TAG Strategy Lesson - Creative Problem Solving

Stephanie Beckles - Shakerag E.S.

Title: Too Many Toys by David Shannon

Subject: ELA / TAG
Grade Level: 1st grade
Duration: 3-4 hours, broken up by steps and minilessons

Type of Lesson: Creative Problem Solving

Standards and Elements:

TAG Creative Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Skills
3. Demonstrate skills in fluency and flexibility to solve problems or create new products.
4. Develop original ideas, presentations, or products through synthesis and evaluation.
5. Clarify, illustrate, or elaborate on an idea for product improvement.
9. Monitor and reflect on the creative process of problem solving for future applications
Advanced Communication Skills:
1. The student uses written, spoken, and technological media to convey new learning or challenge existing
ideas.
2. The student produces written and/or oral work that is compiles, purposeful, and organized, includes
relevant supporting examples and manipulation of language.
3. The student creates products and/or presentations that synthesize information from diverse sources and
communicate expertise to a variety of authentic audiences.
7. The student responds to contributions of others, considering all available information.
10. The student supports and defends his/her own opinion while respecting the opinions of others.
HO/CT Skills:
1. Ask probing, insightful, and relevant questions.
2. Respond to questions with supporting information that reflects an in-depth knowledge of a topic.
3. Conducts comparisons using criteria.

ELA Reading Literary:

1. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text.
3. Describe characters, settings, and major events in a story, using key details.
7. Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, settings, or events.
Writing:
8. With guidance and support from adults, recall information from experiences or gather information from
provided sources to answer a question.

Summary: Using background knowledge and clues provided, students will follow the steps to find a
solution to the problem.
Enduring Understanding: At the end of this lesson the students will have used problem solving and
advanced communication skills to come up with a solution to the problem, and will show tolerance for
ambiguity.

Essential Question: How can I use the information I have to solve a problem that I have identified?

Evidence of Learning:

What the students should KNOW: Students should be able to identify key details or clues, and
write a solution to the problem that they have identified.

What the students should BE ABLE TO DO: Use illustrations and clues to devise a solution to the
problem. They should be able to tolerate ambiguity if others have a different solution from their own.

Suggested Vocabulary: Criteria, fact, solution, visualize, problem, brainstorm.

Procedure: Have a large piece of paper folded in half, so there are four pages.

Objective (Mess) Finding: Identifying the goal, challenge and future direction

Read the story Too Many Toys by David Shannon, up to and including the page You can also trip on things
like railroad tracks and race cars if youre carrying a load of laundry. Record on the chart (page 1): How did
you feel about Spencer having too many toys?, What do you think will happen now?

Fact Finding: Collecting data about the problem, observing the problem as objectively as possible

On the chart (page 2), have children tell what the important details of the story are. What do we know that
is true? Then have children list two questions that they still have about the problem.

Mini-lesson: **Introduce the concepts of Problem and Solution. Explain that most stories have a problem
that the character faces. The best part of many stories is the way that the character explores different ways
to solve or fix the problem. This is called the solution.

Problem Solving: Examining the various parts of the problem to isolate the major part, stating the
problem in an open-ended way

On page 3 of their chart, have children draw and write about all the problems that may be caused by having

too many toys. Have them create a problem statement: How might we (get rid of some toys so that we
dont have too many at any one time).

Idea Finding: Generating as many ideas as possible regarding the problem, brainstorming

The teacher's role at this step is very important, creating an environment in which students can feel
comfortable in making suggestions. Quantity of ideas is required in brainstorming, not quality. Use the chart
attached 4 Rules of Brainstorming to make sure children have an understanding of what the rules of
brainstorming are before they begin. Have children brainstorm the many possible solutions to the problem
and then choose their top two or three. These should be recorded on page 4 of their chart.

Mini-lesson **Introduce the concept of Criteria. Using the following reference, I approached it using this
lesson Ref: http://shawnram.com/2010/10/26/how-to-explain-criteria/
I asked the students what belongs on, or in a sandwich. We agreed that we needed two pieces of bread for
sure, but after that we could not agree on the toppings. We had everything from peanut butter to pickles and
hard cheese to tuna. Needless to say after about ten minutes we were done with our list. Since we couldnt
agree which toppings should be on a sandwich I said we could make a sandwich with everything on it and
asked who would like to eat this sandwich?. I had no takers, so I asked why doesnt this make a great
sandwich?. One of my students said, Because some of those things dont go together. They would taste
yucky. Another student said, You didnt say what kind of sandwich we were making. My kids had hit the
nail on head. I agreed that criteria tells us what is needed and in some aspects how it should be.

Solution Finding: Choosing the solution that would be most appropriate, developing and selecting criteria
to evaluate the alternative solutions

If, after the above lesson on criteria, children are having difficulty with coming up with their set of two to
three criteria, suggest the following for them. Cost, Time, Help needed
Give each group a copy of the Solution Finding grid to help them decide on their best solution. Give them
guidance as required (this may be a difficult task for 1st graders!)

Acceptance Finding: Idea Implementation or Creating a plan of action

Have children think about all of the steps that they will need to take in order to implement their final
solution. Have them choose a way to share this information, for example, they can create a power point
using Google slides on the Chromebook, or a chart showing the steps that they would need to take, or use
Book Creator on the i-pad. This part of the process could potentially be very lengthy, so in order to help the
children organize their thoughts, create an ActivInspire chart with the following information: 1) Write a
statement telling what you would do to solve the problem of having too many toys, 2) What is the plan to
solve the problem? First, Next, Last, and 3) Write a sentence telling how we will know the plan has worked.

