Lesson Title: Developing, Exhibiting and Recognizing Healthy Social Behavior in self and others
Date: December 1, 2011
Duration: 3 – 45 minutes sessions
Context
4th Grade Gifted & Talented
This is a fourth grade gifted and talented program. The population contains 31 students consisting of 18 boys and 13 girls. Seven of the students are new to the school and School District.
Gender
Number of Students
Percent of Total
Boys
18
58%
Girls
13
42%
Total
31
MSP Scores for classroom population
The students MSP scores at the completion of the 2010-2011 school year (third grade) found the majority of the students to have exceeded their level for both Reading and Mathematics.
MSP
Math
Math %
Reading
Reading %
Exceeded Level
27
86
28
90%
Met Level
4
14
2
7%
Below Level
0
1
3%
Subjects
A survey of the students collected data regarding subjects they enjoy, those that the worry most about and those they find the most challenging.
Subject
WA History
Writing
Reading
Science
Math
Art
Nothing
Homework
Group Work
Computers
Look forward to learning
6
1
0
9
13
2
0
0
0
0
Worried about learning
3
3
0
4
10
0
5
1
2
1
Hardest subject
2
12
2
3
10
0
1
0
0
0
Themes of Interest to the students
Writing and writing techniques
Animals and birds
Art
Space and Astronomy
Greek Mythology
Culture
Engineering
History
Ways of Learning
We have not evaluated any of the students to determine their preferred learning style in our classroom. My CT and I have discussed the intelligences but this is a low priority for my CT while she tries to build community. Looking at the data collected for each of the students, as well as my personal observations, I can make some assumptions. The majority of the class seem to prefer the Logical/Mathematical and interpersonal ways of learning. They are a very social group. A very small percentage prefers Verbal/Linguistic and Intrapersonal.
It will be most helpful to find out each students preferred method so accommodations and considerations can be made when designing curriculum.
Equity Pedagogy
As a teacher, “Self-understanding and knowledge of the histories, modal characteristics, and intragroup differences of ethnic groups are important competencies required for teachers to implement equity pedagogy. They provide a foundation for teachers to identify, create, and implement teaching strategies that enhance the academic achievement of students from both gender groups and from diverse racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. Equity pedagogy is not embodied in specific strategies. It is a process that locates the student at the center of schooling. When effectively implemented, equity pedagogy enriches the lives of both teachers and students and enables them to envision and to help create a more humane and caring society.”
We do not currently have the actual ethnic diversity of our classroom though we have a diverse population of students. We do know the English language is not the primary language for all our students. We are just beginning to assess some of these students literacy, especially those who were just at or below standard. We are currently working with the school resource educator to have these children appropriately assessed so we can begin to help them improve their literacy skills for fluency and comprehension.
Areas Where Students May Struggle
When analyzing information, students with little experience or practice with this higher-order skill may find the process challenging.
Pre-teach skill lessons on strategizes used for analyzing data
Unless students have experience or practice in analyzing primary documents, they may find this process challenging, as answers are not always evident. Students must gather evidence, make assumptions, and reach conclusions.
Pre-teach skill lesson on strategies used for an inquiry process: analyzing data, collecting evidence, synthesizing data, and reaching conclusions
Students are required to read and summarize information. Struggling readers and ELL students may be challenged by this requirement.
Minimize reading material, locate and present the same information at a lower reading level, assign helpful student partners, explain information and scaffold students with oral directions, provide tape-recorded information, and/or allow students to study the reading material at home before the lesson.
Differentiating Instruction
Reading: Consider accommodating special need students when creating the reading list. Try to create a subset of the main reading list that will still provide these students with an understanding of the time period.
Grouping: Grouping could provide a venue for accommodation by pairing stronger students with special needs students for reading, analyzing documents, discussion assumptions, and drawing conclusions.
Comprehension: Might try orally explaining the background information and instructions to special needs students, or students could take the information home to read/study a day or two before the lesson is taught.
Content Big Idea and Learning Targets
Subject: Health & Fitness, Grade 4 (Gifted)
This lesson will be taught to 4th grade challenge students as part of the thematic, interdisciplinary unit using Phantom Tollbooth.
Washington State Standards: Health & Fitness 4th and 5th Grade
EALR 3.0 The student analyzes and evaluates the impact of real-life influences on health
Big Idea: 3.3 Evaluates the impact of social skills on health.
