Submitted by: Brian (Walt) Walter
School: Tuckahoe Middle School
Summary
This lesson is designed to provide a review of square root, scientific notation, perfect squares, and converting fractions to decimals and percents to decimals. The teacher uses Activ Software with an ActivSlate in order to promote an engaged atmosphere and increase student learning. ActivEngage is utilized as a tool for pre-assessment and again as a post-assessment to gauge the increase in learning from the lesson.
TIPC Ratings
While all strands of the TIPC are important and should be addressed, this lesson is focused on Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. There are ways to increase the level of Research and Information Fluency but they may not tie as closely to the learning outcomes focused on in this lesson.
As an extension to the lesson, the teacher may allow students to select an item or items they may want to purchase or receive as a gift. The students would use advanced search techniques to find sites selling their item(s). Multiple sites should be compared for aspects such as cost of item, sales or discounts offered, delivery charges etc. Each aspect could be presented in converted forms (decimal, percent and fraction) and compared to find the best place to make to purchase.
The teacher was using ActivEngage self-paced and embedded questions to engage all students in the class activity. The students were able to use this tool to communicate their understanding of the content with the teacher. The teacher was able to immediately provide small group remediation opportunities when students could not successfully complete the pre-assessment activity based on data.
The teacher began the lesson with a self-paced ActivEngage question set with 9 levels and multiple questions on each level. If students got 2 questions wrong on a level their session was ended and the teacher knew where the student was struggling. The teacher would immediately assign the student to individual or small group remediation while rest of class continued the self-paced set.
The lesson continued with a review of fractions, decimals and percent. The goal was to order numbers in various forms. The teacher and students used the Active Slate to write and manipulate items on flip chart. Individuals were able to interact with shapes and hidden numbers, physically moving the decimal point, moving and lining up numbers with decimals lined up vertically and draw a line to connect dots so students can actually see how numbers compare.
During the lesson the ActivExpress Poll tool was utilized to determine student understanding on the fly throughout the lesson. Additionally, embedded questions provided continuous immediate feedback and helped correct misconceptions.
After the lesson students were given the self-paced question set again with controls taken off so all students completed all questions without the session being ended and a final evaluation of their mastery of content could be evaluated.
While all strands of the TIPC are important and should be addressed, this lesson is focused on Critical Thinking and Problem Solving. There are ways to increase the level of Creativity and Innovation but they may not tie as closely to the learning outcomes focused on in this lesson.
As an extension to the lesson, the teacher may allow students to use a budget and determine the where to shop for the items on their lists. The final budget with selected items, place(s) of purchase and final costs could be presented. Students could demonstrate their knowledge and information gathered in a final presentation in forms varying from commercials or shopping blogs to simple slide show presentations depending on their creative an innovative ideas.
Student Artifact
