Lesson study 15 – Page 3

September 19, 2015September 22, 2015

Mad Scientist 101: Introducing The Scientific Method to 5th Graders

Overview:
The following lesson plan introduces the scientific method to 5th graders for the first time. I took the approach asking the kids, “who wants to be a doctor, nurse, teacher, scientist, astronaut” etc? This then led to a discussion about challenges we all face in life, no matter what career field or background we come from. All these career fields, and a host of others, use problem solving skills, research, and testing; also known as the Scientific Method to help them solve every day challenges. Included are the 2 handouts I used in bringing this lesson to life.

Candidate: John Buckley Catholic School, Portland, OR
Class/Topic: Science: Introducing the Scientific Method Time: 1:20-2:00
Grade Level: 5th Grade Date: 9/18/2015

Content:
Goal:
A. This central focus of the learning segment is introduce students to the Scientific Method and its’ key areas.
B. The essential skills and/or knowledge to be developed in the learning segment are to identify steps in the Scientific Method and apply it in a scenario.

National and State Standards:
Scientific Inquiry 5.3 ODE
5.3S.1 ODE
5.3S.2 ODE

Objective:
-SWBAT:
-Identify and discuss key aspects of the Scientific Method today (5.3 ODE)
-Explore key vocabulary words related to the Scientific Method.
-Write data results related to their in-class experiment scenario. (5.3S.2 ODE)

-Analyze data and results in a group setting and discussion. (5.3S.1 ODE)

Connections:
A. Requisite skills(s) needed to develop this strategy are.
B. This lesson builds on previous lesson
C. Students make connections between skills by
D. This lesson scaffolds student learning toward the next lesson in the learning segment by

Literacy Integration:
A. The language function addressed in the segment as a whole is
B. Key Concepts/ Vocabulary terms are: hypothesis, experiment, data, and conclusion
C. Other Academic Language that is important in the entire segment is

Evaluation
Formal/Informal Assessment:
Informal Assessment: Ask kids what they think Scientific Method is?
-(Have student scribe write answers on board)

Modifications/Accommodations/Differentiation: Have students work in pairs to assist those with poor reading skills/language comprehension. Will also help build collaboration and teamwork among students in a scientific setting.

Instructional Resources and Materials:
1. Scientific Method Worksheet,
2. Mike’s Bad Breath Worksheet
3. Use of Overhead for Scientific Method Worksheet

Process
Instructional Strategies:
Pre-assessment:
-Opening Prayer
-Introduce Vocabulary words: hypothesis, experiment, data, and conclusion. Have new scribe write vocabulary on board and record the students’ guesses. Give sticky note with vocabulary words to scribe.
-Have student hand out Steps of the Scientific Method Worksheet.
-Compare their vocabulary guesses to the worksheet/discuss differences and similarities. Have scribe update definition on board as needed.

1:30-1:50
-Have students pair up with a neighbor
-Have student hand out Mike’s Bad Breath worksheet
-Read and Discuss Mike’s Bad Breath Scenario
-Have student pairs complete the worksheets. Walk around classroom and be available for questions and guidance.

1:50-2:00 PM
-Discuss worksheet, answer any student questions
-Review key aspects of Scientific Method in question/answer and funny scenario/role play
-Have students put worksheets away and clean their area

Product
Next Step:
SWBAT discuss key aspects of the Scientific Method and apply the basic principles in small groups while working through worksheet experiment.

Reflection: I did teach this lesson 2 weeks ago and it went over very well. Having lots of interaction as far as assessment vocabulary words to measure where the kids were on the subject matter, and also having a great deal of questions and answers and learning feedback helped out tremendously. Both worksheets were effective though next time I teach the lesson I would spend more time developing hypothesis with the kids and coming up with examples on the board as a class. Overall, two thumbs up and I would teach it again.

Mike’s Bad Breath Worksheet Link

Image Credit: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2001699130/

September 19, 2015September 22, 2015

Aspects of Civilization

Class background: My class is a 6th Grade Language Arts and Social Studies block in the morning. The goals for my CT and myself are to arm these students with the skills to excel in the remaining years of Middle School and eventually High School.