Core Content: 3.3.1 Understands necessary social skills to promote health and safety.
Description of Standard for Grade 4-5
In grade four, students learn to identify the components of health-related physical fitness. Students make continuous progress across all fundamental motor patterns and become proficient in movement patterns as students combine locomotor and manipulative skills in increasingly complex situations. They apply movement concepts in individual movement performances, and tactical strategies in simple partner activities. Students in grade four learn and apply health skills to the following health areas: Disease prevention, nutrition, healthy relationships, use of tobacco, and use/abuse of alcohol. Students are taught the consequences of unsafe behaviors, and how to protect themselves from harm. They set simple goals for promoting personal health and preventing disease. Students also learn the value and use of social skills in dealing with peer pressure, communicating effectively, and assisting in forming healthy social relationships.
Essential Understandings: (Content/ Big Idea)
Personal choices impact current and long term outcomes on individuals, family and society.
Mental and emotional health effects a person’s physical health and overall well-being.
How can I promote accurate health information and behavior for myself and others?
How and where can I seek help?
How does my behavior reflect my personal choices?
What can I do to prevent and resolve conflict?
How can communication enhance my personal health and develop positive relationships?
How do a person’s unique talents contribute to a larger community?
Students will know
Healthy life skills are the ability for humans to adapt and exhibit positive behavior that enables us to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life.
Life skills are a group of psychosocial competencies and interpersonal skills
that help people make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and
creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, empathize with others,
and cope with and manage our lives in a healthy and productive manner.
Life skills may be directed toward personal actions or actions toward others, as well as toward actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conducive to health.
Content Standards (What student’ will be able to do & demonstrate)
Exhibit behavior that is deemed appropriate within the context of social and cultural
norms
Demonstrate respect and equity for others human rights and honesty
Materials
Handout reading “All my Friends”
Handout
Online Resources
Trust me I won’t Let You Down Lesson
Essential Understandings & Questions
Academic Language
Character traits
Empathy
Social norms
Cultural norms
Respect
Equity
Human rights
Honesty
Responsibility
Attitude
Beliefs
Diversity
Attitudes
Differentiating Instruction
Reading: Consider accommodating special need students when creating the reading and vocabulary list. Try to create a subset of the main reading list that will still provide these students with an understanding of the lesson.
Grouping: Grouping could provide a venue for accommodation by pairing stronger students with special needs students for reading, analyzing documents, discussion assumptions, and drawing conclusions.
Comprehension: Might try orally explaining the background information and instructions to special needs students, or students could take the information home to read/study a day or two before the lesson is taught.
Assessment of Student Learning
Formative: As students work in small groups, the teacher will be circulating specifically listening and watching for the assessment criteria below. This will allow the teacher to adjust, modify, and clarify student understandings. During this phase, the teacher will be :
Monitoring discussions, answering questions, noting whether students are on task, and asking them to share their ideas and strategies. The teacher is also looking to see if the activity is intriguing, boring, and/or if students need further instruction and clarification allowing the teacher to plan, assist and/or adjust the lesson as necessary.
During my lessons formative assessment is embedded to gauge if students are/are not learning my intended lesson. Think-pair-share, small group, and large group are included to allow students to develop positive peer interactions, socially construct knowledge and learn different ways or perspectives about ways of knowing. When students verbally share as a teacher I am monitoring students discussions, work activities, and inquiring about their thinking.
When students are listening to my direct instruction, however, often prior to their ‘doing’ hands-on activities I gauge student understanding in several ways. It can be a mixture of ‘thumbs up’ for it is clear ‘thumbs down’ for not clear, or ‘hand flat with a rocking motion’ sort of get it but not confident. Other times I may elicit several students ideas/comments or alternative ways of thinking, to measure if they are thinking about what I am instructing.
Exit and/or entry tickets are also another method of gathering student feedback. What do they now before I teach a lesson, did they leave the classroom with what I hope they had from the lesson. I don’t choose to grade these because I believe they are an additional instructional tool for my reflection on my teaching and how to modify for the next lesson.
Summative: What is the eventual summative assessment
The teacher will be looking at each students developed true friends characteristics looking to see they have :
Correctly defined what ambassadors are and what their responsibilities are.
