Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Social Constructivism Lesson Plan

Objective: Students will be given 6 different colors of paper and will make fraction strips of paper representing whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8 in 15 minutes.

This lesson is an example of a Cognitive Apprenticeship

Hook:

The students will walk into the room and find a tray of brownies at the front of the classroom. They will wonder what they are for and be very curious. Once everyone has taken their seats explain to them that you are going to break them into different pieces to represent fractions of the whole. Show the students how you would break them in half. As you are showing them, be sure to speak out loud and explain what you are doing and why. Once the brownies have been cut, let each student have a fraction of the brownie. (Modeling: the first step in cognitive apprenticeship)

Instruction:

At the end of this activity, students will have explored their fraction strips and will understand what a numerator and denomenator of a fraction represents. They will also see the relationship between whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. They will also understand that the larger the denominator, the more parts the whole has been broken into.

  1. First students will be given 6 sheets of different colored paper. Tell them that these pieces are whole pieces of paper. Model for them how to write whole on their piece of paper. Have them write whole on one of the papers.
  2. Next, show the students how to cut one of the pieces in half and write 1/2 on both pieces of paper. As you are doing each step, be sure to model for the children. After you have showed them, talk them through doing their own. Be sure to remind those that may be struggling. 
  3. Do these same steps with each piece of paper. (make strips that are 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8)
  4. As they cut the pieces of paper, tell them to talk themselves through each step. Also, remind them to write the fractions on the paper. After watching the teacher model, and coach them through the steps, they should be able to use self talk and talk their way through the steps. Eventually they will be able to do it with inner speech. (Scaffolding: step 3)
  5. After all of the pieces of paper are cut, guide them by asking them questions about each piece of paper? Why are the pieces of paper with the largest number on the bottom, smaller than the rest? As you are asking each question have them articulate their knowledge and put it into their own words. (Articulate: Step 4)
  6. After students have explored their strips of paper by them selves, have them write down why they think the largest number on the bottom is the smallest piece of paper. (Reflect: step 5) 
  7. At the end of the discussion all of the students will understand that the bigger the number on the bottom, the more parts the whole has been broken into. Ask them to explore new ways to apply what they are learning. Give them an assignment to go home and find different ways that fractions are used. ex: cooking measurements. (Explore: step 6)
This lesson plan is an example of Cognitive Apprenticeship. In this lesson, the students are learning skills and gaining knowledge from a more knowledgeable other, who is the teacher. The cultural tools used in this lesson are the symbols used for fractions (number system), and the language that the teacher is speaking. Cultural tools play a very important role in cognitive development. As they are learning fractions they are developing their "cultural tool kit". The teacher is within the Zone of Proximal Development as she teaches the children about fractions. Most of the children have most likely never dealt with them very much. The children are doing a task that they are able to do because the teacher is there helping them. If the teacher wasn't scaffolding and working through the steps with them, then they would wouldn't be able to accomplish the task. The steps the teacher takes to scaffold in this lesson are: first they model and work through the task with the brownies. Second, the teacher coaches them through cutting their own strips of paper. As they are cutting the strips she is encouraging private speech. Last, eventually the students will be able to accomplish the task using inner speech. They will be able to apply what they have learned and find other examples of fractions. The dialectical relationship between the learner and the teacher (more knowledgeable other - MKO) is constantly happening. As the teacher is modeling she is the one speaking. Later in the lesson she models and talks them through the task. After that, they walk themselves through the steps by themselves. At the end they have a discussion. The teacher is asking the questions and directing the discussion while the students participate in a conversation with the MKO. 

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

TPACK QUESTIONS

CONTENT: The content I used in my virtual tour was 4th Grade science Standard 5, Objective 1a, 1b, and 1c. The students will be able to describe the physical characteristics of wetlands, forests, and deserts. They will also be able to describe them and look at an example of each.

PEDAGOGY: Children will have the oportunity to explore an example of a wetland, forest and desert in Utah. They will be able to move around and make observations. They will also be able to compare them to each other. It also helps them because they can visit websites and view pictures.

TECHNOLOGY: The technology I used for this tour was Google Earth. This program allowed me to teach about wetlands, deserts, and forests in an interactive way. They students can explore each location and make observations. They can also click on additional pictures and links to learn more. This lets them view the different sights. It isn't possible to visit each one, but it is possible for them to experience the next best thing.