Content: The goal of the lesson is that students will be able to identify and describe the main characteristics of civilizations, in general, as identified in the History Alive! Text (chp.5). These characteristics are a stable food supply, social structure, system of government, religious system, the arts, technological advances and writing.

Process: This activity will occur over 2 hour class periods.

Class 1
- Go over the instructions and expectations of the lesson with the students 20 min.
  - Model behavior and quality standards.
- Break students into the groups that they were in for the Sumerian City-States activity. 1.5 min.
  - In their Groups Students will:
    - Determine which member of the group is doing which characteristic of civilization from those above
    - Brainstorm amenities
    - Connect amenities to their chosen aspect of civilization
  - Brainstorming within these groups will need to be recorded within their Social Studies Comp. Books. 45 min.
- Class 2
  - Remind Students about the Instructions and expectations for this assignment. 5 min.
  - Students will write a paragraph in their Social Studies comp. book about the amenity they created in the previous period.
  - Once done will either finish up any unfinished block work or read their silent reading book. 55 min.

Product: The product from this activity will be the notes from the Brainstorming session and the paragraph, both of which will be in their social studies comp book.

Evaluation: Students before they turn in their work will be expected to self-evaluate their performance in the group activity and the content of their writing on the same rubric that I will use to grade them.

The lesson will be out of 30 points:
2 sections of 5 points each for focus and participation in the brainstorming session
2 sections of 10 points each for the notes and paragraph.
The notes can be taken in any method that they chose as long as they take notes that are uniform in formatting and concise.
The paragraph will be graded for English conventions, and how well the chosen aspect of civilization is integrated into their city amenity.

What kinds of thinking will students need to do to participate in the lesson?

Students will have to evaluate the relevancy of the many pieces that make up civilization to first their main aspect and once again to relate their specific amenity to that aspect. the brainstorming session is designed to facilitate the evaluating process, and the paragraph to solidify the evaluations made.

To what extent do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components?

Students have the choice of the aspect of Civilization they want to go deeper into and then once they have chosen their aspect they have the choice of what amenity they want to relate to that aspect. I will have a list of sample amenities for students that are having problems deciding what to do.

Reflection:

My CT and I have similar understandings on how the classroom should work. The largest job that we have in the class is providing a solid foundation for the students as they transition from 6th grade to 7th and beyond. In doing this we place a heavy emphasis on group thinking paired with individual reading or writing so that they feel comfortable helping each other while knowing that if they make their group work time socialization time we can easily transition into silent work time that allows for more 1 to 1 help between the student and us.

I feel like the approach that we take in the Language Arts and Social Studies block is one of the better ways to approach teaching the humanities and I wish that I had a class like this back when I was in school. I feel like the best part of it is how in Language Arts we focus on a primary source that comes from the place and time period that we are in the History Alive! text making the entire block a time to explore a time period through different lenses. Seeing the students want to read the Epic of Gilgamesh makes me optimistic about the future integration of the Language Arts and Social Studies class.

In Social Studies the approach is to have them take a certain type of notes for their social studies comp book, give them 2 or more days in class to complete them, and then we have an group work activity that summarizes the information that is in the text. I like this because it allows them to develop both their group work and note taking skills with frequent feedback and support from us.

Image Credit:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, online database: entry 30008819

Photographer: Marie-Lan Nguyen (2011)

September 19, 2015September 20, 2015

First Encounter To Story Problems

young's creek school Content— 3^rd grade students will go over strategies for reading, breaking down, and solving story problems. These story problems deal with basic addition and subtraction operation that the students will be required to know before attempting the story problems. This lesson is based on Building Bridges Session 19 with activity worksheets 1.3 and 1.4 which have two subtraction and addition story problems with embedded work space.

Lesson major elements:

Practice with using the QIS strategy to solve story problems.
Using full sentences to explain answer.
Showing full work to support students solution to answer.