Compiled a list of character traits found in a true friend.
Choose a famous person or classmate who portrays a particular trait.
Created a portrait of this person.
Written a short essay explaining what character trait he/she portrays.
Predicted a future goal for this person.
Performance Task: (Looking at …)
Milo traveled throughout his journey with two companions. Tock was inspired by the old radio program "Jack Armstrong." Norton Juster was looking for companions for Milo to travel with and the first one needed to be stalwart and dependable and truthful. He wanted a friend for Milo that he could bet his life on and someone who’d always be there in an emergency. Tock is just one side of the equation. He was the kind of person who was the friend your mother wanted you to play with.
Sometimes children are not always attracted to the kind of kid their parents want them to play with, a kid who may not be truthful, is always in trouble, not completely dependable, maybe erratic, a fraud, a bluffer, and you may never know what they are going to do. For Milo, that was the Humbug.
True friends have many characteristics. You will create a Character Ambassador Wall.
First, research what ambassadors are and what their responsibilities are.
Compile a list of character traits found in a true friend.
Choose a famous person or classmate who portrays a particular trait.
Create a portrait of this person.
Write a short essay explaining what character trait he/she portrays.
Predict a future goal for this person.
Your Ambassador Wall must meet all of the criteria on the rubric (s) your teacher will give you.
Other Evidence
Accommodations/Modifications:So all students can show progress toward learning targets
For the two students that are challenged by the English language, yet do not qualify for ELL, they will be provided with instructional support. For any reading and writing, they will receive one-on-one assistance from myself or my master teacher. When appropriate, we will substitute different vocabulary words and/or readings with the same overarching goals yet at an appropriate level for their reading/writing. When writing they will receive extra time to complete their written assignments and have one-on-one assistance during class sessions. When having group discussions and/or activities, the students will be placed with stronger skilled students to allow them group work without them losing the context of what is being taught. If doing any jigsaw activities, consider what is being jig sawed to ensure they are successful with this activity.
Student Voice:Student self-assessment
Piaget, Vgotsky, and Dewey all teach us that students learn best through meaningful experiences and when these experiences are shared, knowledge is socially constructed providing for higher level learning that as an individual.
As teachers, it is easy to fall into a routine of delivering content, testing on what you want the students to know and fail to ask what the students believe they learned. As teachers, failing to ask questions of our students fails to provide us invaluable information about our own teaching. Did the students learn what we had hoped they would learn? What questions do they still wonder about? What did they enjoy about the lesson, and what was challenging and/or frustrating? If they were to design the lesson, what may they have done differently and why?
These types of questions help us reflect on our own teaching and ways of delivering our lessons to each of our students. We must also remember, however, that these big questions do not necessarily happen with very lesson but should definitely occur for those large learning goals. With the above in mind, for this unit plan, I envision asking these questions at the end of each lesson after student presentations of their projects.
A curriculum of identify asks students to reflect on their skills and interests as they relate to the discipline being studied. Since learning requires experiences in order to have a base to build upon, knowing what value they place on what was learned tells me something about the base they have developed with my instruction. (See Appendix D)
Instruction and Engagement to Support Student Learning
Introduction
Tell Students what you want them to be able to do
Milo traveled throughout his journey with two companions. Tock was inspired by the old radio program "Jack Armstrong." Norton Juster was looking for companions for Milo to travel with and the first one needed to be stalwart and dependable and truthful. He wanted a friend for Milo that he could bet his life on and someone who’d always be there in an emergency. Tock is just one side of the equation. He was the kind of person who was the friend your mother wanted you to play with.
Sometimes children are not always attracted to the kind of kid their parents want them to play with, a kid who may not be truthful, is always in trouble, not completely dependable, maybe erratic, a fraud, a bluffer, and you may never know what they are going to do. For Milo, that was the Humbug.
True friends have many characteristics. You will create a Character Ambassador Wall.
First, research what ambassadors are and what their responsibilities are.
Compile a list of character traits found in a true friend.
Choose a famous person or classmate who portrays a particular trait.
Create a portrait of this person.
Write a short essay explaining what character trait he/she portrays.
Predict a future goal for this person.
Your Ambassador Wall must meet all of the criteria on the rubric (s) your teacher will give you.