Virtual Tour Table

Location ActivityGoogle Earth Content
1.State of Utah
Today we are going to explore the characteristics of wetlands, forests, and deserts in Utah. What do you already know about each of these?Explore Utah and look at all the different physical characteristics.
Children will explore and click on many different pictures and sights about Utah.
2. Pariette Wetlands
This is an example of a wetland. What are some of the characteristics that you can see? Write down some of your observations. Click on the link to learn more.
Write down observations.
visit link http://www.utah.com/playgrounds/pariette_wetlands.htm
3.Dixie National Forest
This is an example of a forest. Describe what you see here. What do you notice? Don't forget to write down some of your observations! Click on the pictures to find out more about Utah Forests.
Be sure to have your Geographic Web checked and click on the blue boxes to look at pictures.
4.Great Salt Lake Desert
This is an example of a desert. What do you notice? How is this different from Pariette wetlands? Write your thoughts down. Click on the W to visit a sight about the Great Salt Lake Desert.
Click on the Great Salt Lake Desert and read the information. They will also click on the Wikipedia link and read additional information.
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:At locations 2, 3, and 4 I will outline them with a polygon so the students can see the boundaries that they will explore for each location.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Developmental Cognitivism Lesson Plan

 Objective: Students will be given 6 different colors of paper and will make fraction strips of paper representing whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8 in 15 minutes.

Hook:

The students will walk into the room and find a tray of brownies at the front of the classroom. They will wonder what they are for and be very curious. Once everyone has taken their seats explain to them that you are going to break them into different pieces to represent fractions of the whole. Have someone come up and cut the brownies in half. Repeat this step until the brownies are cut into enough pieces for the whole class. Once the brownies have been cut, let each student have a fraction of the brownie. 

Instruction:

At the end of this activity, students will have explored their fraction strips and will understand what a numerator and denomenator of a fraction represents. They will also see the relationship between whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. They will also understand that the larger the denominator, the more parts the whole has been broken into.

  1. First students will be given 6 sheets of different colored paper. Be sure that everyone knows that these pieces are whole pieces of paper. Have them write whole on one of the papers.
  2. Next,have the students cut one of the pieces in half and write 1/2 on both pieces of paper.
  3. Do these same steps with each piece of paper.
  4. As they cut the pieces of paper, be sure that they are exploring writing the fractions on the paper.
  5. After all of the pieces of paper are cut, have them explore the different sizes and the numbers that are written on the paper. Which piece is larger?
  6. Explain what numerator and denominator are.
  7. Why are the pieces of paper with the largest number on the bottom, smaller than the rest? Have them explore and answer this question.
  8. After students have explored their strips of paper by them selves, have them write down why they think the largest number on the bottom is the smallest piece of paper. Then discuss as a class. 
  9. At the end of the discussion all of the students will understand that the bigger the number on the bottom, the more parts the whole has been broken into.
This lesson is stage-based learning because it is part of the preoperational and concrete-operational stage. Some of the student will be able to solve hands-on problems while others will not be able to think them through yet. Each child is unique in the way they learn. The teacher will model a little to help those that may not be able to think them through yet. There is also more than one activity so that students can identify with at least one. Piaget believes that to know an object or to gain knowledge, you have to act on the object. In this lesson plan, the students are able to manipulate their own pieces of paper. The lesson involved action and not much teacher intervention. Social interaction isn't necessary for students to gain knowledge, but it is sometimes necessary to guide students away from egocentricism. In this lesson, the students didn't work in groups very much, but at the end they had a discussion about what their discoveries. 

Accommodation and assimilation are both apparent in this lesson. When students are cutting up the papers and realizing that the bigger the number on the bottom, the smaller the piece of paper, they are most likely experiencing disequilibrium. They have always thought that a bigger number will mean a bigger piece of paper. After experiencing this disequilibrium they will have to accommodate their existing schemes and make sense of the new situation. Assimilation is also happening has they are exploring their pieces of paper. They are using what they already know about numbers and trying to make sense of the fractions. Piaget believed that children gained knowledge on their own and with little teacher interference. This lesson was more of a discovery learning lesson because it didn't have much teacher intervention. The reason there is a little is because some of the children are still in the preoperational stage and need assistance working through tasks. Other than the little intervention, the students are working on their own and making their own hypothesis. The students will also be mastering the operation of classification while they are performing this task. They are learning how to focus on the characteristic of how big the strips are and comparing them to each other. 

