Lesson Plan

Daily Lesson Plan

Group Members: Sarah Garman, Valerie K, Amanda T, Hannah M, Kayla B Teaching Group Member: Sarah Garman Grade Level: Kindergarten Date/time to be taught: April 12th, 2013 at 12:30pm Overall lesson topic/title and purpose: Comparative Measurements Rationale: This lesson is worthwhile because it serves as an introduction to measurement. The Common Core Standard for kindergarten states that students should be able to compare two objects to each other to find out which has more or less of a measurable attribute. CCSS.Math.Content.K.MD.A.2 Directly compare two objects with a measurable attribute in common, to see which object has more of/less of the attribute, and describe the difference. For example, directly compare the heights of two children and describe one child as taller/shorter. Goals/Objectives for todays lesson: 1 Students will individually organize items based on their comparative lengths, using non standard units of measure from longest to shortest. Materials & supplies needed: 18 individual sets of one each - Piece of ribbon longer than 12 inches - Kayla - Crayon- Sarah - Marker-Amanda - Paperclip (Hannah) - Pipe cleaner- Sarah - Zip lock baggies - Valerie - Magnifying Glass for Ms. Sarah Add more objects to the bag that are closer in size and more difficult to figure out. Procedures and approximate time allocated for each event Launch
(5 minutes)

Academic, Social and Linguistic Support during each event (Launch/Explore/Discuss)

Today were going to learn a little more about measurement. Were going to be looking at the lengths of certain items. Can someone tell me what length means? (Answers: how long something is, the long ways of something, something from beginning to end) Those are all good answers, lets take a look at

How will you provide access to all students to the important math ideas in the task? The math task for this lesson is hands on and visual which will allow all students to engage in the activity.

the length of two items...! If I was comparing these three objects (hold up a pencil, dry erase marker, and an eraser) I would want to put these objects in order of longest length to shortest length. The pencil seems longer because it has a longer length. I want to put these three objects in order from longest to shortest. Since I think the pencil is longer than the dry erase marker I will put the pencil here and then the dry erase marker after it (Hold up pencil on the students left and the dry erase marker on the students right to show the order). Now I think that the eraser has the shortest length so it will go after the other two objects. (Put eraser to the students right) I have put them in order from longest length to shortest length. Today were going to do something similar but each of you get to be detectives and work individually. Each of you will get your own baggie of items (show them the bag). In each baggie there are 5 items. The first item is a ribbon (hold it out so they can see the length, but make no comments on the length as not to reduce the demand of the task), we also have a paper clip, marker, crayon and a pipe cleaner (hold these items to show length as well). Each item needs to be flat when youre measuring them and the ribbon and pipe cleaners should be stretched out. I want you all to work by yourselves and put these items in order from longest to shortest. My friends and I will be walking around to watch you as you complete this task and will be asking questions about how you are completing the task. Any questions? Im going to hand each of your own baggie now, but remember that these are my items so Id like you to treat them like they were your own. Also, lets make sure were only using our inside voices and staying in our seats. At this point, once the students are informed of the expectations and the activity is thoroughly explained, the baggies will be passed out to each individual student and the individual work time will begin. (If we need to pull prior knowledge from students, to make the activity seem more connected to their lives, we can ask about things we measure at home. The students may not realize that when they ask their mom how long something is at home, they are using measurement.) Explore

(10 minutes)

Modeling will be used to make sure students understand the concept of length as well as the instructions for the lesson. Asking students to share back in their own words what the concepts and instructions are will also help to reinforce ideas and provide another way to hear the instructions. What will you do if issues arise that are related to the context of the task? Because this task has the potential to turn into a competition through students saying they have the longer object, there will be reminders throughout the launch and task about the activity not being a competition. They will be told that they are detectives, and this will be reminded throughout. How will you ensure students remain engaged in the task? To get the students engaged in the task, they will be told they are being detectives and will be given a set of clues. The task for the students is to help the main detective solve the problem. I think this will keep the students engaged because it engages their imagination. It is also important to give them enough time, but not too much time so that they are not sitting idly for a long time after being finished. What will you do if students (or a group) become quickly frustrated or request more direction and guidance in solving the task? If a group becomes quickly frustrated or needs more guidance, I would ask them to explain their thinking about the concept and how they were trying to do it. Then I would go over again the modeling of the activity asking the students if they remember what we did together as a class and how that could be applied to what they are supposed to do now. What will you do if a student or group focuses on non-mathematical aspects of the activity? If a student focuses on nonmathematical aspects of the lesson, I think it is important to listen to their ideas, asking them what they are doing and why, and talk to them for a little about that while asking questions that

