Applied Lesson Plan - Behaviorism

Applied Lesson Plan – Behaviorism
Behavioral Objective: Given a blank food pyramid, students will be able to label each of the food groups and each of their daily percentages respectively without error.

Task Analysis:
• Students will learn the importance of utilizing the food pyramid

• Students will discover the different food groups

• Students will memorize these different food groups using Mnemonics

• Students will understand what an ounce is equal to through elaboration

• Students will learn daily percentage intake for each food group

• Students will match the food groups with their percentages

• FINAL PRODUCT – Students will correctly, without error, label the food pyramid with their respective daily percentage intakes.

How I can use the following behaviorism principles or strategies to teach this lesson:

Positive/Negative Reinforcement – In order to have the students correctly memorize the different food groups, I will give positive reinforcement each time the student identifies a food group, or what is categorized under each food group, correctly. I will ask the students several questions regarding the different food groups. I will also name a food and the student must raise their hand and put that food into its correct food group. Every time a student answers correctly, they will get a minute added on to their recess. I almost said they would get a piece of candy but then I realized this is a health lesson!

Reinforcement Schedules – I will use a fixed interval throughout the lesson to reemphasize the different food groups. Every ten minutes throughout the lesson I will have the class repeat the phrase Drinking Milk Often Feels Very Good. This is the mnemonic device that was used at the beginning of class to help the students memorize the different food groups. By the end of the lesson, students should be able to take this mnemonic device and decipher the different food groups from it. There will be no reinforcement in place after the students say this phrase as a class so the students’ response rate will not drop because of lack of reinforcement.

Shaping – If students are struggling with this topic, I will use the task analysis listed above to shape the students. Any time a struggling student progresses to the next task in the task analysis, I will reinforce that progress by giving them a gold star sticker.

Positive Practice – As I ask students questions about the daily percentage intakes for each of the food groups, they will raise their hand with their response. If a student is incorrect in their response, they must write down the food group that was given and write the correct daily percentage needed five times on a piece of paper. If students are not visual learners, they must repeat the correct food group with its correct daily percentage intake in their heads five times. If the student is practicing the correct responses after making a mistake, this will help the students remember their errors so they will not make the same mistake twice.

Observational Learning – Students will be placed in groups to practice the food pyramid concepts. If some students in the group do not understand the concepts, they can observe the other students in the group. If everyone in the group is struggling, I will model the food pyramid concepts on the board. In order to review for their quiz on labeling the food pyramid with the respective daily percentage intakes, I will draw a blank food pyramid on the board and have students volunteer to come up to the board and fill it out. This will help students to imitate others’ behaviors through observation.