Direct instruction is faced paced and involves student-teacher interactions
throughout the lesson(s). This form of instruction demands the students to be prepared
for class and to interact in the lesson for the duration of their time. Research on direct
instruction has shown that students are able to understand the material better when
they are given it directly and interact with it at the same time. The role of the teacher is

to make sure the students are understanding each topic during direct instruction and
remediate as often as possible.
Differentiation: (high/extensions, grade level, at-risk/interventions):
This lesson is differentiated to suit students intellectual needs as Tomlinson
states. Research by many other educational leaders as well as Tomlinson has shown
the advantages of differentiation. Some of these advantages are that students with a
wide range of abilities are able to be incorporated into a regular education class. This
also ensures that the needs of each student are being met. Differentiation also keeps
the lessons interesting and current. The classes I am teaching are not considered
inclusion classes because the IEPs we do have are very mild and only involve
providing extra time to two students. I have high, medium, and low achieving students
so the differentiation is tailored to their needs. This would be differentiated to the
process part of Tomlinsons belief system. Students will have different times to process
the information and extra help will be offered.
Each student will get one of their top three choices for a cancer to research
which allows them to choose a topic that resonates with them personally and their past
experiences. I would not want a student to repeat a topic they might have covered in
another class or anything of the same manner. High achieving students can pick a
challenging topic and middle students would probably choose a topic that suits their
needs. Low achieving students can choose a common cancer so that they do not get
discouraged by the medical jargon of a complex cancer. In line with constructivist
theory, I will act as the facilitator in this process and allow the students to discover the
unique characteristics of the cancer they choose.
I will also provide the PowerPoint to any student to expresses the need to have
the slides in front of them during the lecture so that they can pay attention better. This
would help my students with IEPs so that they are able to have more exposure to the
PowerPoint. I will post the lecture after that class period on ProgressBook for the high
and middle achieving students because they will just need to supplement their notes if
needed.
Evaluation: Students will have to create an outline of their cancer paper from the
student handout that I will pass out during the class period. The completion of this
outline will show me how the students are doing so far and where I might need to clarify
my instructions. The outline would need topic sentences and supporting bullet points for
each statement or idea. It would also need to include the things required for the paper
which are how the cancer affects the body, how the cancer is different from other
cancers, the research going on for the cancer, and meet the requirements of the rubric I
created for the outline. This rubric will be provided to the students before they begin the
outline so that they can align themselves with my expectations.
This assessment is a formative assessment as well but it is formal in the sense
that I am giving the students a grade depending on how well they complete the outline
to the guidelines on the rubric. Since it is a formative assessment, it is building on the
information I gained from my first formative assessment and helping me decide which

students will need help during the writing process of the paper. It also gives me
immediate feedback so I can alter my lesson the next day to suit the needs of my
students. Informal formative assessments have been found to increase student
awareness of their thinking process because they are able to either write or verbally say
what they are thinking about a given topic. Research has also found that formative
assessments strengthen the short term memory of students thus increasing the chance
that memory will become long term and a learned piece of information.
Reflection:
At the end of this lesson, I realized I should have used a pretest to assess the
students knowledge of cancer so I could have picked a better beginning point for the
cancer presentation. Certain parts of this presentation were repetitive for my students
and they let me know that it was familiar already. I ended up spending more time on
other parts that I thought the students would have known. Since my assumption of
student ability and the students actual ability were different, a pretest would have been
very useful to shape my instruction. Once we finished the presentation, I presented the
project to the students. If I were to teach this over again, I would have pushed up the
lecture a day and introduced the project earlier. The students were not happy when I
introduced the project and told them the due date. They felt it was going to be rushed. If
I had introduced it a day earlier, I could have combatted that issue and it would not have
changed the time line of the unit very much. I also should have given my students their
outline feedback more quickly so that they could begin their paper earlier as well.

Segment 3 Lesson Plan 3-5 days


Elaborate and Evaluate: Part III of Case Study and Paper/Presentation
Standards: NGSS:
HSLS3-1.

Ask questions to clarify relationships about the role of DNA and


chromosomes in coding the instructions for characteristic traits passed from
parents to offspring.