Tell Students how you will know they got there
At the end of this lesson students will be able to:
Demonstrate practical and positive methods for dealing with emotions and stress
Demonstrate fundamental skills for healthy interpersonal communication
Demonstrate respect for themselves and others
Demonstrate empathy with others
Demonstrate responsibility for self and others
Demonstrate a willingness to explore attitudes, values, and beliefs of self and others
Exhibit behavior that is deemed appropriate
Tells Students how you will help get them there8
One of the ways we demonstrate to others that we will not let them down is to “give our word ” and act accordingly. When our actions are consistent with what we say, we build trust in our relationships with others . The purpose of this lesson is for young people to have the opportunity to experience and discuss the benefits of being trustworthy.
Direct Instruction
Overview
Developing, Exhibiting and Recognizing Healthy Social Behavior in self and others
Objectives
Students will be able to:
Demonstrate practical and positive methods for dealing with emotions and stress
Demonstrate fundamental skills for healthy interpersonal communication
Demonstrate respect for themselves and others
Demonstrate empathy with others
Demonstrate responsibility for self and others
Demonstrate a willingness to explore attitudes, values, and beliefs of self and others
Exhibit behavior that is deemed appropriate
Materials
Handout reading “All my Friends”
Handout
Online Resources
Trust me I won’t Let You Down Lesson
Essential Understandings & Questions
Instruction
Teacher Does
Student Does
Open the lesson with a discussion of trustworthiness and fairness.
Ask students :
What does it mean to be fair?
What does it mean to be trustworthy?
Brainstorm: (Elicit and record on flip chart)
Have students give specific examples of others who have treated them fairly.
Ask students how they feel and think about that person
Elicit qualities and list them on the board
Students listen
Students think, then raise hands
As teacher calls on students, they share out answers and ideas
Brainstorm: (Elicit and record on flip chart)
Have students identify examples of fairness and trustworthiness at home, at school, and at play (recess or after school).
As teacher calls on students, they share out answers and ideas
Brainstorm: (Elicit and record on flip chart)
Tell students you will hold up three different phrases on this poster board (or write them on the board).
I would like each of you to complete one of these phrases as I call on you.
Complete a phrase where you have been in the situation described.
I will read them to you first.
I treated my friend fairly when
I was treated fairly when
I was not treated fairly when
Let’s review some of the things we’ve learned from your answers.
What do we learn about others when they are not fair?
Is cheating on a test being fair?
Is letting your friends copy your test answers fair?
How can you help others be fair?
Students think, then raise their hands
As teacher calls on students, they share out answers and ideas.
We are going to read a story in which each one of you will be a character.
Some of you will try to pressure others into doing wrong.
Some of you will be strong and won’t let your parents down.
Let’s assign parts and start reading our story.
Read the story “All My Friends” (provided or found in the student workbook).
Ask students, is trust something you have to earn?
Is it important that you have people in your life to trust?
What happens if someone breaks the trust that you have?
What are some ways that trust can be broken between a parent and a child?
Between two friends?
Between a teacher and a student?
Between an employer and an employee?
How difficult is it to get trust back once you have done something to break that trust?
Students listen
Students listen as teacher reads aloud
Students discuss among table groups for 5 minutes, the report out as teacher calls on each group.
Teacher distributes worksheet and ask students to complete each sentence. Gives them 10 minutes.
Teacher calls students back together and ask them to share with their table groups.
As students discuss, teacher monitors discussions. The teacher is answering questions, noting whtehr studets are on task, and asking them to share their ideas and strategies. The teacher is also looking to see if the activity is intriguing, boring, and/or if students need further instruction and clarification allowing the teacher to plan, assist and/or adjust the lesson as necessary.
Students fill out worksheet.
Students begin discussing
Teacher explains the Ambassador Wall project, distributes the Rubric to students.
Students ask any questions they have about project expectations.
Conclusion
Teacher will create an Ambassador Wall in the classroom. She will display all student work.
Students will do a gallery walk to observe others work.
Assessment
The teacher will be looking at each students developed true friends characteristics looking to see they have :
Correctly defined what ambassadors are and what their responsibilities are.
Compiled a list of character traits found in a true friend.
Choose a famous person or classmate who portrays a particular trait.
Created a portrait of this person.
Written a short essay explaining what character trait he/she portrays.