Review

and Constructed Response Lesson Plan

What

My students will have just gone over the volume of Cylinders, Cones, Prisms,
Pyramids, and Spheres throughout the week. This class, I will be giving the students
a packet of challenge problems. This is important to have students push what they
learned about volume to the next level. Being able to do challenge problems in
groups will allow students to collaborate on putting the concepts they learned this
week into the real world. This also prepares the students for the constructive
response question they will have to answer at the end of the period. These
constructive response questions will appear on their PSSAs and help the students
get use to explaining and articulating their thought processes. We will do examples
together and then the students will be released to do partner work to explore the
content we discussed. The discussion, my notes, and the constructive response at
the end will be used as a formative assessment to gauge understanding of material.
The top three items on the agenda for the launch is the routine of my Classroom
Mentor for the beginning of class.

How

During the lesson, I plan on acting as a facilitator between the students in order to
have the focus be on the different strategies and reasoning amongst the students. I
will be listening to the different strategies that are being said and try to clarify
misconceptions. Having the students restate another students strategy will help the
students be able to have a deeper understanding of the topic and have kid friendly
language be used within the classroom. The challenge packet are hand-selected
questions by the teacher in order to push the students thinking and see how they
can relate the concept to real life situations. We will share strategies at the end via a
discussion, but I will also be floating around throughout the work period in order to
listen into the partner talk. Then I will pass out the constructed response and
monitor the room during.

Tasks: Students will use the properties of Cones, Pyramids, Cylinders, Prisms, and
Spheres in order to calculate their volumes. Students will have to interpret real life
situations involving volume.

Discourse: Students will work in partners to reach an answer and then discuss their
solution with the their partners and neighbors. I will act as facilitator as they solve
the problem while sharing different strategies and questions to their partners. I
want to provide the space for my students to do most of the talking and flush out
their ideas with other students. There will be a discussion at the end in order to
share out strategies amongst the students.

Tools: Students will use the volume formulas of Cones, Pyramids, Prisms, Spheres,
and Cylinders


Norms: Students will remain at a productive partner voice in order to not disturb
other pairs and engage in discussion in reflection over their work. Students will be
reminded to explain their answers as the normal expectation in math class.

Why

Students need to be challenged and should work in small groups in order to solve
multi-step problems. Too often, I find that students arent challenged to push their
thinking past procedural knowledge, and I want my students to feel that they have
room to grow mathematically. I want students to have plenty of explore time to
have the freedom of exploring different ways in which they find it easiest or most
useful to solve the problems at hand. Letting the students fend for themselves will
give the students a greater sense of ownership in their work and confidence when it
comes to solving similar future problems. Having the opportunity to work in pairs
will give the students a chance to share their ideas with one another and use each
other as a discussion board to discuss the work. The students taking ownership
over their own work, by exploring these problems, will lead to a deeper learning
experience than memorizing an equation that will easily be forgotten after the unit
is over. Different strategies will arise from the group discussion afterwards and will
let kids view the questions in a different light (hopefully). This will hopefully get the
students to become more reflective of their work and get a true deep learning
experience through the power of reflection.


Goals/Objectives:

Students will develop an understanding of volume and how to apply it to real world
situations. Students will be able to use properties of Cones, Pyramids, Prisms,
Cylinders, and Spheres in order to calculate their volumes.

PA Core Standards:

CC 7.G.B.6 Know the formulas for the volumes of cones, cylinders, and spheres and use them to
solve real-world and mathematical problems.

G.1.2.1.2 Identify and/or use properties of quadrilaterals.

CC.2.3.8.A.3 Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, volume and surface
area of two- and three-dimensional objects composed of triangles, quadrilaterals, polygons,
cubes, and right prisms.

Materials and Preparation:

Smart Board
Pencils

Challenge Packet
Constructed Response Sheet
Notebooks

Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues:

Students will work within groups of 2 during the activity portion of the assignment.
I will be floating around the partner groups to ensure students will be held on task
at all times. During the lecture and review portion of the class, students have the
expectations to be quiet and only talk when in a productive way. When students get
too talkative and loud, I will stop talking and wait for their eyes to look at me and we
will continue. This is typically not an issue in the class; the students are almost
always well behaved. I do not anticipate any issues during the class.

Plan (Class is 90 Minutes plus a 30 Minute Study Hall):

Launch/Lesson
Copy down homework
Two PSSA Prep questions will be on the board and the answers logged
into their clickers
Review Homework from the Night Before (The difficult problems)
Hand out Challenge Packet and let students start

Explore:
Students will be working in pairs doing word problems from the text and be
able to use each other as a discussion board in order to problem solve
Occasionally I will announce good strategies I hear or ask questions that will
make them think deeper about the situation.
Answers will be compared with partners and surrounding neighbors in class
I will be floating around between the pairs in order to hear how they are
solving the problem and to answer any questions needed (I will be looking at
different strategies used and asking students to explain their reasoning).
While walking around, I will share out strategies used by some pairs to help
move along students who seem to be struggling

Wrap Up:
Students will then come back together as a whole group and share out their
answers and strategies used to solve.
Time will be given for questions about strategies or discoveries made during
the activity
Students will then take the Constructed Response Sheet

Anticipating Students Responses and Your Possible Responses:

Students might mix up the volume formulas for the different shapes, but I will try
my best to not just give the formula, but ask them probing questions about what
makes up volume. Getting the students to think about each shape and what they
know about the properties and volume in general will allow them to derive the
formula themselves.

Assessment of the Goals/Objectives Listed Above:

Throughout the explore time, I will be going around to each group and seeing how
each student is solving the problems, as well as listening in on the discussion
between the two partners. While floating around the room, I will be making notes of
strategies used in order to see where misconceptions may be happening. The
discussion during the launch and after the exploration will be used to assess
students reasoning behind their work. I will be putting an emphasis on students
articulating how they solved the problems given. The constructive response will be
a way for me to see the students thought processes and tell if they can articulate
their answers.

Accommodations:

There are plenty of challenge problems for the students to do so there should not be
any students getting done before the constructed response. If a student needs some
privacy for the constructed response, the student can take it in the Pod (the area
outside the classroom that is more secluded).