Applied Lesson Plan - Social Constructivism

Applied Lesson Plan – Social Constructivism

This lesson could be taught very nicely using cognitive apprenticeship. First the students would observe the more knowledgeable other model the food pyramid. After the pyramid has been taught and modeled, the students will be asked questions regarding the food pyramid. The more knowledgeable other will support the students by giving hints, reminders, or more representations to help the students answer these questions about the food pyramid.

In order for the students to receive scaffolding, the teacher will provide assistance as the student’s further research the food pyramid. The students will use cultural tools such as the internet to discover more about the pyramid and its model. They will explore in-depth about the food pyramid including the different food groups and the recommended daily intake amounts. The teacher will be helping the students to get started by showing them how to find the food pyramid using their cultural tool, the internet. The more knowledgeable other will ask specific questions to the learner in order to give the students an idea of what to look for. The more knowledgeable other will start scaffolding the students by asking them questions about what the different food groups are and the leaner will hopefully gear their focus toward that.

Once the students have displayed that they know what they are doing and how to research the food pyramid, the teacher will let the learner figure it out themselves and will be there as a guide and will walk around and wait for questions to be asked. The teacher will maintain the zone of proximal development by making sure that the students receive a balance of both direct instruction and guided instruction. Students will articulate their knowledge of the food pyramid by explaining it to each other. They can also do this by drawing the food pyramid and labeling its recommended daily intakes. This will ensure that the zone of proximal development is maintained.

The students will then compare their food pyramid model with the one the more knowledgeable other used to model with at the beginning of class and they can reflect on what they have learned. The teacher will ask the students how this information can be applied to their lives and will guide them to the correct answer. If students do not understand what the teacher is looking for the teacher will explain the usefulness of the food pyramid in staying healthy. Throughout the lesson, there is some instruction from the more knowledgeable other given to the learner but this relationship is especially maintained through asking and answering guided questions to help scaffold the students and maintain their zone of proximal development.

TPACK

The content I am focusing on comes from the Utah State Core Curriculum. It is the third grade visual arts standard 4 objective 3. This content is supposed to focus on famous artists or artwork. I decided to teach about four artists: van Gogh, Picasso, Monet, and da Vinci.

The pedagogy I am using fits really well with the content because I wanted to basically focus on the lives and the artwork of these men. I wanted this to be interesting to the students so I am teaching in a way that will be interesting and insightful for the students.

The technology I am using works really well with the content and the pedagogy. I wanted the students to be interested in learning about these artists so I am using google earth to pinpoint the birth places of these four individuals. When the students click on the locations of the birth places, they will be able to read a brief synopsis of the artist and click on a link to wikipedia so that they can read more into the topic for themselves. At each location, the students are able to complete an activity that is engaging and deals with either the artist or the artwork being represented. This helps the students to understand the content and fits really well with the pedagogy because it allows me to teach in an interesting way that is engaging to the students.

Virtual Tour Plan

Location	Activity	Google Earth Content
1. Groot Zundert, Netherlands	Sketch a self-portrait	Picture of van Gogh’s self portrait and brief description of Vincent van Gogh. Wiki link to his biography
2. Florence, Italy	Write your first reaction to this painting. What do you think is interesting about this painting?	Picture of Mona Lisa and brief description of Leonardo da Vinci. Wiki link to his biography
3. Paris, France	Since Monet traveled repeatedly to Venice and London, measure how far it is from Paris to these two locations.	Picture of Monet and brief description of who he was. Brief description of who he was. Discuss his travels to Venice and London. Wiki link to biography
4. Andalusian,Spain	Play around with Mr. Picasso Head	Picture of Pablo Picasso and brief description of who he was. Wiki link to his biography
Details of image overlay / path / polygon:

Applied Lesson Plan - Developmental Cognitivism

Applied Lesson Plan: Developmental Cognitivism

1. Stage-based learning – Before teaching this lesson I would definitely consider the stage that my students are at in their learning. I do not want to teach this topic to the wrong age group because they will not be able to understand what I am trying to teach them. Also, I will be sure that I am not trying to just force the students to believe what I am teaching but I will be teaching the right age group so that they actually understand what I am teaching, rather than just saying that they understand. In the example we watched in class, the father practically forced his daughter into saying that the two lines of cereal were the same when she was not even in the concrete operational stage yet. This is something that I must avoid while teaching this topic.

