PANDEMIC

1. PANDEMIC

2. Brainstorming Questions • In your group, discuss the following questions: • How dangerous is the flu? • How do viruses take advantage of various opportunities to mutate and spread? • How do people often react in the face of a pandemic? • What steps can we take to reduce the chance of a pandemic? • How might current food production practices contribute to the rise of new and antibiotic/antiviral resistant diseases?

3. “What’s in a Name?”: Paired Reading • Silently, read the diagram. • It’s complicated, so read it slowly and thoroughly. • Now, select a partner at your table. • Read through the charts a bit more closely. • Start with the diagram that begins in the upper right with the number 1 under the heading “The Flu Enters the Body.”

4. Directions for Paired Reading • Take turns reading the numbered steps of this diagram aloud. • Partner #1 reads the text beside number 1 aloud. • Partner #2 explains the information. • Partner #1 adds any additional information. • Partner #2 reads the text beside number 2 aloud. • Repeat the above directions for each numbered heading. • When you’re finished with the numbered diagrams, select something else from the chart to discuss until we are ready to move on.

5. Directions: Jigsaw Activity • Group A = “Swine Flu: Virus’ Invasion Sets Off Battle Inside the Body” • Group B = “The Masque of the Red Death” (Abridged) • Group C = “The Path of a Pandemic” • Group D = “The Great Pandemic 1918-1919” • Group E = “Expediting Production of a Vaccine”

6. Directions: Home Group • Each “home group” will read the same article. After you read the article, please answer the following questions: • What are three passages that are surprising or interesting? • What information connects back to the diagram? • In your notebooks, please draw a picture/diagram that captures the important information in your article.

7. Directions: Expert Group • Now, you will join an “expert group.” • You will now congregate with others who have the same number written in the top right hand corner of your article. • Each “expert” must give the group the following information about the article: • Summary of article • Answers to questions answered in a “home group” • Each “expert” should be taking notes on the other articles. • Be sure to share the picture you illustrated as well. • Once all “experts” have presented, discuss the articles in relationship to “pandemic” and the diagram we previously viewed. • Since you have all of the articles in front of you, please annotate and jot notes on them as each “expert” discusses his/her article.

8. Home Group • Discuss the other 4 articles in relationship to yours. • What similarities/differences did you find? • Please answer these questions as a group: • How dangerous is the flu? • How do viruses take advantage of various opportunities to mutate and spread? • How do people often react in the face of a pandemic? • What steps can we take to reduce the chance of a pandemic? • How might current food production practices contribute to the rise of new and antibiotic/antiviral resistant diseases?

9. At your table… • Read “Swine Flu: Virus’ Invasion Sets Off Battle Inside the Body” • Annotate your article • * = anything important • ? = anything that raises a question • % = anything that is connected to another idea we’ve discussed • Share your annotations with your group members.

10. Tableaux Assignment • Pick out one important piece of information you learned from the diagram and article. • Write the information as an action-filled caption on the index card I gave to the group. • Think how it might be described if it were a balloon caption in a superhero comic book. • Example: A single sneeze spreads billions of viruses. • Silent reading • Each group will read their caption aloud. The rest of the class will remain silent while this occurs. • What is one word that stands out to your group? • Write it on the back of the index card.