Spark

Lesson 2: “10 Things: Going Interstellar” and “These Sci-Fi Visions for Interstellar Travel Just Might Work”

50 min

California CCSS: Focus Standards

California CCSS: Supporting Standards

ELD Standards

Student Lesson

Lesson 2: “10 Things: Going Interstellar” and “These Sci-Fi Visions for Interstellar Travel Just Might Work”

Student Learning Objectives

Content

Students will consider interstellar travel and living outside of Earth by reading and analyzing two informational articles.

Language

Students will use academic vocabulary and connectors to explain relationships among scientific challenges, preservation, and future human choices.

Essential Question

How does memory help us understand who we are, and what is lost when memory disappears? How do stories help communities survive change and imagine a future worth building?

Connections to

Knowledge-Building:

Students learn about the challenges and possibilities of interstellar travel and how fictional writers imagine interstellar travel and worlds beyond Earth in their writing.

Enduring Understanding:

Stories shape how humans remember the past and imagine the future.

Future Lessons:

In Lesson 3, students will study how memory works in the brain and why stories are easier to remember than isolated facts. In Lesson 4, students will read and analyze Chapters 1–3 of The Last Cuentista.

Unit Performance Task:

The articles in this lesson provide students with ideas about how fictional writers imagine space travel and living outside of the Earth, which they can return to when drafting their own narratives for the Performance Task.

Lesson Pacing

Lesson Flow	Purpose of Learning Experience
Launch15 Minutes	Students learn about the genres of dystopian and science fiction literature while also being introduced to the unit essential questions.
Learning in Action30 Minutes	Part A: Analyzing Informational Text About Interstellar Travel (RI.8.3) Students reread and annotate two informational texts to consider the challenges of and the imagination behind interstellar travel. Learning in Action B: Considering Life Outside of Earth (RI.8.3) Students discuss the ethical choices humans would face if they had to preserve both life and culture during interstellar travel.
Look Back5 Minutes	Students synthesize today’s learning in a Quick Write that connects scientific limits to decisions about preserving stories, traditions, and knowledge.