Karin Stefans Lesson Four Reflection November 30, 2009 Description To begin the lesson, I placed different examples

of triangles, squares, rectangles, rhombuses, trapezoids, hexagons and circles in paper bags, with one shape in each bag. I placed two or three bags at each table, and told the students that they were not to look inside the bags, but they could touch the item in the bag and describe it to their neighbors. After a minute or two at one table, I had the students switch tables and repeat the process. After another two table switches, I had the students return to their seats and I collected the paper bags. I then asked the students what kind of things they felt in the bags. Whenever a student told me that they had felt a specific shape, I asked him how he knew what shape it was. After the volunteers had described the shapes that they had felt, I picked up a circle and asked the students to identify it and describe it. The student volunteer said the name and attempted a brief description, and I supplemented the description by asking for other volunteers descriptions and by providing my own. After we had defined the shape, I asked the students to find examples of circles in the classroom. After they pointed out the example of the circle, I wrote circle on a sticky note and let the student who found the item label it. I repeated this process for the rest of the shapes, but I showed rectangles and squares together to highlight the differences between the two shapes. Also, I had the students repeat the names of the shapes together as a class for hexagon, rhombus, and trapezoid, since these shapes where less familiar than the other shapes. These shapes were also more difficult to find in the classroom, but the students still made suggestions. After all of the shapes had been defined and explained, I passed out plastic bags full of paper cutouts of different examples of all of the shapes. I told the students that they were to work

with their tables to sort the shapes into groups and name the groups. Some of the groups finished relatively quickly, but grouped rhombuses and trapezoids together. When I pointed this out, they were able to correct separate the shapes. One group was a larger group, and the girls started complaining that they boys would not let them help, while the boys said that they girls did not want to help. I tried to get them to work together by moving the girls closer to the shapes. When most of the groups were finished, I had the students who were done come over to the rug area. When the students who were not finished saw that there was going to be another activity, they managed to finish sorting right away. I had the class divide into boys and girls. Each group got a long loop of yarn, and I had each student hold onto the yarn. I told the students that they were going to form the yarn into the shape that I said. I had the students start off by creating a square. I tried to move back and forth between the groups, but it ended up that the classroom teacher led the boys and I led the girls. The classroom teacher picked one boy to decide who would be the corners of a shape, and the boys had a lot of success. The girls, however, were much more disorganized because there was not one person in charge. They began to get frustrated, and took much longer than the boys to create their shapes. I started appointing helpers to chose the corners and to help move people, but the girls still had a lot of trouble creating the shapes. Analysis and Changes The lesson started off very well. The students really liked moving to different stations to feel the shapes, and the classroom teacher thought that the stations and bagged shapes was a good activity because students love hands on materials. The class also stayed well under control because I told every table which new table they were to move to, so there was no

confusion. Some of the students told me that they had done a similar activity in first grade where they had to draw the shape just by feeling it and without looking. However, everyone seemed to enjoy the activity. The explanation portion of the lesson also went well. The students were very familiar with circles, squares, triangle, and rectangles, which I expected. However, while it seemed that the students had no trouble identifying these shapes, some of them did have a little trouble explaining why they knew that a given shape was what it was. Adding an activity where the student had to describe the shape to another student who then had to draw the correct shape would be a good way to emphasize the importance of being able to verbally describe the shapes. The students really enjoyed finding examples of shapes in the classroom, but they enjoyed it so much that it started to slow down the lesson. Everyone wanted a chance to go, and we ended up spending a little more time on finding shapes in the classroom than was necessary. We did have time for everything in the lesson, but I felt a little rushed on some of the more complicated shapes, which were the shapes that were newest to the students. I would not take searching for shapes out of the lesson because of how much the students enjoyed the practice of finding shapes and how important I think it is that students have a real-life connection to the material, but the classroom teacher made a good suggestion that I give every student a sticky note with the name of a shape on it and let all of the students to go out and find their own shapes. This would probably take less time, and it would also help with the problem I had of students getting out of their seats to see the shapes because they did not want to sit at their desks. I also could have prevented this behavior if I gave more specific instructions that only the student with the sticky note was to be out of his or her chair.

