InTasc #5
The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
Each of these artifacts is a 5E lesson plan. 5E lesson plans are a framework for planning instruction that incorporate some kind of engagement at the beginning of the lesson to connect to prior knowledge or make the lesson relevant, an exploration which typically makes up the largest part of the lesson, an explain section in which the findings from the exploration are discussed and formalized, an elaboration through practice of the new skill or concept, and an evaluation to assess student learning. Lessons may also include an extension, typically during the exploration or elaboration section, to challenge learners who require further cognitive demand.
TMfSJ 5E Lesson Plan – Air Quality Investigation
This is a 5E lesson plan to explore math concepts in the context of social justice. It is adapted from a lesson from Middle School Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice by Berry et al. That focuses on air quality and how it relates to median income in different zip codes. Students are introduced to the issue with a news clip from a neighborhood in Cincinnati and brief discussion before beginning an exploration of the city’s air quality by zip code. After applying the data cycle and a discussion of findings, students then a prompted to do a similar exploration of air quality in their own area.
This lesson plan demonstrates how to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues. Students must think critically about the local issue and the data collected. There is also a connection to global issues of pollution and the atmosphere. The lesson also includes an extension activity where students consider factors that may contribute to their findings on air pollution and work together to brainstorm creative but realistic solutions under the constraints.
It is important that math goes beyond rote procedure and becomes relevant and useful for students. Using math as a tool to understand the world and solve problems is a huge part of developing critical thinkers in the math classroom. The goal is to educate learners to be leaders and problem solvers once they leave school and to have autonomy over their lives through knowledge and skills learned in the math classroom.
5 Discourse Methods 5E Lesson Plan Reflection
On the last pages of this 5E lessons plan on finding the unknown measures of quadrilaterals is a reflection on the use of the 5 discourse practices. It describes the quality and variety of the discourse when the lesson was implemented, and the strategy used when selecting and sequencing responses. There is a methodical approach to which student responses are chosen and in what order they’re called upon.
This reflection shows an understanding of how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving. In the lesson, students were tasked with finding unknown measures of quadrilaterals using the properties of those shapes. Students worked together in small groups to construct their own strategies before sharing with the class. Students shared differing perspectives on the same problems and drew connections to each other's strategies and ideas.
Also apparent in my reflection on this lesson is my excitement for facilitating discussion in this way. The five discourse practices have become a huge part of how I like to format my lessons and get students talking about math. I like how I can get many students involved and have them take ownership over constructing knowledge together.
STEM 5E Lesson Plan
This is a 5E lesson plan that asks students to investigate the viability of growing various produce and the potential benefits or downsides of either growing or purchasing your own food. It engages students by relating to something many of them may have experience with and asks them to challenge their ideas about where food comes from and what they value in the food they consume. They model the cost of growing food versus purchasing it using linear equations and use that information along with other factors such as personal preferences to formulate an opinion.
This lessons plan shows an understanding of how to use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking and problem solving related to authentic local and global issues. Students are engaged through a discussion of their own experiences and a real-world problem they will consider using mathematics. The problem connects to local and global issues of environmental impact, public health, and land use. Students also must navigate differing perspectives on growing versus purchasing produce and think critically about which they value more.
This lesson shows a very real, small-scale application that math students will use in real life. Adults often face a question of convenience and the cost of purchasing a product versus startup costs and operating costs of producing something yourself. This lesson applies to growing food but also to cooking at home versus eating out, buying new clothes versus repairing old clothes, or buying tools to make home repairs versus hiring a contractor. This lesson format can be adapted to address any of those questions and more that adults face in their daily lives, and that math can help inform.