Describe how you will have students arranged Students will be arranged in groups of four at their tables. Each student will be working individually with their own baggie of items, but they are allowed to talk to each other in their inside voices. Describe the task the students will work on at this point in the lesson:

The students will work individually with the 5 items in their baggie. They will make comparisons between their items, using a strategy they invent, to order the objects from longest to shortest. Write out 3-4 ways the task can be solved. Students could line up all of the objects next to each other, side by side, and identify which one is the longest by observation and put them in order using this strategy. Students could compare each object to a common sixth object. For example, students could compare all the objects to the size of their shoe and think that since the paperclip has a shorter length than my shoe it is going to have the shortest length. Since the ribbon is longer than my shoe it has the longest length. Students could make decisions for only two items at a time. For example, they might take the ribbon and the crayon and see what one is longer. Then they would set the ribbon aside and compare the crayon and the paperclip, etc. Students could decide which object has the shortest length and which object has the longest length and then simply put the other objects in the middle of the order. Which of these methods do you think your students will use? We think that most students will use the first strategy of putting the objects side by side and putting them in order of length by observation. What misconceptions might students have? Students may find the longest item and the shortest item and not make a distinction between the medium sized objects. Students may describe the items as biggest and smallest instead of longest and shortest. What errors might students make? Students may line up items incorrectly (from shortest to longest, with the middle objects mixed up, or from smallest to biggest) Students may begin measuring items in the middle of other items, or sideways. (This is something we will have to explain before the task begins) What questions will you ask to assess, focus, and advance their thinking? (NOTE: These should be linked to each of the four solution strategies.) How did you know ______ was longer/shorter? What did you do to figure out the order of the objects? What did you do with the medium sized items? What do you mean by biggest/smallest? What word should we use instead of biggest/smallest?

redirect them back to the task at hand. Such questions could be, what is the longest item? How do you know that? Could you show me what youve done so far? How will you encourage your students to listen to one anothers ideas? Students should already know to listen and not speak when another person is talking in the classroom because of the norms already in place. However, reminders of this may be necessary, through saying it myself as well as having the students supply the answers for the class: What should we do when another person is talking? (Look for: sitting criss-cross-applesauce, hands folded in laps, listening, not talking) What language issues do you anticipate might get in the way of students being able to access or fully participate in your math task? How will you support students in this situation to get access and fully participate? There is one student who is an English Language Learner, so it is important that he be given opportunities to participate in class discussion and given enough time to think through his answer before being made to speak. Modeling and visuals are also being used throughout the lesson and discussion to help illustrate the instructions and provide another way to show the instructions. Other students that may be struggling in math will be provided with support from teachers and other adults in the classroom, and students will be encouraged to help each other at their tables too. How will you elicit and build on students linguistic resources? Students will be encouraged to listen to instructions during the launch and restate them in their own words showing their understanding. During the task, students will be encouraged to talk to each other and share ideas even though they are working individually. During the discussion, students will be sharing their ideas and thought processes with each other as well as being asked to state in their own words what other students have

said to make sure everyone Specifically (monitoring and supporting students understands each others ideas. thinking) As students are working independently or in small groups: What will you see or hear that lets you know how students are thinking about the mathematical ideas? See: Students lining up their objects to measure which ones are longer. Using another object they are familiar with to compare the lengths of given objects. Hear: students talking to each other about how they found out which was longest, shortest. Talking about how to put the rest in the correct order. What questions will you ask to assess students understanding of key mathematical ideas, problem solving strategies, or the representations? How do you know this object is longer? (Answer needs to involve length and/or measure). How did you know to put this object before this one? (Answer needs to involve measuring and comparing length). What questions will you ask to advance students understanding of the mathematical ideas? If I cut this ribbon in half, would you have to reorganize your line? If I straighten this paperclip out what would happen to its length? How do you know? What questions will you ask to encourage students to share their thinking with others or to assess their understanding of their peers ideas? Talk to the person next to you. How did they solve this problem? Do you agree with this? Did you do the same thing? Is there another way to solve this problem? How will you ensure that students remain engaged in the task? Keeping the timing long enough to solve the problem, but short enough so they are not sitting idly while other finish will help them stay engaged. Encouraging them to talk to their peers about the problem will also keep them actively engaged in the mathematics. If they finish early, there will be another activity, such as draw what you just did, create your own list of objects and put them in order (also see below) to keep them engaged until the discussion. What will you do if a student does not know how to begin to solve the task? Ask questions such as; which object do you think is the longest in length? (Answer) How do you think you could