Process – This lesson is the sixth in sequence of the bridges in mathematics. We will use the QIS strategy to decipher story problem and break them down to what is the question, information, and solution. This lesson includes multiple activities that allow students to practice story problem strategies. Students will lead observation base conversation in defending their claims. There is only one current answer for the problems, but the students will be allowed to use any method that they believe is necessary to solve the problem. Peer sharing allows students to bounce ideas off of each other and check their solution. This lesson require critical thinking in deciphering the information given in the problem and translating that into mathematical equations. This lesson will be used as a bridge between basic addition and subtraction equation to translating information gather into graphs.

Product – Student will work through work sheets 1.3 and 1.4 to produce four correct answers. 1.3 deals with two addition story problems, and 1.4 has two subtraction story problems.

“Billy has 15 pencils. His mother took away 7 pencils, and give them to his brother. How many pencils does Billy have now?”

“Sarah had 14 marbles. She got 4 more marbles from Patrick, and 8 more marbles from Sean. How man marbles does Sarah have now?”

Evaluation — Students will be evaluated based on several different assessments. Informally they will be evaluated based on my observations, and how well they do with the practice problem that the class will work on together. Formatively they will be assessed by the thumbs up thumbs down method when going over the worksheets together as a class. I will ask the students to put thumbs up if they understand how to solve the story problem. I will ask thumbs down if they are still confused. Also students will formatively be assessed when they peer share. Summative assessment will be the worksheets that students turn in.

What kind of thinking will students need to do to participate in the lesson? Students will need to do critical thinking in order to solve addition and subtraction story problems. Students will also need to use reading and writing skills to articulate their answers. Students will also use observational thinking/strategies.

To what extend do students have options or choices regarding these lesson components? The only option students will have is to take a challenge question. The lesson is based off of bought curriculum with required steps. I do create optional challenge questions for my students who are TAG. These questions are normally made up on the spot with me judging the ability of my students at the time to see if they can handle challenging problems. Students do have the choice in how they interrupt the data, what they pull out as relevant to the question, and what way they want to represent the solution/work. These question only have one current answer but can be solved by using several different mathematical operations. Some students might choose to solve the problems with pictures, equations, charts, etc…

Reflection:

I had some issues when creating this lesson plan. I want to go over story problems in more detail than is possible in just one day; however, the curriculum has a set schedule, and the calendar must be followed. It is frustrating that something as big as how to decipher story problems is only given one day.

After watching my CT over the past couple of weeks, I am getting a better idea of how to give the students the knowledge that they need in order to solve problems. My CT does a QIS strategy in solving story problems. I have talked to him about going over story problems in more detail, but again there is no time. Regardless he has given me free reign in how I want to teach my math lesson, and I have taken this opportunity to figure out my teaching methods. I am having some trouble getting my student’s attention and keeping their attention consistently. I have tried several different methods but none are working.

I dislike the curriculum that the school is using. There is no room for changing anything in the lesson, and the way they want us to teach the math is a complete waste of time. The students are not getting any of the hard basic concepts of the math, for example they do not know how to borrow to solve double digit numbers. I want to take a step back and show my students the foundations that they will need to expand their mathematical knowledge.

Image credit: Young’s Creek School in Orange County [online image]. 1924.

Retrieved September 18, 2015 from http://www.forethhistory.org/ASPNET/Publications/region/9/hoosier/sec1c.htm

September 19, 2015September 20, 2015

Power of Vision… Beyond 20/20

“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.” – Dalai Lama

We start each of our 25 minute workshops with a quote that relates to the topic of the week and, for my first life/success skills workshop, we’re focusing on vision. However, before I delve into the nuts and bolts with what I plan on doing with my young folk, let me paint a picture for you: about the program I’m a part of; the school I’m placed in; a brief snap shot of the youth I’m working with; and the structure of the workshops I’m responsible for facilitating.

I’m in a brand new program started this year at the University of Portland called the Open School MAT Residency Program. It is a two year program that is seeking to change the way teachers/educators are trained to operate within schools by partnering students with the Open School, a private alternative school in East Portland, to get grounded in their program model (Academics + Equity + Advocacy = Success) while simultaneously going through UP’s Equity Certificate program. The first year of the program I am working closely with the Open School to focus in on my ability to serve as a youth advocate and will transition into full time student teaching during the second year of the residency.

