Monday, May 26, 2008

sample of constructivist lesson plan

Constructivist Lesson Plan

The purpose of a constructivist learning is for the students to acquire knowledge and create an understanding on their own, with the guidance of the teacher. Through the students own experiences they are capable of learning something and comprehend it in their unique way.
The following lesson plan I have created is based on the constructivist point of view and it will revolve around a Math lesson on Shapes. Through this lesson plan, the students will be able to construct their own understanding of different shapes.

Lesson Plan:
Teacher: Seema Akkawi
Subject: Mathematics
Topic: Identifying different shapes
Date: 29 – 4 -2008
Grade: 3

Introduction: Everything that is tangible has a shape or form that makes it what it is. And every shape is different than the other, whether it varies with its size, angles, length or width. Through shapes we are able to define things and put them in groups or under certain categories such as triangles, squares, rectangles and so on…
Objectives: Objective 1: Recognize and define different shapes.
Objective 2: Collect and record data.
Objective 3: Make conclusions based on the data collected.
Materials: Scissors, Glue, Colors, Rulers, White Cardboards, Colored A-6 papers, pen and paper, a clear desk for each group to work on and a blackboard for teacher’s guidance.
Invitation: - There are many different shapes, who can state some of them?
- Why do builders or architectures, use different shapes when constructing a house or building or tower?
- Today each group of four students, are going to construct their own building or tower or house and explain why and how you used the different shapes.
Exploration: The teacher will draw on the board, various shapes and their names that the students can use and then:
- Create 5 groups, each with 4 students in it.
- Students are given a small individual activity on put different shapes under certain categories for example: triangles, ∆, ►,▼
- Students are given the material to start working as a group on creating their own building, tower or house.
- Students write a group paper as an explanation of what they did.
Explanation: What did you find out when constructing your own house or tower or building? (Each group will have their turn to present themselves and also have an engaged interaction with other students.)
Taking Action: The teacher will explain the concept to the students about shapes without the group explanations, and then the students will have their own explanation using their group terminology.
Conclusion: The teacher will then conclude by telling the students: You have now understood the meaning of shapes and how they are different from one another, also to be able to construct a building or home; you need a combination of shapes to create that ideal place in order for it to stand. With all the differences in sizes, angles and forms, shapes are all equally important in the end to create our tangible world.

Reflection:
Planning for a constructivist lesson was quite interesting yet a bit challenging since you had to concentrate and focus on the student more and how they will develop their own understanding of the concept. Coming up with the subject as well as the activity was a bit challenging since you had to make sure that the explanation was done through the students firstly. Also, the constructivist lesson plan had a lot of guidelines that needed to be followed in order to develop an effective lesson plan.
What made this lesson plan different is that, the focal point was on the students and not the teacher or the lesson itself. More over, this lesson plan was more time consuming that a normal lesson plan, since a lot needed to be taken into consideration as mentioned above. Finally, the constructivist lesson plan could probably only be done for certain topics and not all, since sometimes the teacher Needs to explain prior.
In conclusion it was a superior experience for me, since I understood how lesson plans could differ through their activities and explanations.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This was great! I loved the constructivist method you used. I am having a hard time doing a constructivist lesson plan on 2.03A-Determine whether a group of objects (up to 20) has an odd or even number of members, e.g., by pairing objects or counting them by 2s; write an equation to express an even number as a sum of two equal addends.

Any help or ideas would be great! Thank you

Unknown said...

Also having a hard time forming a constructivist lesson plan on trigonometry