EDR 321 Lesson Plan (Fall 2015)

EDR 321 Student Name: Amanda Bondy

Grade Level/Content Area: 6th Grade Math
Placement School: Cross Creek Charter Academy
Collaborating Teacher: James Wagner
Content Area
Grade

6th Grade Math

Date of Lesson

10/29/15

Lesson Title

Writing Expressions

Lesson (circle/highlight
one)

Independent
planned

Standards

CCSS.Math.Content.6.EE.A.2 Write, read, and evaluate expressions in which letters stand for
numbers.

Co-

Key Vocabulary

Texts/Visuals/Resources/Supplementary Materials

Sum, quotient, product,

variable, term, algebraic
expression

Worksheet (attached), Big Ideas 6th grade book (green), teacher notes created by
James Wagner (attached), Wing Flavors homework (attached)

Context

In section 1 the students learned about the different parts of an algebraic expression.
Essential Question of Chapter 3 Section 2 is how can you write an expression that represents and
unknown quantity?
In section 3 they will learn the properties of addition and multiplication and how these properties
pertain to algebraic expressions

Objectives

Meaningful Instructional Activities

Assessment

Content
Objective(s):

Launch

Launch

I can write a
numerical

We will start off the lesson by having the students pull out
As the students are correcting their
their wing flavors (homework) from yesterday and correcting
homework I will walk around to
their work from the answer that will be displayed on the board. make sure they all did it (noon
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expression.
We will review
how to write a
numerical
expression
given a
sentence. If
students
understand this
they should be
able to take a
sentence such
as 12 less than
30 and write 3012.
I can write an
algebraic
expression.
Students who
are able to do
this will be able
to take a
sentence such
as the product
of 3 and a
number z and
write 3 z or
3z

or

z
(3)

Language
Objective(s):
I will be listening

If the students have any questions about the homework this is

the time to ask them.

detentions will be handed out if

they did not). Once they are done
checking I will ask the students to
Lesson Sequence
SAS themselves (self-assessment
1. Brain storming clue words: I will pass out a worksheet to
survey). We have a scale on the
the students that has sections for each of the major
wall that has a variety of symbols
operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and
on it, we ask the students to SAS
division). Each operation has three boxes underneath of it. themselves by drawing the
First, the students will think of words that can be used to
appropriate symbol at the top of
express different operations. To help them understand I
their papers and then we walk
will give the example that if we want to find the sum of
around to see what they have
two numbers, then we must add them together. Once they written down.
cannot come up with anymore words on their own they
Lesson Sequence
will turn and talk to the people around them. If there are
any words they did not have in the first box they will write
1. As the students are
these in the second box. After they have exhausted all of
brainstorming (individually and
their ideas as pairs we will come together as a class and
in pairs) I will be walking
make a master list. Any words that the students did not
around to see what they have
have on their papers should go in the third box of each
come up with. Once we are
operation.
creating a class list I will start
at one corner of the room and
2. Note: First, I will pass out the teacher notes and the
ask each student to add one
students are to glue, tape, or staple, these on to the left
word to the list.
side of their math books. On the right they will put our
chart that we have just created. They must also write the
title of the lesson, 3-2 Writing Expressions, as well as the I
can statement I can write an expression for an unknown
quantity. Second, as a class we will walk through a
number of examples. Writing a numerical expression from
a sentence, writing an algebraic expression from a
sentence, writing an algebraic expression from a word
problem. The students will be given a problem and a few
minutes to work on it. I will then ask a student to walk me
through exactly what they did as I do it on the board. This
is how we will do all of the examples.
3. Homework: Students will be assigned homework problems

2. As the students are doing their

examples independently I will
talk around to see how they
are doing. I will use this
observation to select students
to share their process and
results with the class.
3. If they have time to do
homework in class then I will
walk around to answer
questions as they come up and
to make sure that no one is
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for students to
be saying the
variable instead
of the letter.

to do for the following day. We do our homework in what

we call wing flavors. Meaning our students can choose
to do mild (below grade level), spicy (at grade level), or
extra spicy (above grade level).
Wrap-up

having too much trouble. If

there is not time for homework
in class then I will assess how
they did the following day
when we go over it.

If we have time before I had out the homework I will write a

few problems on the board and ask for volunteers to come up
and do them. As the volunteers are doing the problems on the
board the other students will do them in their notebooks. We
will then discuss if we think our volunteers did them correctly
and make changes as needed.
Connecting this lesson to literacy-based research/literature:
During this lesson I will be using the thinking strategy of think, pair, share which is found in Making Thinking Visible.
Think, pair, share, is a strategy that first has the students think about an idea or question individually, then share their
ideas with a partner, and then sharing their thoughts with the class. It is supposed to promote student understanding
by creating a discussion where students have to explain their reasoning behind their thinking. CT and I often use this
thinking strategy and so my students had experience discussing their ideas with their peers. I think that it will work
exceptionally well with this lesson because the students will have to brainstorm on the spot and this can often be
difficult to do. I know that I do my best brainstorming when I am able to talk to others about the topic. That being said I
think the most ideas will be written in the second box for most students. This lesson supports students mathematical
literacy because it forces them to think about different ways of saying thing mathematical operations that we often
talk about in class and expands their mathematical vocabulary.
Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. (2011). Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding,
and Independence for All Learners. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Post-Teaching Reflection
After the Lesson, reflect in writing on the following questions
1. Sohow do you feel the lesson went and why?
I was fortunate enough to get to teach this lesson 3 times and honestly the 1st time I did not think that it went well.
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The students struggled to come up with the words that I was looking for and the word problems really seemed to
stump them. Fortunately the more practice I got with the lesson the better it went. I was able to ask the write
questions and give good examples that allowed the students to understand most of the information.
2. Provide evidence of the full range of student learning
Can do: This student is a can do student because why she was not able to come up with all of (or even many) of
the terms on her own she was able to when given the opportunity to discuss.
Can almost do: This student can almost do because she was able to come up with most of the words between
individual brainstorming and partner discussion. There were only a few words that she was unable to come up with
that made our class list.
Can do with support: This student is can do with support because she failed to add any terms during discussion. I
am not sure if she had all the terms before discussion or if she did not discuss. Either way she still added plenty
when it came to the class discussion, which makes me think that she did not even try to discuss with a partner.
3. After identifying the full of range of student learning (see question #2 above) and the factors that
may have influenced learning, what are your (and your CTs) next steps and why?
Initially we had planned to have the students take a quiz on sections 1 and 2 tomorrow however after looking at the
students work I think that we will need another day to practice the material in both sections before assessing them
on it. This is because many of the students seem to be struggling with the fact that we are now doing algebra. Also
we have the time because we moved through those sections so quickly.
4. What additional ways can (and will) you support students content-area literacy development (e.g.,
the ability to read, write, speak, perform, listen, and communicate for various purposes in your content
area)?
One thing my students really struggle with is story problems. This makes me believe that their mathematical literacy
is lower than it should be. As a result of this my CT and I are trying to include more real world examples in all of our
lessons so that the students have more practice. This is important because often on our tests and quizzes there are
at least a few story problems, and I would like to see more students understanding these questions and getting them
right.

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