Constructivist Lesson Plans

While studying Constructivism in my first graduate cohort class, I found these helpful lesson plans.

1.  Personal Essays and NPR’s “This I Believe”

Web Link: http://learnercentereded.org/standards_essays.html

The “Personal Beliefs” essay uses constructivist theory to improve student learning.  It begins with an activity designed to activate their prior knowledge of a topic.  Students begin with an agree/disagree “Corners” activity where they discuss their knowledge of the topic and develop their own beliefs and opinions about certain statements.  Next, the students will synthesize a graphic organizer for their writing assignment by reading and analyzing essays from NPR’s “This I Believe” web site.  Through parent interviews, focused free writing, and peer sharing, they will collect ideas that contribute to their personal beliefs. They will then use the student generated graphic organizer to write and evaluate each other’s essays.  In this way, the teacher is a facilitator, guiding the students’ explorations into self-discovery.

2. Time Travel Web Quest

Web Link: http://questgarden.com/46/62/3/070212191537/index.htm

Constructivist theory is used in the “Time Travel Web Quest” to improve student writing.  In this unit, students are assuming the persona of a historical fiction character and creating a written product that incorporates facts from this time period.  The activity begins with a group brainstorming session to select a time period in which everyone is interested.  Students will activate their prior knowledge by using a KWL chart to list what they already know about the topic, what they want to know, and what they learn.  Individually, students are researching their time period on the internet, and later they will group together to analyze their findings into three lists: “Must Have Details,” “Important But Not Vital,” and “Details I Can Leave Out.” Before writing, students will create a two column list. On one column, they will list five ideas they think are important to this assignment, and in the second column, they will explain how they will address the ideas in their final product. Once their writing is complete, they can use this chart for a self, peer, or teacher assessment.  

3. Animal Einsteins: No Fools About Tools

Web Link: http://www.pbs.org/safarchive/4_class/44_guides/guide_903/4493_tools.html

“Animal Einsteins” is a hands-on, research activity that uses constructivist theory.  The students define intelligence in dogs by listing examples of how they have seen dogs think or otherwise show their intelligence.  Students then vote on the top ten intelligence characteristics they want to test in dogs. Using this list, they will create a series of questions that rate different dog breeds.  The lesson plan offers many suggestions as to how students can collect their data such as questionnaires and internet research.  Once they have conducted their research, they will analyze their results and rank the breeds from least intelligent to most intelligent.  This activity takes students through the process of how to learn rather than learning a series of teacher presented facts.

10-20-30 Rule (Reflection)

“My Wild Self,” a writing activity for my 6th grade English students, scores three out of four stars on my scale of approval.  Overall, I have incorporated many of the elements mentioned in the tips and tricks links.  My slideshow falls within the 10-20-30 guidelines.  I have less than ten slides in my presentation, the presentation itself takes less than 20 minutes, and each slide uses a 30+ point font size.  My slides utilize the same backgrounds/theme, and I use contrasting font colors for legibility.  Because my Keynote presentations are also my classroom’s textbook, they tend to be a little wordy; however, I do not read them word for word in class.  I write a lot on my slides to benefit students who are absent during the lesson.  All of my Keynotes are posted on my web site, so my students are able to keep up with our class at home.  Also, some students’ IEP’s require a copy of the teacher’s notes, and this helps fullfill this obligation for parents in a way that is also meaningful to them. 

The Google Reader allows users to subscribe to various RSS feeds and read the latest updates from one convenient location.  For a graduate class assignment, I created a document listing several 21st Century Skill RSS feeds.

Download

• RSS Subscriptions.pdf

Discovering New Websites (Reflection)

I find new resources in many different places.  I am a frequent visitor, or “lurker,” on many education discussion boards, such as Education World and Teachers.net.  I especially enjoy reading Education World because they have a “Technology Integration” thread where other teachers share web sites as well as software specific activities.  Our school library receives Middle School Journal, a magazine that publishes the latest trends in education, including technology integration.  The best resource, I have found, is word of mouth.  I enjoy listening and observing teachers in our county.

For most activities, rather than having the students search for a particular site, I’ll post a direct link on my class web site.  My students have this bookmarked on their computers, and it’s much quicker for them to follow a link than to type in a URL.  I also have students evaluate their own web resources.  For example, what author or organization created the web site, when was it last updated, etc.  Legally, I introduce them to citing web sources and encourage them to use royalty fee photos rather than images from Google Pictures.  I have links to royalty free photo galleries on my web page.