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Disease
and Epidemics -
Language Arts Lessons
|
 In
the language arts lessons of the "Diseases and Epidemics" unit,
students will explore how disease and epidemics have the potential
to shape communities
and so impact the culture and specifically the literature of the
time. Students will investigate how trade routes accelerated the
movement of goods, people, ideas, culture, and consequently, disease.
They will read how literature has chronicled the human experience
of disease. They will study how choice of words and use of language
can significantly impact the effectiveness of health communication.
These lessons are designed to begin after the science lessons,
which prepare students for a basic understanding of the infectious
process. Students will explore four big ideas in this unit and
be able to answer the following questions that address those big
ideas:
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Each big idea
is addressed by a learning
cycle. At the completion of each big idea’s learning
cycle students should be able to answer the corresponding question.
At the end of the unit, the students will be able to apply their
new scientific understanding to the Major
Project where they provide a public service message that
is checked in advance by local public health officials for accuracy.
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Big
Idea
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Disease
and epidemics have the potential to shape communities
and so impact the culture and specifically the literature
of the time.
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Driving
Question
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How
has the experience of living with a disease or within a
community threatened by a disease shaped the emotional/spiritual
and artistic /literary life of the people involved? |
Learning
Cycle
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Lesson
Title & Description
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Objective
Students will:
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Class
period & week
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Engage
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What
Has Happened Here?
Students
will read a passage from Geraldine Brooks’s
novel Year of Wonders in which the devastating effects of
the plague on an English village are described. |
Read
and generate clarifying questions so that they can decipher
the underlying cause of a community’s state as
described in Geraldine Brooks’s novel ‘A
Year of Wonder’.
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Explore
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"Ode
to a Nightingale"
Students will read and analyze this poem to see what poetic devices Keats
employs to help him deal with the looming specter of death at an early
age from tuberculosis. |
1. Analyze
the author’s use of figurative language, including
simile, metaphor, personification, hyperbole, symbolism,
allusion, and imagery in a literary selection.
2.
Compare (and contrast) the illustration of the same theme
in two different literary genres, using their structural
features as the basis for comparison.
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Explain
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Day
by Day
Students will read selected passages from the diary of Samuel Pepys who
lived in London in the 1660’s during the bubonic plague’s devastation. |
1. Determine
how the meaning of the text is affected by the writer’s
word choice.
2.
Connect information and events in text to experience and
to related text and sources.
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Apply
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Today’s
Epidemic
In this lesson they will examine the pandemic of our time and
read poetry written by some of the youngest victims of this
scourge. |
Identify
how an author’s choice of words and imagery sets the
tone and advances the work’s theme. |
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--Top--
Big
Idea
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Trade
routes accelerated the movement of goods, people, ideas,
culture, and consequently, disease.
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Driving
Question
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How
extensive was trade in the Middle Ages and therefore, how
significantly in both positive (access to goods) and negatively
(exposure to disease) did it affect the lives of people
all over Europe, Asia, and Africa? |
Learning
Cycle
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Lesson
Title & Description
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Objective
Students will:
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Class
period & week
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The
Importance of Trade
A look at where the items of everyday life come from and how they get to us |
Students will look at the clothing, food, furniture, luxury
items, and vehicles which they use and discover where these
items originated and how they were shipped
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Explore
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Tracing
the Shared Path of Disease and Trade in the Medieval World
What was traded in the Medieval world, who received it,
and by which route |
Using
multiple sources of visual and written information students
will trace the path goods took in transit and diseases
took in transversing the globe
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Explain
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Not
Just One Vector
What goods and which diseases wealthy families in various
cities had access to via the trade routes |
Using multiple sources of visual and written information
students will examine in greater depth the connections between
and complexity of how diseases transversed the globe using
the trade routes
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Week
5
3 days
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| Students will use multiple visual and written
sources of information to reconstruct the range of exotic goods
and diseases a wealthy family in various locations would encounter
in the Medieval world |
Apply
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Science
Happens in a Social Context
How does a scientist view disease and how does a historian see its impact on
society |
Make connections between information learned about the nature
of disease in science and history classes with an emphasis
on how diseases spread |
Week
5
2 days
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--Top--
Big
Idea
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Disease
has impacted every culture throughout history. While
the fragility of human nature is universal, the response
or impact on differing cultures may vary dramatically.
This is reflected in literature that has chronicled the
human experience of disease.
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Driving
Question
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How
is literature used to reflect upon the impact of disease? |
Learning
Cycle
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Lesson
Title & Description
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Objective
Students will:
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Class
period & week
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Engage
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Disease
and Culture through Literary Time
Review the impact that disease has had on various cultures
and times. |
Read
a piece of literature from a specific era, which addresses
disease, and then identify pieces of information within
the literature for examples of the impact of disease
on culture and literature.
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Explore
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Time
to Read
Students will read the book of their choice noting significant information
about the effects of a certain disease on the community described in the
literature. |
Identify
how the literary elements of theme, point of view, characterization,
setting, and plot illustrate the effects of a certain
disease on a community.
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Explain
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Literary
Circles
Students will share with others in class the plot of their
books and the ways in which the disease in the stories affected
society in a variety of ways. |
Connect
information learned in history and science classes with
the events described in the books that they read;
Make a clear and informative presentation to the class
explaining how disease affected the community described
in the books that were read.
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|
Apply
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Book
Review
Students will write a five paragraph theme that explains how
the novel which they read in this unit effectively utilized
various literary elements to portray the impact of a disease |
Write
a clear and informative paper explaining how disease affected
the community described in the books that were read. |
Week
7
2-3 days
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--Top--
Big
Idea
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A
crucial part of combating diseases today is communicating
accurate information. Choice of words and use of language
significantly impact how effective this communication
is.
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Driving
Question
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How
does one construct a compelling public service message? |
Learning
Cycle
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Lesson
Title & Description
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Objective
Students will:
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Class
period & week
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Engage
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Reaching
Your Audience
After viewing a public service message students will come up with a list
of questions and criteria that will help them tailor a message to a specific
population. |
1. Analyze
a public service message to determine if it communicates
ideas effectively;
2.
Determine the intended audience of a public service message.
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Explore
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What
Messages are Out There?
Students will analyze public service announcements
to identify how a message can be communicated to an intended audience effectively.
Word choice, key phrases, and imagery will be examined as vehicles of persuasion. |
1. Analyze
a public service message to determine if it persuasively
communicates ideas;
2.
Identify words, phrases, and images that are key to delivering
the message;
3.
Determine the intended audience of a public service message.
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Explain
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The
Facts and the Figures
Students will gather information with
which to create a public service message in science and social
studies as the
quarter’s final project. |
1. Gather
information on a focused topic dealing with a public
health issue;
2.
Accurately and thoroughly document where each piece of
information was found.
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Apply
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A Little
Reminder to Take with You
Students will make a bookmark with information about a public health issue
that will become part of a larger public health service message. |
Use information
already gathered on a specific public health issue to create
a public service message in the form of a bookmark |
Week
10
3 days
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--Top--
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