While studying Constructivism in my first graduate cohort class, I found these helpful lesson plans.
1. Personal Essays and NPR’s “This I Believe”
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
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
“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.
