Reading Apprenticeship Inspired Lesson
Reading Apprenticeship Inspired Lesson
- develop graphical analysis skills
- practice articulating observations
- formulate questions and hypotheses
- apply reading strategies
The ocean is an important sink for carbon dioxide. Students will examine the relationship between the ocean and the atmosphere in regulating Earth's climate over varying time scales.
Students will be invited to integrate prior interdisciplinary knowledge as it relates to the carbon cycle and the role of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They will generate their own questions to guide inquiry and learning. Metacognitive practices from the Reading Apprenticeship Framework will include Think Aloud and Think-Pair-Share.
This lesson will take place about mid-semester after students have studied the chemical and physical properties of water and been introduced to the structure and composition of the atmosphere. It follows the introduction of the Greenhouse Effect as a segue to talk about the causes and consequences of global climate change.
Students will have had the chance to compile various reading strategies to problem-solve texts, graphs, figures, and maps. They will also be familiar with several metacognitive routines, including: Think Aloud, Talk-to-the-Text, Think-Pair-Share, Evidence-Interpretation Logs, Gots/Needs Reflections, and KWL Logs. They will also have been introduced to sentence frames that can help support their metacognition.
Both informal and formal assessments are used to evaluate students' understanding and the effectiveness of this lesson, including:
- Whole-class discussion
- F2F class: following Think-Pair-Share, students are invited to send a member of their discussion board to write their ideas, observations, and/or questions on the board.
- Remote synchronous class: following Think-Pair-Share, students are invited to contribute to the chat on the cue of 3-2-1-Go! to ensure broad participation.
- Asynchronous class: students are invited to participate in a discussion board
- Short check-point quiz
- Written metacognitive log
- Group project to build a climate concept map
This lesson supports metacognition by inviting students to integrate prior knowledge to build a deeper understanding of the interactions between ocean and atmosphere in regulating Earth's climate. Prior knowledge include:
- biological processes of photosynthesis and respiration
- the relationship between gas solubility and temperature
- bicarbonate buffer system
- properties of water
- marine sediments
Through this lesson students will reflect on the sources of atmospheric carbon dioxide and the ways that the ocean acts as a sink to store this carbon at different time scales.
This lesson was developed for synchronous (remote or F2F) instruction. A portion of it has also been adapted for asynchronous instruction.
It follows the completion of an assigned reading that asks students to complete a KWL Log. The lesson begins with an introduction to the greenhouse effect that involves the analysis of several graphs as part of our metacognitive practice in small groups and as a whole class. Students will be invited to formulate questions and hypotheses to guide their learning.
A GoogleSlide deck provides an outline to key aspects of the lesson including link to assigned readings, prompts for written reflections, graph, figures, and animations.
OER TEXT: Introduction to Oceanography by Paul Webb
Chapter 8 of this text provides an an excellent introduction to Oceans and Climate. Sec. 8.5 in particular supports the concepts students will explore in this lesson.
WEBCOMIC: xkcd - A Timeline of Earth's Average Temperature
This infographic illustrated by Randall Monroe gives students a chance to visualize the rate of temperature change over the past 20,000 years of history within the context of major milestones in human civilization. It is both light-hearted and thought-provoking and provides the opportunity to discuss the difference between actual temperature measurements and temperature reconstruction using s variety of proxies.
NOAA ANIMATION: Pumphandle 2014: History of atmospheric carbon dioxide (3:44)
This video shows how atmospheric carbon dioxide levels fluctuate over different time scales - seasonally and across centuries. The lesson uses this animation to invite students to brainstorm hypotheses about carbon sources and sinks.