2. Uniqueness of individual learning – To consider this while teaching my lesson, I will make sure to reward the uniqueness of individual learning when I see individual learning take place. I will watch for personal progress, growth, and understanding. I will have the students compare their own work to their own work, rather than the work of others. I will consider those students who are much better individual learners than they are group learners. Because of this, I will allow students to choose if they want to work independently or with a group so that each type of learner has an equal learning opportunity.

3. Experience that involves action – I will make sure that while teaching this lesson students are up and moving, actively participating in the learning process. I do not want to lecture on the topic I teach but I want the students to do things. I want the students to perhaps even take the concept home with them and apply it at home. This works especially well with teaching health and the food pyramid. This helps the topic become more real to the students.

4. Necessity of social interaction – Because social interaction helps students learn from other students and provides feedback to both the teacher and student it is very necessary in a lesson. In order to make sure that social interaction is a part of my lesson, I will carefully plan effective group work, specify the learning tasks clearly, and monitor each group to make sure they understand the concepts correctly.

Adaptation – Adaptation can be demonstrated in this lesson plan if we continue with the idea of elaboration from my cognition lesson. If the students know through this elaboration, what the proportions of the different food groups in the food pyramid are equal to in terms they understand; they are able to assimilate this new information into existing schemas and can adapt to the concept being taught.

Disequilibrium – In order to demonstrate disequilibrium, I will ask the students why people lose their teeth. The students’ probable response would be because they don’t brush their teeth. I will tell the students that this is not the reason in most cases. I will explain that today we will find out the reason why people lose their teeth. Because the students will be in a state of disequilibrium (expecting lost teeth to be due to not brushing then finding out that this is not the reason why people lose their teeth) they will be more interested to learn. Being in a state of disequilibrium is optimal for learning. Then, sometime during the lesson I will briefly explain to the students that people actually lose their teeth because they do not eat foods that contain Vitamin C.

Schemas – The concept of symbolic schemas can be utilized in my lesson plan. In my cognition lesson plan, students were to use a chain method by memorizing a saying in order to help them remember the different food groups of the food pyramid. This is a mental representation of the food groups in the food pyramid. As the students recognize the phrase Drinking Milk Often Feels Very Good, they can notice the symbolic representation DMOFVG to mean the objects dairy, milk, other, fruit, vegetables, and grains. This is a great way to incorporate symbolic schemas into the lesson plan.

Discovery or guided discovery learning – In order to utilize this concept in my lesson plan, I could bring in examples and non-examples of a well balanced meal. I can have say three meals on different lunch trays displayed at the front of the classroom. The first meal can represent a horribly balanced meal, the second an ok meal, and the third can be the optimal balanced meal. At the beginning of class, I can have students come up and discuss the different meals on the table. I will ask guiding questions so that students can find out for themselves the differences between the meals and what I am trying to teach them about healthy dieting. I can ask the students questions pertaining to the different food groups without telling them about the different food groups, but I can have them try to come up with the different food groups on their own.

Classification – In order to utilize this concept, I could bring in several examples of foods that fit under each of the different food groups. I can mix them all up and place them on a table at the back of the room. At the end of the lesson, students could be assessed on the different food groups by classifying each of the different foods and putting them into their correct food group. This would be a great way to assess the students’ understanding of the different food groups and what classifies each food as being part of their specific food group.

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.

Digital Storytelling

Below is my Digital Storytelling!

TPACK

The content for this digital storytelling is found in the 5th grade language-arts, Standard 8 Objective 6 which states: Write in different forms and genres. This objective also includes the following:
* Produce personal writing (e.g., journals, personal experiences, eyewitness accounts, memoirs, literature responses).
* Produce traditional and imaginative stories, narrative and formula poetry.
* Share writing with others incorporating relevant illustrations, photos, charts, diagrams, and/or graphs to add meaning.

This fits in very well with the pedagogy because we are teaching the students to write their own stories based on personal experiences and/or imagination. I will show the students my personal adventure story through photostory or iMovie. I will then teach the students to produce their own personal writing and share it with the rest of their classmates. Also, by doing this project the students are learning to use technology and be creative with their work.

The technology really adds to the content and the pedagogy because it allows the students to find really fun and exciting ways to produce their personal writings. This technology also makes it more fun for the students to share their work because they could have a class movie/ story board day. This type of technology really enhances the materials and makes the work fun for the students and fun for those viewing the work. The students are able to share their personal writing and utilize their creativity in a fun way. It is also easy for the teacher to teach these concepts to the students because the technology makes it so much more engaging and fun!