Extension Activity: Journal: Students write in their journal one thing they learned from todays lesson.
Any groups that have extra time can research ways that they can help others by getting rid of their own
unwanted toys.

Assessment: Take pictures of the children as they are working. At the end of the activity, use the Rubric
for Creative Problem Solving Skills to assess children on how well they did during each step of the process
and general work habits (see the attached rubric).

Technology Integration: Use of the Interactive Whiteboard throughout the lesson as a teaching tool
including a chart created with ActivInspire software (Acceptance Finding step). Children will also have access
to Chromebooks, one i-pad, and desktop computers to show their final solution to the problem.

Differentiation: Use of vertical teams for grouping so that each group has a mixture of reading levels and
abilities. Use of chart paper and Chromebooks to suit the learning needs of students. The length of the
lesson may also be extended or shortened based on the needs of students. Students may need differing
levels of scaffolding for each step in the process, and the teacher will provide this as needed.

Resources/Materials: Book Too Many Toys by David Shannon, Charts (4 Rules for Brainstorming,
ActivInspire chart for Acceptance Finding), Chart paper with questions and prompts included, Solution
Finding Grid, Rubric for Creative Problem Solving Skills, Chromebooks, I-pad.

Solution Finding Grid

Criteria

Solutions to the Problem

Total Points

For each criteria, give the solutions a score: 1=bad, 2=okay, 3=great.
Then add up the scores for each solution. The highest score wins!

Assessment: Rubric for Creative Problem Solving Skills

NAME: _____________________________ DATE: __________________

Questioning

Below the

Approaching the

Meets the

Exceeds the

Standard

Standard

Standard

Standard

No questions generated

Questions generated do
not address main idea
of topic

Questions generated
are numerous and
meaningful to the topic

Questions generated
are numerous,
insightful, and
meaningful to the topic

No problem identified

Problem is identified

Description of problem
is clear and partially
complete

Description of problem
is clear and complete

Two reasonable
solutions are proposed

Three or more
reasonable solutions
are proposed

PSC: K-5 #1

Problems
PSC: K-5 #2

Solutions

No reasonable solutions One reasonable solution

are proposed
is proposed

PSC: K-5 #2,3,4

Evaluation

No choice is made for

the optimal solution

Optimal solution is
chosen, but criteria are
not followed

Optimal solution is
chosen and the criteria
are followed

Optimal solution is
clearly and thoroughly
explained using valid
criteria

Purpose and value of

problem solving are not
stated

Purpose and value of

problem solving is
identified

Purpose and value of

problem solving is
identified AND
explained

Purpose and value of

problem solving is
identified and
thoroughly explained

Student does not work

with the group or use
feedback to improve
performance

Student does some of

the work with the group
and listens to some
feedback to improve
performance

Student works with the

group, is on task the
whole time and listens
to feedback

Student is consistently
on task, is a
contributing group
member and listens
well to feedback

PSC: K-5 #2

Reflection
PSC: K-5 #8,9,10

Work Habits

Total Score: ____________

Students working on Creative Problem Solving

Creative Problem Solving: Solution Finding

Too Many Toys

TAG Creative Problem Solving Lesson Reflection
The children were very excited to begin this activity when they heard it was a TAG lesson. They listened intently to the
first part of the story, read as a visualization and lead in to the Objective (Mess) Finding.
When the group work began, it was obvious that the younger children have difficulty working together. Out of six
groups, only two worked well and completed the work by talking to each other and coming up with a group consensus.
The group that synergized the best was a group with three girls, one of whom was a current TAG student and one who
is being tested for TAG. I have one student who doesnt like to participate in any group work, and this was evident
during the Mystery TAG lesson, so for this activity I put him in a group with three boys, hoping that it would help him be
more comfortable and contribute more, but he showed no propensity to contribute with this group either.
The Objective (Mess) Finding work took about twenty minutes for the groups to complete. I walked around the whole
time, keeping them on track and trying to help children work with each other in their groups, rather than as individuals.
After the first part, we met on the carpet, I introduced the Fact Finding, and the children gave some examples as a class
before going back to their groups to complete the written portion. This part took about twenty minutes also. Then we
had a brain break on the Interactive Whiteboard, and went on to the next part, the Problem and Solution mini-lesson,
then the Problem Solving. Children had difficulty writing the Problem Statement as a question, so I went to each group
and helped them formulate these.
At this point I decided that we would continue with the remainder of the lesson the following day.
The next day we continued with the Idea Finding, and the children did very well with the idea of brainstorming after the
4 Rules of Brainstorming chart was introduced. They were then able to come up with a consensus to choose their top
choices. The solution finding part was interesting, because the children just wanted to give me a solution that they had
agreed on, and didnt want to use the Solution Finding grid. I gave them the criteria and we did the grid as a group.
This was a successful way to approach this with first grade as it allowed me to scaffold the information as we went
through the chart.

I think this is an activity that is better suited to older grades. If I was to use this in 1st grade I would like to have given
my children plenty of opportunities to work in small groups with defined group roles prior to this activity. I encouraged
each group to take turns at being the recorder for each part, and this helped, but they have a hard time understanding
that when you are writing, you still have to contribute ideas. It may have been easier for each child to have their own
recording sheet, instead of giving one per group. Some groups required constant redirection.
There were a number of mini-lessons required throughout the lesson, to help the students with the content and
understanding what key elements of Creative Problem Solving is. This is a time consuming lesson, so it would be
important to choose a topic that could be integrated into the regular curriculum. Finally, it helps to have children
familiar with all of the programs (Book Creator, Google Slides, Powerpoint), that they may be able to use to do their
idea implementation.