figure out if it is longer in length than the other objects? What will you do if a student finishes the task almost immediately and becomes bored or disruptive? For students that are finishing early we will ask them to start creating their own list of objects and put them in order of longest to shortest. If this is still too boring we can ask students; how could you make the paperclip longer than the crayon? Can you change the length of it by manipulating its sides? What will you do if students focus on non-mathematical aspects of the activity (e.g., spend most of their time making a beautiful poster of their work)? If a student is playing with the objects instead of comparing their lengths we will ask them questions similar to the questions we asked students that were not engaged; which object do you think is the longest in length? (Answer) How do you think you could figure out if it is longer in length than the other objects? This will help bring the students back into the mathematics part of the lesson. What will I provide for students who finish quickly? Ask students to create their own list of objects from longest to shortest length. This will keep them thinking about measuring but is different from the activity because they have more autonomy on choosing their own objects. Have students use a pencil or something else at their table to measure the objects they find in the classroom Have students find objects in the room that are the same length as the objects they have in the bag, but different objects. Discuss (15 minutes) This is the last part of the lesson, the time in which the whole class discusses solutions, strategies, and ideas they have about the math they have just done Script everything you will say and do to get the discussion launched. How will you get students attention? Okay, I see a lot of great measuring going on so we are going to come together as a group and talk about what we found! Will students move to a new area for this discussion?

How will you move them? I want us to move to the carpet so we can begin our conversation about everything we figured out through comparing the lengths of our objects. Preparing your students to have a discussion: How will I structure the whole group discussion? We have had conversations before so who can tell me how we act during our conversations? (Answers: listen to everyone that talks and then respond to what they said. Not shouting out and letting others explain their thinking before talking. Raising your hand to speak). (Student name) can you please come up here and tell me which object you measured to be the longest and how you figured that out? How will I help students listen actively to each other? We will call on students individually to explain their thoughts. Once they have fully explained how they measure we will ask if any other students measure it differently. Those students will come up and talk about how they measures. There is no shouting out. Students can call on other students but students need to be raising their hands. How will you orchestrate the class discussion so that you accomplish your mathematical goals? We will first call on a student that measured the objects by comparing them side by side. This is focusing on the larger than or shorter than aspect of measuring. After this student has explained how they thought through their measuring we will move on to a student that used a third party object to compare the objects. This is introducing the idea of using another object and comparing length which will be a big idea once they begin using rulers. We will ask How does this third object help you figure out which length is longer? We will ensure that students are using the terms longer length and if they fail to do so we will ask How do you know it was longer? (Longer length). How were these two strategies similar? Did everyone end up putting all of the objects in order? Why were they all in the same order? We will talk about each type of strategy and really try to validate all students mathematical thinking. How will I summarize the main ideas of the lesson? Overall, if everyones objects were the same, did they have the same length? How did we learn that we can compare lengths of objects? Is there more than one way to compare lengths?

Assessment

(Include comments about how you are going to use information from this class through formative assessment and collected student work samples to inform future lessons.)

Visual Assessment: Have students raise hands when completed with the activity, and go around to look at each students work. Ask them what the longest and shortest objects are and how they found that out. How did they know which objects to place in between those two to put them in the correct order? For those that have errors or misconceptions, ask how they solved the task, what they were thinking about. Ask guiding questions to such as, why did you decide to put the objects in that order? and see if explaining it to the teacher will help them rethink and potentially change their answer. (We will each have our own way of recording the assessment, based on our individual research questions.)

Modifications after teaching the lesson: Add more objects to the bag. Have students find objects in classroom to compare to the ones in the bag.