Submitted by: Dale Miller
Collaborator: Patti Condrey
School: Ridge ES
Summary
After students reviewed the qualities of the four shapes (circle, rectangle, square, and triangle), they used a digital camera to photograph an example of the shapes in their environment. Students’ pictures were then used to create a flipchart presentation with teacher directed/student developed text. Using the flipchart at the Promethean board, students taught the class using their examples. During the lesson, selected students photographed “teachers” using iPads. Additional pictures found by the class were used to show multiple examples of a shape in one picture, which was explored in a second lesson. The flipchart was placed in the classroom folder for individual student use and was also shared with other classes in the school and at another partner school. The partner class completed the activity and wrote comments back to the authors.
TIPC Ratings
This lesson is Developing in Research and Information Fluency. Students apply search techniques modeled by the teacher and analyze their environment to find shapes in the real world.
This lesson is Developing in Communication and Collaboration. The teacher gave the students the opportunity to work with their classmates to find shapes in the environment. The students’ roles changed and they became teachers to facilitate a group discussion about the pictures. The students then shared their knowledge with a class at another school with the assistance of the teacher.
This lesson is Ideal in Critical Thinking and Problem solving, because the students were given a real problem to solve. They had to generate and respond to the questions asked by not only their teacher but also their classmates. The students had to justify why they took the pictures of the environment and what shapes were found in the pictures. Digital tools were used to facilitate and reflect on the critical thinking process.
This lesson is Ideal in Creativity and Innovation. The teacher created a learning environment where the students could apply critical thinking and environmental research methods to create original pictures. Some students went beyond the teacher requirements and found scenes that they could photograph that would show more than one shape and some shapes were hidden within the pictures. The iPads and Promethean board also facilitated the assessment and reflection of each student’s creative process.
Student Artifact