The Open School is unlike any school I’ve ever been a part of. The staff is highly dedicated, persistent, committed, passionate and are continuously positioning themselves as learners to motivate themselves to always improve and I’m definitely inspired being in their presence. The Open spends a great amount of energy building a culture of success within a population of young people that have often been told that they’ll be anything BUT successful. It’s a tough battle, one that takes a lot of heart and consistency and I’m excited to be here doing this work because it is urgent.

The youth we serve are mostly students of color, low-income students and students who have been identified as being at-risk of dropping out of high school. We recruit these students into our private alternative school when kids are transitioning from 6th-7th grade; connect them with an advocate who works with a group of 10-15 youth and their parents; and begin the initial work of meeting each student where they’re at to ensure they’re able to achieve success within our community.

Within the school, my role this year is to primarily get some training and experience around their advocacy model (e.g. learning how restorative justice looks within a school; practicing the ability to empower students with choice, etc.) and additionally I am responsible for, as I mentioned, twice weekly 25 minute skills based workshops. Below is an overview of my plan.

Content: We will go over the concept of vision and how we can use a vision for ourselves and our future as a tool to help us shape our goals and inform the decisions we make in the now: like a sculptor who envisions her piece before she takes off her first piece of marble; or an athlete who envisions themselves holding the trophy that is the pinnacle of their sport.

Process: Students will have a brief discussion on a quote by the Dalai Lama to begin the workshop (see quote above for reference); students will then participate in an experiential activity to witness for themselves the power of vision (see end of blog for instructions); next, students will converse with partners to talk about what they experienced during the activity and what they think that means about vision; finally, students will be given time to listen to some soft music while crafting a vision for themselves.

Product: Students will produce dialogue on what they think vision could mean and their experiences of vision in addition to vision “leaves” they will be creating at the end of the workshop that represent the visions they have for themselves that will be added to a vision tree. Choice is extremely important in the creation of the leaves because youth have the power to decide what shape their vision can take, so long as it can be easily understood by others. That means students can write a sentence on their leaf, draw a picture, write a poem, create a bullet point list, or any other unique manifestation of this activity so long as it is easily comprehended by those who will see it.

Evaluation: The quality of conversation and student engagement is one way the activity will be evaluated and the leaves each students produce can be evaluated to ensure they participated.

There you have my plan for my 25 minute workshop (which is WAY too short to do this conversation justice honestly) AND I am going to make it work. Check out the step by step instructions for the experiential activity below. Thanks for reading!

Vision Exercise:

Instruct each student to find some personal space around the room standing up. They should be able to easily move their arms around without touching anyone or anything.
Inform students that we are going to conduct an experiment to determine how far each individual can turn themselves around without moving their feet.
Have students firmly plant their feet approximately shoulder width apart. Next, have them point their arm and index finger straight out, directly in front of them. Then have each student turn their arm/finger as far around as possible (if they’re pointing with their right finger, they should be moving their arm to the right).
Tell each student to identify a visual marker to remember where their finger has landed when they feel like they’ve gone as far as they possibly can.
Have students recenter themselves while still standing in their spot. Have the room get quiet, and instruct students to close their eyes. With their eyes closed, ask each student to envision the spot in the room where their finger landed and then encourage them to envision themselves going BEYOND where they landed the first time. Whether it’s a few inches or a foot doesn’t matter, just go BEYOND where they stopped originally and pick a new spot to aim for.
Once each student appears ready, have them stretch as far as they can again and see how many people go further this time! In my past experiences facilitating this activity, easily 95% of participants go beyond their original end point with the help of a vision and the other 5% at least get back to where they originally landed.
Ask some questions about what students noticed, what do they think helped them go further, could this be applied to other areas of their life, etc.
Enjoy 🙂

Image Credit:
Title: Teacher and girl modeling clay
Contributor Names: Fenn, Albert, photographer
Created / Published1942 July.
Library of Congress: LC-USW3- 005976-E [P&P]