LESSON DESIGN PRESENTATION

KASSIA KUKURUDZA DONCREST, PRACTICUM 2 (SPRING 2012)

Placement: Grade 6/7, Moraine Hills Lesson: Introduction to Healthy Eating Fishbone Diagram

OVERVIEW OF LESSON (3 MINUTES)

Introduction to the Healthy Living, healthy eating unit for a grade 6/7 class Lesson Breakdown: Diagnostic activity to determine prior knowledge of the students in relation to food choices and the social, economic and health factors behind them, in order to guide future lessons and to generate interest in unit o Began with a snowball mental set students were asked to choose a favourite food, then to write on a piece of paper one reason why they liked this food (be it taste, memories, etc. modeled this to enhance understanding). Snowball throw to share reasons with other members of class, then shared ideas as whole class and recorded on smartboard o Main lesson collaborative fishbone activity that was a take on DeBonos thinking hats students were presented with scenario that an outside company had contacted the school with the desire to come in and sell inexpensive, Canadian-style food to students twice a week o Students put into collaborative groups and assigned a perspective/ role that was explained via a handout (show handout) parents, students, admin, eco team, global foods club, and healthy schools team o Groups brainstormed possible ideas/ feelings of their group, then shared as class using large fishbone diagram to collaborate and share/ present ideas as a class Learning Goal: We are learning what factors influence the healthy eating choices that we make. Social/ Collaborative Goal: We are practicing mutual respect for others ideas and beliefs. Show artifacts photos, handouts, lesson plan I chose this lesson because when I was writing it I was very excited I have a background in public nutrition and I was excited to share this passion with the class. I also thought this was a wonderful topic to generate discussion, empathy, and excitement as this is an authentic problem in my students liv es, and allowed me to embed the language arts (specifically perspective, which we were currently discussing in our narratives unit) and to try new instructional strategies

REFLECTION (8 MINUTES)
Successes of lesson: o I felt the plan was strong and this was a good diagnostic to help me judge the background knowledge and experiences of the class

By providing students with an authentic and relevant scenario, I increased engagement and interest, and using role-playing helped students to appreciate various perspectives o The lesson also offered several possible extensions that could be used to create integrated lessons throughout the unit, for example: perspective/ persuasive literacy lessons, critical media, etc. o I had used role-playing before with the class in literacy/ drama to help create interest, engagement and to aid in understanding of perspective; however, I was excited to combine it with the graphic intelligence strategy of fishbone I felt that this not only embraced the visual and spatial intelligences, but also created a class artifact that could be used throughout the unit o Considered several intelligences: verbal/ linguistic in the group discussions and presentations, visual/ spatial by using graphic organizers, interpersonal and intrapersonal, kinesthetic (although this was to be further developed in the closure) o Very conscious of Johnsons 5: built in individual accountability in the snowball, as well as by making students aware that I would choose one of them to present from their group (but also made safe by giving time to practice as a group and was cognizant of who I chose to present), had the social goal of mutual respect of opinions and beliefs because I felt it was essential in this lesson, and this did in fact become an issue in some groups (had to remind them of the goal and ask them to reflect, and reflected as a class at the end) o Blooms taxonomy: my goal for this practicum was to consider Blooms in my planning and to choose instructional intelligences and strategies that corresponded with the levels of thinking necessary for the lesson and the curriculum expectations. I feel this lesson showcases the growth I have made in this area although this was an introductory lesson, it did require higher levels of thinking (analysis, evaluation, synthesis) and I think these levels were encouraged by having students consider and discuss (oral language) ideas before choosing the most important and presenting to the class via graphic organizer Areas of growth o Some areas of the lesson were disjointed. By building in Johnsons 5 and Tribes, my classroom management was made easier; however, it was the end of the day, the students were excited for the weekend, and some parts did not go as smoothly as planned An example of this is the snowball activity it took a lot longer for the students to understand what I meant by why they liked the food, and although I modeled the concept some students were still unsure. I also tried two ways of doing the snowball safely but neither worked very well, and I made note of some important changes I should have made, like adding a clean-up crew, standing in community circle, etc. o Although I tried to build individual accountability into the group work, the engagement of some students was still low. I created heterogeneous groups in terms of gender, collaborative skills and learning styles but homogenous in terms of academic ability, but I made some false assumptions in regards to how students/ groups would react to subject material (e.g. Global Foods group) o I wish that I had created more opportunities for individual and group reflection, especially the processing of the social goal. In closure, had originally planned to do a Put Yourself on the Line/ Ticket out the Door (time dependent), answering the question posed at beginning of class (see fishbone pic) based on experiences during lesson, but ran out of time. In future, need to manage time at the beginning of lessons better and also create urgency in groups + extensions for groups that finish early. Also should have time for groups to think about social goal before presenting o Assessment: diagnostic for class strong, but needed to do individual observations and anecdotal notes (should not have relied solely on work samples) o My students were getting antsy I wish I had built in a DPA

LESSON DESIGN GROWTH PLAN

LEARNING GOAL 1
I will create and implement appropriate closure activities that give my learners the opportunity to process and reflect upon the academic and collaborative goals of the lesson. Success Criteria: Closure activities involve reflection on both academic and collaborative goals Closure activities utilize a variety of instructional strategies (Ticket out the Door, Put Yourself on the Line, Learning Target Bulls-eyes) to appeal to a variety of learning styles and intelligences Closure activities require learners to use higher levels of thinking based on Blooms Taxonomy (analysis synthesis) in order to deepen understanding Closure activities will be used to check for understanding and plan next steps/ goals for future lessons, and this will be transparent so that learners will understand that their final reflections have meaning and purpose

LEARNING GOAL 2
I will develop a treasure chest of instructional strategies to enhance understanding and reengage learners, and will effectively use these strategies by analyzing classroom behavior/ levels of understanding and reacting with appropriate strategies in a timely, flexible and effective manner. Success Criteria: Strategies will incorporate TRIBES< cooperative learning, and DPA/ kinesthetic activities Strategies will be employed based on an accurate assessment of classroom behavior/ learning and will be both flexible and timely Strategies will be used to refocus the community and reengage learners, and will be used to enhance other classroom management strategies