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Peanut Butter Sandwich

Our sound didn't turn out quite as loud as we had planned, but here is the finished product!

Peanut Butter Sandwich


Just in case the other one doesn't show up!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Behaviorism Lesson Plan

Behaviorism Lesson Plan

 Behavioral Objective: Students will be given 6 different colors of paper and will make fraction strips of paper representing whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8 in 15 minutes.

Hook:

The students will walk into the room and find a tray of brownies at the front of the classroom. They will wonder what they are for and be very curious. Once everyone has taken their seats explain to them that you are going to break them into different pieces to represent fractions of the whole. Have someone come up and cut the brownies in half. Once they have broken the brownies in half, tell them thank you and they will receive a brownie at the end. As the students watch this they will be eager to participate in the activity. This is an example of vicarious reinforcement. Once the children have all helped and observed give them all a fraction of the brownie. 

 

Task Analysis:

At the end of this activity, students will have explored their fraction strips and will understand what a numerator and denomenator of a fraction represents. They will also see the relationship between whole, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/6, and 1/8. They will also understand that the larger the denominator, the more parts the whole has been broken into.

  1. First students will be given 6 sheets of different colored paper. Be sure that everyone knows that these pieces are whole pieces of paper. Have them write whole on one of the papers.
  2. Next, model how to cut the one of the papers in half. Then, have the students cut one of the pieces in half and write 1/2 on both pieces of paper.
  3. Do these same steps with each piece of paper.
  4. As they cut the pieces of paper, be sure that they understand why they are writing the fractions on the paper.
  5. After all of the pieces of paper are cut, have them explore the different sizes and the numbers that are written on the paper. Which piece is larger?
  6. Explain what numerator and denominator are.
  7. Why are the pieces of paper with the largest number on the bottom, smaller than the rest? Have them explore and answer this question.
  8. At the end of the discussion all of the students will understand that the bigger the number on the bottom, the more parts the whole has been broken into

 

As students are doing all of these tasks, be sure to reinforce them at each step. You can tell them they are doing it correctly by using positive praise which is a form of positive reinforcement. This will help them get to the final goal. This is called shaping. As you are reinforcing them after each step, you are practicing a continuous reinforcement schedule.  If you decide to only reinforce some people at certain steps this is an example of intermittent reinforcement schedule. When you use this type of reinforcement they are more likely to maintain their behavior without expecting to be reinforced. If a student refuses to participate in the activity and won’t cut his paper, a private reprimand may be needed. While the class is working walk over to the student and talk to only that person so no one else can hear. This is important because it won’t embarrass the child in front of the whole class. 

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

TPACK questions

Content:
The content we used for our storyboard was 3rd Grade standard 1 Objective 2b, which says:
Use a variety of formats (e.g., drama, sharing of books, personal writings, choral readings, informational reports) in presenting with various forms of media (e.g., pictures, posters, charts, ads, newspapers). As students ready different books, and poems, they will have the opportunity of presenting them in various formats. One of them will be by making a storyboard and movie. They will compile pictures, words, and other forms of media to present in their movie.

Pedagogy:
We decided to do poetry interpretation. The children would pick a poem that they had read for that particluar unit, and then they can collect different pictures that represent the interpretation of their poem. They can also draw pictures of what they think is appropriate for their poem. They will be able to present their poems when the project is complete.

Technology:
Children will use a program called photostory to complete their project. They will take all of the pictures that they have collected or drawn and put them together to make a movie. They will be able to use the software to make a slide show of their pictures, add voice over, and music.

Storyboard







Saturday, February 7, 2009

Cognition Lesson Plan: Fun with Fractions

3rd Grade Standard 1 Objective 2 

Objective: Students will understand that the larger the denominator, the more parts the whole is being divided into.  