As I realized that the students had some trouble describing the shapes, even though they could identify them, I decided that I needed to emphasize the difference between squares and rectangles. I explained them in a more comparative way, and had the students look for both rectangles and squares. It was good that I did this, and in the future I will keep in mind that emphasizing the differences between similar shapes (quadrilaterals in particular) is very important. In fact, I could do a future lesson entirely based on the differences between squares, rectangles, rhombuses and trapezoids. The sorting of the paper shapes went well over all, although I think in the future I might replace it with some sort of drawing activity. The students did not have much trouble identifying the shapes, and I think a chance to draw the shapes might have been more fun and beneficial. I might replace the sorting activity with the partner describe and draw activity that I explained earlier. The activity where the students were to create a shape out of yarn did not go as well as I thought it would. The boys loved the activity and I think it was a good review for them, but the girls just got really frustrated. I have done this activity with older students before, and it has worked very well, but the second graders could not organize themselves; they needed one person in charge. I did not realize soon enough that they needed much more leadership than I had provided, and by the time I starting trying to have a few students be my assistants, the girls had gotten so frustrated that they were not willing to try the activity again and were losing interest. The classroom teacher had immediately designated helpers in the boys group to decide where the corners of the shape would be, and the boys were very successful. I think that if I attempt this activity again with younger students, I would have the groups be a little smaller, and I would

make sure to have a student leader in every group to help give directions. The classroom teacher also suggested that I have pictures of the shapes for students to reference as they made the shape, and I think that that would be a good scaffold.

Introduction to Geometry: 2D shapes Grade Level: Second grade Time: 60 minutes Materials: shape bags: square, triangle, rectangle, circle, hexagon, rhombus, trapezoid shapes, one shape per bag, 15 bags total two ropes whiteboards and markers set of cutout shapes, one per table NCTM Standards: In prekindergarten through grade 2, students should be able to: - recognize, name, build, draw, compare, and sort two- and three-dimensional shapes - describe attributes and parts of two- and three-dimensional shapes KUSD Standards: - In second grade, student identifies 2-dimensional shapes (triangle, square, rectangle, rhombus, hexagon, trapezoid, circle). Student Objectives: 1. Students will be able to identify shapes of different sizes as squares, rectangles, circles, hexagons, rhombuses, and trapezoids by dividing the shapes into groups. 2. Students will be able to create their own squares, rectangles, circles, hexagons, rhombuses, and trapezoids when given the name of the shape. Teaching Procedure: Introduction (students=S) (<10 min) 1. Pair up S. Distribute the shape bags around the room so that there are five stations with three shape bags at each station. 2. Ask S to reach inside each bag, and without looking, feel the shape inside and try to describe it to their partner. Switch who gets to feel the shape. 3. Have S move to another station and repeat. 4. Have S return to their seats. Development (40 min) 1. Ask S what shapes they and their partner thought that they felt. 2. Ask S if there were any shapes that they couldnt identify. 3. Give a volunteer a bag (with a circle in it) and see if he can guess what shape is in the bag only by touching the shape.

4. Show the circle. Have S repeat the name. Ask the students what they notice about the circle. (Attributes: round, no edges, symmetrical.) Ask S if they see any circles in the room have one volunteer at a time go put a circle label on the object. Have S draw a circle on their whiteboard. 5. Repeat the process for square. (Attributes: all sides are even, four corners, four sides, right angles). 6. Repeat process for rectangle. (Attributes: sides can be different lengths, four sides, four corners, right angles). 7. Repeat process for triangle. (Attributes: three sides, three points). 8. Repeat process for hexagon. (Attributes: six sides, six corners). 9. Repeat process for trapezoid. (Attributes: four sides, four corners, two sides are the same length, two sides are not). 10. Repeat for rhombus. (Attributes: four sides, four corners, corners do not need to be right angles). 11. At their tables, have S sort cut-out shapes into groups by name. Then have S describe each group in their own words. 12. If S finish early, have them use the shapes in the bags to create a picture. They must be able to name every shape that they use in the picture. Conclusion (10 min) 1. Divide class up into two groups. 2. Tell S that they will be making shapes as a group. Use volunteers to show how to create a shape by holding onto a rope and moving the rope into the desired shape. S cannot let go of the rope. Once S think that the shape is correct, they will carefully place the rope on the ground to check for accuracy. 3. Play this game with the required shapes until the end of the class. Assessment -All students will participate in group and partner activities.