Anything Like Coronavirus Before?

Anything Like Coronavirus Before?

  • Secondary
  • Year 6 - 8
  • English
  • Health and Physical Education
  • Health
  • Environmental
  • Disaster resilience
  • Sustainability
  • ...

Lesson summary

Students will consider the similarities and differences in past pandemics by reading a short article from The Conversation about global pandemics. First they will complete a set of questions to understand the content of the article. Next they will explore the language of comparing and contrasting and complete activities that explore the similarities and differences between past pandemics. Finally they will write sustained paragraphs that compare and contrast past pandemics. 

This lesson is designed to be completed independently by students. 

Learning intentions:

Students will...

  • understand the language of comparing and contrasting
  • understand the facts of different pandemics.

Success criteria:

Students can...

  • use language to describe how things are different
  • use language to describe how things are similar
  • write full sentences explaining how two pandemics are both similar and different to each other.

Lesson guides and printables

Student Worksheet

Curriculum mapping

Australian curriculum content descriptions:

Year 7 English:

  • Use comprehension strategies to interpret, analyse and synthesise ideas and information, critiquing ideas and issues from a variety of textual sources (ACELY1723)
  • Edit for meaning by removing repetition, refining ideas, reordering sentences and adding or substituting words for impact (ACELY1726)
  • Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, selecting aspects of subject matter and particular language, visual, and audio features to convey information and ideas (ACELY1725)

Year 8 English:

  • Interpret the stated and implied meanings in spoken texts, and use evidence to support or challenge different perspectives (ACELY1730)
  • Apply increasing knowledge of vocabulary, text structures and language features to understand the content of texts (ACELY1733)
  • Use comprehension strategies to interpret and evaluate texts by reflecting on the validity of content and the credibility of sources, including finding evidence in the text for the author’s point of view (ACELY1734)
  • Create imaginative, informative and persuasive texts that raise issues, report events and advance opinions, using deliberate language and textual choices, and including digital elements as appropriate (ACELY1736)

General capabilities: Literacy

Resources required

  • Access to a computer for research
  • A pen

Tips for parents and carers

Students can feel a range of emotional responses when researching and discussing COVID-19.

If you need further support for students please refer to: https://coronavirus.beyondblue.org.au/

Additional info

Learning@Home resources are designed for parents and teachers to use with children in the home environment. They can be used as stand-alone activities or built into existing curriculum-aligned learning programs. Our Learning@Home series includes two types of resources. The first are fun and challenging real-world activities for all ages, the second are self-directed lessons for upper primary and secondary students. These lessons support independent learning in remote or school settings.

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