Ohio Standards: This lesson will fulfill the standards about cells and their diverse roles
in the body as well as the functions of the cell.
Common Core State Standards- Students should be able to use words, phrases, and
clauses as well as varied syntax to clarify relationships between reasons and claims,
reasons and evidence, and between claims and counterclaims. Students should
synthesize information from a range of sources into a coherent understanding of a
process.
Misconceptions: All cancers are the same.
Objectives: Each student researches type of cancer/its treatment/how it differs from
other cancers, this will lead to a short oral presentation of the research they did in front
of their peers. Students will be able to use the knowledge from their research to inform
their classmates and I about the cancer they chose as well as its unique characteristics.
Materials: Netbooks or laptops for students to research their cancer, class textbook,
access to school email to use GoogleDocs
Procedures: Students will be given two full class periods, one of which is a double
period, to work on finding information about their chosen cancer and beginning to write
the paper as well as make the presentation. During this time, I, acting as a facilitator
again, will be open to student questions and if there are many of the same question we
can go over the concept as a class.
This project is modeled in an independent study instructional strategy because it
allows me as the teacher to fit in topics that may not be traditionally in the curriculum
and it gives highly motivated students the chance to pursue topics they are interested
in. Providing the students with an independent study project give them more agency in
their learning. They have little direct instruction during this time so that they can
formulate their ideas and prepare to present them in the written paper as well as the
oral presentation. Independent study also allows me as an educator to choose a topic
that the student and I agreed on to ensure it applies to the curricular aims. I formulated
a list of cancers and the students get to choose the specific cancer which lends itself to
independent study. Research has also showed that independent studies allow students

to express themselves better because they can accomplish tasks on their own time and
choose how they want to present their findings.
Differentiation: (high/extensions, grade level, at-risk/interventions):
This lesson is differentiated to suit students intellectual needs as Tomlinson
states. Research by many other educational leaders as well as Tomlinson has shown
the advantages of differentiation. Some of these advantages are that students with a
wide range of abilities are able to be incorporated into a regular education class. This
also ensures that the needs of each student are being met. Differentiation also keeps
the lessons interesting and current. The classes I am teaching are not considered
inclusion classes because the IEPs we do have are very mild and only involve
providing extra time to two students. I have high, medium, and low achieving students
so the differentiation is tailored to their needs.
For the written component, each student will get one of their top three choices for
a cancer to research which allows them to choose a topic that resonates with them
personally and their past experiences. I would not want a student to repeat a topic they
might have covered in another class or anything of the same manner. This also allows
students to choose a cancer that will suit their achievement level better. More common
cancers would be good for my low achieving students and the more obscure ones
would be a good challenge for my high achieving students. In line with constructivist
theory, I will act as the facilitator in this process and allow the students to discover the
unique characteristics of the cancer they choose. The presentations are also
differentiated in the same way to suit ability levels. The high achieving students will be
able to eloquently present an oral presentation with little assistance from me and not
struggle with the medical terminology whereas the lower achieving students might be
more comfortable with recording their narration over their PowerPoint because that
would give them the chance to fix any mistakes in their speech. Since not all of the
students will be in Piagets last stage of development, I want to make sure I give each
student a task that they will succeed in.
This lesson is also differentiated this way to utilize all of the students prior
experiences, their learning style, and their personality. In the constructivist theory, the
learner is just as important as what is being learned so making sure I am allowing
students to present their information in different ways gives them the chance to play to
their strengths. I also want them to find out new information without me forcefully
guiding them there, giving them the chance to research during class time allows them to
do that as well but since I am there as the facilitator they are still able to ask questions
and seek further guidance if needed.
My IEP students would require more attention from me and I would check in with
them for frequently to be sure that they are on track. I would also set up times for the
two of them to come in during my planning periods and use the student laptops to fulfill
their IEP plan of extra time. They are not behind in their learning so by giving them their
allotted extra time will ensure they are successful.

Evaluation: Students will be evaluated on their paper and presentation by a rubric that I
made specifically for this project. The paper is worth up to 32 points and the
presentation is worth up to 16 points for a total of 48 points for the whole project. The
rubric includes many different criteria that are important in the scientific process and
ensure that the students are able to articulate the information that they have been
collecting through the lessons building off of one another as well as their research.
I chose a summative assessment for the final assessment because students
would be able to show me how they changed from the first formative assessment to
now. Summative assessments are great for checking for understanding and to see how
students are able to verbalize or put into writing. The project is the culmination of
knowledge from the whole unit and research shows that having clear goals with
assessments helps students perform better in the long run because they can time
manage and accomplish goals.
Reflection:
If I were to teach this over again, I would give the students a less strict page
requirement or possibly a word count instead. Many of the students turned in papers
that were a half page or a full page too short. I asked for single spaced papers and
many of the students did not like that. I would change this to appease the students
stress so that they were not worrying about the format of the paper as much as they did.
It made it easier for me to grade single spaced papers because I did not have to go
through as many pages but the students found it hard to complete and they were
overwhelmed. I do not mind changing format as long as I still get the content I am
requiring from the students. I also would change the time for the presentation because
the vast majority of my students presented for 10 minutes which was twice as long as it
needed to be. This caused students to lose a half point which wasnt necessarily bad
since their content was good. This simple change would have helped alleviate some
stress from the students as well. This time change would extend the end of the unit but
that doesnt change the main objectives.

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