Summary
Students will learn about how these common substances affect sleep cycles and overall restfulness. Through targeted activities, they will enhance their understanding of scientific explanations and improve their ability to discuss health-related topics, specifically focusing on expressing cause and effect relationships.
Activities
Students begin with a warm-up discussion about their sleep habits and perceptions of caffeine, setting the stage for the lesson's topic and activating prior knowledge.
They watch a video about caffeine and alcohol's effects on sleep, completing comprehension tasks such as identifying which substance matches given descriptions and detailing specific impacts in a table.
Students practice new vocabulary related to stimulants, sleep, and bodily processes (e.g., stimulant, sedative, half-life) and learn to use grammatical structures for expressing cause and effect.
The lesson culminates in a group discussion, encouraging students to reflect on the video's content, discuss potential lifestyle changes based on 'informed choices', and consider other factors affecting sleep.
Vocabulary focus
The vocabulary focus includes terms crucial for discussing health and substances. Key words are stimulant (a substance making you feel more awake), sedative (a substance making you feel relaxed and sleepy), half-life (the time it takes for half of a substance to leave your body), fragment (to break something into small pieces, in this context, sleep), and restorative (making you feel healthy and full of energy again).
Students practice these through matching and context-based exercises.
Grammar focus
The grammar focus is on expressing cause and effect relationships, essential for scientific explanations.
Students learn to use advanced linking phrases such as "Consequently," "As a result," and the structure "thereby + verb-ing."
They practice these by combining sentences and completing prompts, enhancing their ability to construct coherent arguments and explanations regarding health topics.
Class files
Access to lesson plan PDF files is restricted to paying subscribers of Lessonpills.