Unit 3 Assignment

9/21/2014

Annotated Lesson Plan

Lorand Irinyi

National University

Class: TED623-50422-1409

Professor: Robyn Hill

ABSTRACT
This lesson plan was written for a standard 50 minutes class period with English Learner
and Special Needs students in mind. In this lesson the principle of conservation of energy
will be demonstrated and explained. Students will conduct experiments, measure and
record data. Students will interpret taken data and generalize the demonstrated concept
for all parameters. Students will demonstrate their understanding of concept by designing
a similar experiment using same lab materiel. They will predict results of said
experiment. Students will calculate new results and compare them to measured ones
using provided accurate instruments. Differences in results will be discussed. Students
will identify source of difference. This lesson employs simple demonstrations of the
fundamental concept of conservation of energy and students will generalize its
importance and applicability and will give examples from real life examples. The
demonstrated concept/idea will carry over to future lessons in physics and physical
concepts, and will connect real life examples to theory. SDAIE strategies will be
employed all throughout the lesson, and accommodations will be made for special needs
students as needed. The activities of this lesson plan are annotated to demonstrate the
applicability of the experiments to real life situations, and how students will connect
those activities to their own lives, and will thus ensure the success of the
learning/teaching experience for all students.

LESSON DESCRIPTION
Subject: Physics
Topic: Conservation of Energy
Grade: 10th
Date: Monday, September 22, 2014

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

Goal: Students will learn the concept of the conservation of energy and how it manifests
itself in real life.
Objectives:
1. Students will recognize that energy is neither created nor destroyed, but is
2.
3.
4.
5.

conserved.
Students will observe experiments illustrating this concept.
Students will analyze and interpret data from experiments.
Students will compare experimental data with theoretical data.
Students will demonstrate understanding of conservation of energy by predicting

results of experiments theoretically and comparing data with measured ones.

6. Students will design a rollercoaster as assigned homework and explain their
design using the concept of conservation of energy.
Standards:
1. Science Content Standards for California Public Schools,
Physics, Conservation of Energy and Momentum
2. The laws of conservation of energy and momentum provide a way to predict and
describe the movement of objects. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how to calculate kinetic energy using the formula E=1/2mv2.
b. Students know how to calculate changes in gravitational potential energy near

Earth by using the formula (change in potential energy) = mgh (h is the change
in elevation).
c. Students know how to solve problems involving conservation of energy in
simple systems, such as falling objects.
2. California Common Core Standards, English Language Arts & Literacy in
History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, Reading Standards for
Literacy in Science and Technical Subjects Grade 9-10 Students
3. Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments,
taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or
exceptions defined in the text.
5. Analyze the structure of the relationship among concepts in a text, including
relationships among key terms (e.g., force, friction, reaction, energy).

ACCOMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS/SDAIE

Top 1/3 Students
1. I will provide additional handouts to students who finish the lab early with
instructions to create more complex experiments to investigate and demonstrate
the concept of conservation of energy.
2. I will allow students who finish the additional handouts to either design new
experiments of their own, or to access interactive physics simulations on the
Internet (http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/physics) to further
explore the concept of conservation of energy.
Lower 1/3 and Special Needs Students
1. Reduced number of repetition of experiment per student.

2. Adapted equipment and/or technology as needed per student.

3. Preferential setting or area as needed per student.
ELs
1. I will repeat already introduced vocabulary with illustrations.
2. I will model new vocabulary; display written new vocabulary on head-up display.
3. I will show short demonstration video of content material with new vocabulary
being displayed while pronounced by the narrator of video.
4. Students will write new vocabulary on provided lab handout and define it in their
5.
6.
7.
8.

own words.
I will incorporate vocabulary into real life examples.
I will demonstrate relevance of new material to students lives.
I will devise analogies based on students real life experiences.
I will give examples to help students construct a framework of concepts that
shows the relationships between old and new learning and how they are

connected.
9. Students will review what they know and will communicate their knowledge in
new form.

BASIC VOCABULARY

Energy
Kinetic
Potential
Transformation
Conservation

MATERIALS AND TOOLS

Handouts, Realia, and Manipulatives
1. Lab handouts with vocabulary and instructions for lab procedures.
2. Student notebooks.
3. Metal balls and glass marbles.
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4. Adjustable height plastic frame.

5. Electronic impact energy sensors.
6. Calculators.
Technology
Computer and Projector for demonstration videos and vocabulary displays.