Lesson:

Sensory Memory. (hook) To get the concept of fractions into the students sensory memory, have a large cookie at the front of the room. Show that as the whole cookie. Then have examples of the cookie being broken down into all sorts of different fractions all the way down to 1/8 of a cookie. They will be able to see, taste, and smell the cookie so that it will briefly be in their sensory memory. You will be able to grab their attention because it is a cookie and most kids love anything that has to do with sugar!  

Working/Short-term Memory. Next, show each of the students what a whole looks like. For example, show them a whole piece of paper. (provide each student with a piece of paper so they can do this activity with you) Then divide it into two pieces and explain that the paper is now 2 halves. They have divided the paper in half. Continue to do this process until you have gotten to 1/8 of a sheet of paper. This is just to introduce the activity and get the idea into their working memory. They will have seen the each of the fractions, but chances are that it won’t stay in their memory for long. (This is an example of mass practice because they are practicing the concepts all at once) 

Long Term Memory. To get the information in the children’s long term memory the teacher will have the students do one last activity. For this activity you will use the loci method. Take the children outside. Also, take a white board and marker outside so you can show them each fraction. Have the children split into halves. Make sure that each group is far enough away from each other so it is obvious. Next, have them split again into fourths. Continue doing this until you get to eighths. You can explain that every time the class is split they are going to have a larger number on the bottom and each part is smaller. Doing this will help the children remember the location they were at so that they can think back to it and remember what they did. The students have also used elaborationbecause they have performed the task themselves, and they have seen three different examples.  

Decay and Interference. To avoid interference and decay, be sure to review what the children have learned each day. The information is in their long term memory, but they will need to review and keep it active so that they will be able to retrieve what they have learned. 

Procedural Knowledge: The students have acquired procedural knowledge because they have performed tasks on their own that have to do with fractions. (The assessment for this lesson would be observing each of the children as they perform the task outside to make sure they understand the concept) 

Link to original lesson plan click here

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Content, Pedagogy, Technology

The content that we focused on in our science lesson was friction. We wanted them to find out that rubbing objects together creates heat because of friction. 

The pedagogy we used was to have them explore the different materials for themselves. By exploring the subject by themselves, they are more likely to understand the concept. It is also more likely that they will be able to remember the information. It fits the content because they are exploring the different factors that determine the heat. 

The technology that they use is the temperature probe and the computer software. This is appropriate because it measures the temperature of the objects. They will be able to watch the temperature rise by watching the graph. This helps them understand what is happening when the objects are rubbed together. 
Tech Savvy Teacher Article

As your students and our students make their way through this new age of technology, who is there to teach them about technology? That is precisely why we, as teachers, are striving to achieve the title of “Tech Savvy Teacher”. We believe as Tech Savvy Teachers we will be able to prepare our students to enter into a world that relies heavily on technology. So, you ask, what is a “Tech Savvy Teacher”? A Tech Savvy Teacher knows how to use all kinds of technology tools to enhance the classroom. They also know how to use the tools to engage the children in their own learning. Not only does a Tech Savvy Teacher know how to use these technologies, but they also know how to access the newest technologies that are emerging every day.


(The graph and picture of rubbing with no lotion)




For our science activity we decided to explore temperature and friction. This falls in the 3rd grade standard 5, objective 3, which is: Demonstrate that heat may be produced when objects are rubbed against one another. We used temperature probes, computer software, our hands, lotion, and carpet. First, we connected the temperature probes to the computer and let the software read the initial temperature, which was 23.7 degrees Celsius. Next, we rubbed our hands over the probe and took a picture of the reading, it rose to 29 degrees. In between each reading we let the probe cool down to the original temperature. Then, we saw the effects that lotion would have on the same procedure, by putting lotion on our hands and rubbing the probe between our hands, the reading this time was 31.2 degrees. Lastly, we rubbed the temperature probe on carpet. This showed the greatest increase in temperature, which was 34.1 degrees. This showed the heat than can be produced by varying amounts of friction.



(The graph and picture of rubbing with lotion)








Students would be able to explore friction and temperature to a greater degree with the technology of temperature probes. They would also be able to watch the graphs that were produced using the computer software. This data that they see on the graph can be collected and analyzed, leading to their own conclusion. Instead of just saying friction causes heat, they can see the actual numbers and the line on the graph that the measure of heat produces. This also provides a hands-on experience instead of having a teacher lecture the same material.

(Below is the graph and picture for rubbing the probe on the carpet)