5E Lesson Plan

Teacher: Alex Boulet

Date: March 7, 2016
Description of learners: Fifteen 6th grade gifted students in Algebra I. Two students with ADHD; both are on
medication. Students are eager to learn and most of the students are high achievers. There are some students
in the class who show signs of high stress and poor time management.
Materials:
Giant Post-it note paper
Markers/pencil colors
Rulers
calculators
Youtube link
Laptops
Theoretical Rationale:
Studies have shown that many gifted students are prone to perfectionistic tendencies, oversensitivity, and
intensity. These characteristics can quickly lead to stress in the classroom and at home, and if this stress isnt
taught to be managed, it can quickly spiral out of control leading to detrimental ramifications. Effects of
stress include procrastination, low impulse control, poor decision-making skills, and an aversion to
education. As teachers, we should strive to make school an enjoyable learning experience for all students.
Gifted children have such high potential, and it is a shame when their potential is not reached due to the
ramifications of stress. Teaching students effective stress management and time management strategies is
essential to enable them to be lifelong learners. Developing healthy habits in these areas early on will help
students to be successful in the classroom as well as promote strong mental health.

Lesson objective(s):
SWBAT identify personal stressers.
SWBAT identify and list personal stress relief activities.
SWBAT explain effective stress management strategies.
SWBAT create a personal action plan to reduce stress
SWBAT calculate the average of a set of data.
SWBAT create a chart/graph to display data.

Standards:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.8.SP.A.4
Understand that patterns of association can also be seen in bivariate categorical data by displaying
frequencies and relative frequencies in a two-way table. Construct and interpret a two-way table summarizing
data on two categorical variables collected from the same subjects. Use relative frequencies calculated for
rows or columns to describe possible association between the two variables. For example, collect data from
students in your class on whether or not they have a curfew on school nights and whether or not they have
assigned chores at home. Is there evidence that those who have a curfew also tend to have chores?
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.4
Display numerical data in plots on a number line, including dot plots, histograms, and box plots.
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5E Lesson Plan
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.5
Summarize numerical data sets in relation to their context, such as by:
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.5.A
Reporting the number of observations.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.5.C
Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean
absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall
pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered.
Before Lesson:
Teacher has instructed students to gather data for a week, tracking how they spend their time outside of school. They
also rate their stress level for each day on a scale from 1-10.

ENGAGEMENT
Teacher lets students know that today they will be analyzing the data theyve been collecting.
Introduces activity, has instructions written on the board, and verbally explains them.

Students listen to instructions, ask questions if necessary, and get out their data from the week.

EXPLORATION
Teacher walks throughout the room answering questions and giving advice when asked. Allows
students to ask each other questions while working independently.
Students complete following activity:
1. Students review their gathered data and divide their activities into 4-5 categories. Students are
given their choice of how to do this. For example:
- Homework/studying
- Extra-curricular activities sports, clubs, lessons, etc.
- Hanging out with friends and family
- Entertainment reading for fun, tv, computer games, etc.
- Other examples could be babysitting, family events, etc.
2. Create a table showing stress level and activity that took up the most time for each day.
3. Calculate the mean number of minutes per day they spend in each category.
4. Use class materials (post-it paper, markers, etc) to create an appropriate graph to display these
averages. (They are given freedom with how these should look, but should be a histogram or pie
chart.)

Students will then analyze data and draw conclusions. They are required to answer the following
questions, and are encouraged to add any other conclusions as well.
1. How did you spend your time on the days when you were most stressed? Least stressed?
2. What percentage of your time outside of school was dedicated to scheduled activities (i.e.
practice, club meetings, etc.)?
3. How did you spend your time on the days before your most stressful day?
4. After looking at this data, how would you rate your time management skills?
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5E Lesson Plan
5. Are there any activities missing from this weeks data that cause you stress?
6. What are some activities that relieve stress for you?
EXPLANATION
Teacher asks everyone what their average stress levels are. Facilitates a class discussion on their
findings asks for some examples of what a stressful day looked like, and what a stress free day
looked like. Anything surprising? Did stress level relate to how time was spent leading up to stressful
day?

Students share their findings with classmates each shares at least one interesting piece of
information from the activity.

Teacher lays stress video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzrjEP5MOT4. Reiterates the

importance of dealing with stress and leads into discussion of stress management.

Teacher explains that time management is a component of stress management. Time tracking is a
good way to assess time management skills and identify areas of improvement. In addition to overall
time management, this type of data collection can also help to identify specific activities that induce
stress and those activities that reduce stress.
What are some examples of stressful activities in your life?
What are some examples of activities that reduced stress levels?

ELABORATION
Teacher explains that there is a lot of research out there on effective stress management strategies.
Students are divided into groups of 3 to research online these strategies and discuss and write down
how they could use these in their daily lives. After about 20 minutes, each group briefly shares with
the class what they find.

EVALUATION
Students will answer the following questions on a sheet of paper to turn in (this sheet will be returned
after evaluated):
1. What daily activities were stressors for you?
2. What daily activities were stress relievers?
3. What is one strategy that you will personally use to manage your overall stress? Be specific!
Assessment
Student will be assessed on the following:

Work turned in with graphing activity (scratch work with table and averages, graph, answers to questions).
Participation in group work and class discussion
Evaluation questions

5E Lesson Plan

Calculations

Table and
Graph

Data Analysis

Evaluation

Target

0-1

2-3

4-5

Student calculated the

average number of minutes
per day for each category

Averages are
incorrect.

Averages are
correct, but
work is not
shown.

Averages are
correct, and all
work is shown.

Student created a chart to

display stress level and
category that took up the
most time for each day.

Neither of
the data
displays are
organized,
easy to read,
and
appropriately
labeled.

Only one of the

data displays is
organized, easy
to read, and
appropriately
labeled.

Table and graph

are organized, easy
to read, and
appropriately
labeled.

Students identify any

correlations between stress
level and how they spent
their time.

Questions
are not
answered or
answers are
incomplete.

Some questions
are answered
thoughtfully and
completely

All questions are

answered
thoughtfully and
completely

No questions Two questions

are answered
are answered
thoughtfully thoughtfully and
and
completely
completely.

All questions are

answered
thoughtfully and
completely

Students list specific

activities that cause stress,
specific activities that relieve
stress, and list one strategy to
implement for stress
management.

Score