PROCEDURE
Introduction (5 minutes):
As students enter classroom there will be a picture projected on the smart board depicting
a child dropping a vase full of flowers. Class will start with teacher asking students if
they ever dropped anything on their feet. Did it hurt more if what they dropped was
higher or lower? Why? Students will write individual answers to question. Teacher will
complete attendance while students complete task. Teacher will call on students to
explain their answers. Teacher will ask if any students got hurt seriously by dropping
something on their feet. Teacher will call on one or two students.

Teacher presentation (10 minutes)

Teacher will display pictures depicting physical situations using previously introduced
vocabulary establishing background knowledge. Teacher then will show educational
video depicting different objects falling from different heights and places with the new
vocabulary projected onto the smart board. Students hear new vocabulary explained and
used in the narration while their written forms are displayed. Teacher will connect
previous learning with new concept and vocabulary. Teacher will use real life examples
demonstrating content concept applying new vocabulary.

Lab activity (25 minutes)

Teacher distributes lab handouts with lab activity instructions and new vocabulary on
them. Students will write definitions of new vocabulary in their own words next to the
printed new vocabulary on lab handouts. Students form small groups (four per group) to
perform lab experiments. Students will read written lab instructions and discuss them
among teammates. Teacher will circulate among students and will offer assistance as
needed, but students are expected to resolve questions among members of teams.
Students will drop different objects (steel or marble balls) from different heights onto
electronic sensors measuring impact energy. Balls will be dropped from adjustable plastic
platforms. Students will calculate balls potential and kinetic energies from data and
compare them with the data measured by the electronic sensors. All data are recorded and
entered in the lab handouts preprinted matrices. Each student will drop one steel and one
marble ball from different heights, except lower 1/3 and special need students will drop
one steel ball from one height. Teacher will ask on at least one student from every group
to compare calculated and measured data of the experiment. Students will express results
using new vocabulary.

Teacher re-presentation (5 minutes)

Teacher will show new educational video incorporating new concept of conservation of
energy demonstrated in real life examples from simple to complex setups (from falling
tree branches to satellite launches). Teacher will call on students to restate new concept
using new vocabulary by selecting real life examples of their own choosing.

Homework (3 minutes)
Students will design a rollercoaster with given mass that will incorporate a loop-the-loop
and three drops. Students are allowed to design anything they like so long as the mass
(given) is not changed and the rollercoaster meets the minimum stated maneuvers.
Students will justify their designs by calculating relevant energy conservations and
transformations and writing down the reasons for their designs. The more innovative
designs will be displayed on the homework wall. Winners will be decided by student
acclamation.

Closure (2 minutes)
Teacher will re-present new concept using new analogies incorporating new vocabulary
to demonstrate relevance of new material to students lives.
Assessment and Evaluation
Teacher will assess and evaluate students understanding while circulating among lab
groups listening to students questions, observing students performing the lab, taking and
interpreting data, solving problems. Students will demonstrate their understanding by
connecting new concept with real life examples using new vocabulary.

ANNOTATION
Physics first and foremost deals in and with abstract concepts. The academic language
needed to successfully teach and learn physics is not exceptionally complex
grammatically, but semantically it is very subtle and precise. Great care must be taken by

teachers to communicate accurately concepts/ideas central to the subject. This is so

whether the students are native English-speakers or English Learners. Therefore I place
great emphasis on ensuring that the needed new vocabulary is clear and unambiguous,
and students demonstrate its mastery before progressing further along in content. Todays
cross section of Californias student population is such that it is almost a given that, there
will be ELs in my classroom as well as students with special needs. This compels me, the
teacher, to develop and utilize teaching strategies that enable me to ensure the academic
success of all students in my classroom. Although many ELs have a sufficient level of
conversational English, their academic language is lacking. The most effective set of
teaching strategies are that of Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English
(SDAIE), which I use in both writing my lesson plans and executing them. All students
speak a language. They are familiar with the structures of language in practice at least if
not in theory. They know that words have meanings and those words are represented by
sounds and written symbols. But merely presenting and memorizing words is far from
enough to learn and use a language successfully. We acquire language not when we
memorize vocabulary lists or do grammar exercises, but when we understand what
people say to us or what we read. To acquire language, we need to understand what is
said, not how it is said (Genzuk, 2011, p.7). The building blocks are still the words,
though, whose meaning is well-demonstrated and put in proper context, and not just
standalone words. That is why I always start the lesson plans with triggering previously
acquired vocabulary so that students are engaged from the first moments of the lesson
presentation. New concepts/ideas are introduced and named by making connection to
already acquired concepts with their vocabulary. The conservation of energy is a central

