Literacy Strategies for Biology: Plasma Membrane

Constructed Response Questions & Rubrics,

with Graphic Organizers and Word Wall

Are you feeling overwhelmed by new Literacy Initiatives? I’m sure we all agree that incorporating more writing and reading in the Biology classroom is a worthy goal. However, it takes a lot of time to design standards-based questions, develop scoring rubrics and then read and grade each response, especially when you have 140 or more students!

Science Island is here to help! I have developed sets of Constructed Response Questions – what we used to call short answer or short answer essay questions – that are aligned to NGSS and CCSS for Literacy and are easily assessed with a clear, concise 3-point rubric. I have also included two other research-based literacy strategies that will contribute to the development of a deep foundation of factual knowledge and help students organize that knowledge in ways that facilitate application in their reading and writing in the science classroom.

This Literacy Strategies product includes four files:

1) Read This First: Includes a product overview, suggestions on using constructed response questions, graphic organizers, and a word wall in your classroom, image credits, and contact information.

2) 5 Constructed Response Questions aligned to NGSS High School Life Science Standards and CCSS ELA Reading and Writing Standards for grades 9 & 10 with a Teacher’s Guide and 3-point Scoring Rubric for each question.

3) 5 Graphic Organizers to stimulate prior knowledge, help students make text connections and understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework.

4) Word Wall Cards with key terms, root words, prefixes and suffixes to improve science vocabulary in reading, writing, and speaking.

Major Topics Covered:

• structure and function of the plasma membrane

• passive and active transport

• simple diffusion

• equilibrium

• facilitated diffusion

• osmosis

• tonicity

• endocytosis and exocytosis

Take a look at the PREVIEW for more details.

You might also like my other Literacy Strategies for Biology product: Literacy Strategies for Biology: Cells and Organelles

Literacy Strategies for Biology: Plasma Membrane complements my other Cells products:

Cells PowerPoint and Notes

Cells Task Cards

Want more Graphic Organizers that you can customize for your students? Try these: Graphic Organizers

And, here are a couple of fun products that will improve your students’ vocabulary:

Phobias Vocabulary Activity

Ologies Vocabulary Activity

Happy Teaching!

Carla Brooks

Science Island