Lesson Plan

Day: M T W T F Date: 18/02/2016

Learning Area: HASS

Time: Period 2

Year: 9

Topic: Impact of food production on biomes

Curriculum content description: (from ACARA)

Human alterations of biomes to produce food, industrial materials and fibres, and the use of
systems thinking to analyse the environment effects of these alterations (ACHGK061)

Students prior knowledge and experience:

Students know what biomes are and the kinds of biomes found around the world. They have
also learnt about food production and productivity.

Learning purpose:
Investigation ways that the production of food and fibre has altered some biomes, for example,
through vegetation clearance, drainage, terracing and irrigation

Learning objectives:

Evaluation:

On completion of this lesson, students will be

able to:

Students will produce a summary defining and

explain the environmental impact of one of
the following: the use of clearing, irrigation
and agrochemicals.

Explain how clearing, irrigation and

agrochemicals are used in food production
and how this has altered biomes

Preparation and Resources:

Whiteboard markers to put the lesson outcome on the board
I will have a copy of the textbook.
Students will bring a textbook as well as an electronic device that they use to research.

Catering for diversity

There is a student in the class with ADD. I will need to be effective in managing his behaviour.
There is a wide range of skills and abilities in this class. The top students will finish activities
well before other students. I will need to ensure that they have other activities to move onto
when they are ready.

Timing: Learning Experiences:

5 mins

15 mins

Have the class line up outside.

When the students have lined up and are quiet bring them into the room
and have them stand behind their desk.
Say good morning and reintroduce myself to the class. Explain that I am a
pre-service teacher and I will be taking their lessons today.
Instruct students to open to page 56 in their textbooks.

Explain to the students that they will be doing Paired Reading. Students
will pair up and take turns reading the text to each other. The student who is
not reading will summaries the passage and both will take notes based on
their summaries.
Using paired Reading students will read pages 56 59, Human alterations
to biomes and take notes on the text
When most students have completed the task I will bring get their attention
by standing at the front of the room and say Year 9s, eyes up front please
I will pose questions to the class to test their understanding of the text.

20 mins

13 mins

2 mins

Those who finish the first reading earlier than the rest of the class will do
paired reading again. They will read Threatened Ecosystem &
Environmental Management on page 194
I will ask the pairs who got to the second reading to summaries the text for
the class.
Number students 1 3. I will number students based on where they sit in
class.
According to their number, students will research (1) the impacts of
irrigation, (2) clearing and (3) use of agrochemicals and how they affect
biomes.
I will explain to the class that they are to find out what the process of their
field is and how it impacts the environment in both positive and negative
ways.
Allow the students to start researching. I will move around the classroom
ensuring all students understand what is expected of them.
I will get the classes attention by standing at the front of the room and again
saying Year 9s, eyes up front please.
I will set them the task of writing a brief summary of their research that they
will share with their peers in the next lesson. They will complete this task in
the last ten minutes of class

Ask students to tidy their desks.

Tell students to leave their gear as they will be returning to this class in
period 3.
Ask students to stand behind their desk
Dismiss students to recess

Lesson Evaluation:
While I had observed this class working before this was the first lesson that I had taught them
and it took a while for students to begin engaging with me. Even by the end of the second
lesson there was a large portion of the class who remained silent when I encouraged them to
participate in a class discussion. The teacher did tell me that she previously had problems with
these students simply refusing to do their work. It was difficult trying to figure out if they did
not understand the task or if they were simply refusing to participate out of laziness.
The paired reading was a good and different way to have the students work through the text.
The students were taking turns reading to their partners but I often had to remind the listening
student to take notes and summarise the passage. As expected there were some students who
got through the first reading much faster than other students and so it was a good idea to set
an additional reading for them to complete that complemented what they had just learnt.
Some of the students came up with good information from their research. Many students had
very little research completed as they took a long time to complete the paired reading and they
researched very slowly. I will provide a bit of time next lesson for these students to write their
summaries. If I had more time with this class I would need to work out why these students
produced work at a low standard.
I would structure a lesson like this again, using paired reading and a research activity. Many
students in this class seemed unmotivated to complete their work. The vast range of abilities
and motivation demonstrated by students in this class was a challenge. The top performing
students would finish an activity long before others. I ran the risk of spending a lot of time on
those struggling and ignoring those who could move onto a harder task, but I believe I found a
good balance between the two.