and seminal concept in physics. Before introducing this concept students already learned
about energy and its two most common forms in real life, namely kinetic and potential
energy. Up until this lesson those two forms of energy were treated as separate entities.
Every lesson benefits from linking students past learning and experiences to new
concepts about to be presented. Making explicit connections among concepts serves as a
form of reinforcement and review (Serdyukov & Hill, 2009, p. 200). The concept that,
the sum of these two energies comprise a constant for every closed system requires the
introduction of the concept of conservation of energy. Energy is not created or destroyed,
but transformed from one form to another is new. The word conservation in this instant
needs clarification because in the vernacular it has different meanings, and some of those
meanings might be actually contrary to the meaning used in the sense it is used in
physics. To clarify this meaning I used video demonstration of the concept so that the
vocabulary would be used in context but by a different voice (that of the narrator) and its
written form would be displayed, too. This meets the applicable California content
standards for physics. After the video I will incorporate the new vocabulary into real life
examples, which will compel students to pay attention to the examples adduced while
learning to listen to the vocabulary used in proper context. The handouts students get at
the beginning of their lab exercise contains the written forms of the vocabulary which
they have to define for themselves in their own words in any language they wish to use.
Then I will read the instructions off the lab handout so that students hear what is written
and they can follow it. As a former EL, I am fully and keenly aware that only listening to
instructions is hard. Oral instruction becomes more comprehensible for ELLs when the
speaker focuses on how the words of instruction are delivered (Serdyukov & Hill, 2009,

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p. 209). It also helps them to see and follow in written form what is read out loud.
Language is transmitted in oral and written form simultaneously. I will read the lab
instructions once. Their reading and interpreting the lab instructions and text fulfills the
Language Arts standards requirements. Students working in small groups (four to a
group) have different roles to play in order to successfully complete the lab exercises,
compelling them to further communicate with each other and using the new vocabulary
in proper context. After the completion of the lab the use of more in-depth educational
videos will reinforce the relevance of the newly learned concepts for all students.
Technology has been proved to accommodate learning styles and to be an effective
motivator for students with specific learning needs. Furthermore, students working in
collaborative-team-learning settings appear to function better when learning events are
accompanied by technology use (Valdez, 2005). Technology should be integrated in
teaching and learning whenever the teacher sees an opportunity to enhance the learning
the learning environment (Serdyukov & Ryan, 2013, p. 156). With showing well-chosen
videos I will demonstrate relevance of new material to students lives. The homework I
assigned for this lesson will tie the whole lesson together with a fun activity all students
can relate to: a roller coaster.
One of the students in my class, Anabel from Guatemala, whose CELDT results indicate
an overall score in the Early Intermediate range, has been identified as an English learner.
She is literate in Spanish and often reads Spanish language books and magazines,
indicating that her first language is strong academically, and as long as words are
translated into Spanish, more than likely she will understand the concept that is
translated. That is why I allow students to define new concepts in their own words using

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any language they wish to use in the lab handouts, which will be attached to their
notebooks. She will also benefit from the fact that her father works in a biomedical
research lab and her mother is a nurse, so content can be explained to her in her native
tongue, in a way providing her a sort of bilingual education, because she will be learning
content in two languages. I am confident that using the strategies and methods I described
and explicated, Anabel will be able achieve academic success and her English will
improve and develop rapidly.

References:
Serdyukov, P., Hill, R. (2009). Methodology for Second Language Development
(5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon
Serdyukov, P., Ryan, M., (2013). The 5-Minute Lesson Plan. Boston: Pearson
Genzuk, M. (2011). Specially designed academic instruction in English (SDAIE) for
language minority students. Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research Digital
Papers Series. Center for Multilingual, Multicultural Research, University of Southern
California. Retrieved on Sept. 21st, 2014, from
http://www.usc.edu/dept/education/CMMR/DigitalPapers/SDAIE_Genzuk.pdf
Valdez, Gilbert, (2005). Critical Issue: Technology: A Catalyst for Teaching and
Learning in the Classroom. North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.
Retrieved on Sept. 21st, 2014, from
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te600.htm

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