Mini-Lessons 18,19,20: Baking Soda & Vinegar, The Game of Basketball and Pizza Fractions

Julia R. taught a lesson on fractions using pizza

Creativity in the Classroom

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One of the important aspects of teaching is enhancing creativity in the classroom. Creativity is key in facing the new challenges of the 21st century, thinking about alternative solutions and improving children's performance in standardized test scores. Please watch the video bellow and get familiar with the demands of teaching children in today's world.

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MIM-LESSONS

Today Lorenzo reminded us how simple teaching chemistry can be if the teacher is creative and practical. Mixing baking soda and vinegar produces a gas reaction. Gurvan illustrated his favorite sport by showing videos, explaining some strategies and passing the ball to students. Julia N., designed a lesson on fractions by having students color different slices of a pizza drawing. All lesson were interesting and engaging. 

Lesson Plan

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 Julia Nunnery

Jorge Morejon

TAL 324

April 8 2019

Lesson Plan Rubric

Introduction to Fractions

Objective

The objective of my lesson is to teach second grade students a general introductory lesson on the topic of fractions. Students will learn what a fraction is, what a fraction looks like, and how fractions are applied in daily life and general activities. Students will have to use mathematical thinking to grasp the concept of fractions and use a moderate reasoning level to do so. After my lesson the students should be able to make their own fractions and identify them.

Procedure

I created a power point presentation to teach my lesson on fractions. I introduced what a fraction is, that it contains equal parts, and the parts of a fraction (numerator and denominator). I included a video so the students could visualize fractions in a more engaging manner. Then I included a few examples of fractions, such as part of a whole (slices of a pizza) or parts of a set (batch of cookies). At the end of the presentation I included a few practice problems for the class to solve as a whole before they began their activity assessment. This lesson takes a logical-mathematical approach in creating fractions as well as a visual-spatial approach in recognizing fraction in real world examples. Through Bloom’s taxonomy the students will be able to create their own fractions, evaluate and analyze them, and apply and understand them in everyday life.

Assessment

To assess the students on my lesson, I created a “Fraction Pizza” assignment for the students to complete at the end of my lesson. In this assessment the students will get to color and create their own pizzas with different toppings, and write out the fraction of toppings on their pizzas. This will help the students visualize fractions and create their own in their own creative ways.

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Bellow, please read the feedback given by students in the class and the general suggestions.

CLASS FEEDBACK

Nicole

Lorenzo: Lorenzo gave a great lesson about scientific reactions! It was fun to work with a scientific experiment that I haven't done in a very long time.

Gurvain: I liked Gurvain's lesson a lot. He showed a lot of videos relating to basketball and showed me some people I was not familiar with before today. I also enjoyed learning about different types of basketball moves.

Juliet: I really enjoyed Juliet's lesson and the simplicity of the power point. I also loved the pizza activity because who doesn't like pizza. I'm sure it's something that kids would love to do.

Mina

Lorenzo - Chemical Reactions: This was an interesting lesson because we don't normally play around with baking soda and vinegar even though they are household items. It was exciting to see what happened when we combined the vinegar with the baking soda making it bubble and foam and learning why it happened. 

Gervin - Basketball: I liked how he showed us videos and used a student for demonstrations on how to play soccer. 

Julia - Fractions: I enjoyed how she taught fractions and made it fun by letting us color toppings onto pizza and testing our knowledge on fractions. 

Cameron

Lesson 1: This lesson was fun to participate in. Kids love watching chemical reactions and find it fascinating would be great for a younger class. 

Lesson 2: This lesson was fun to participate in. I really liked that he brought basketballs so he could make the lesson more hands on.

Lesson 3: I liked this lesson a lot. She taught the basics and then allowed us to draw and work in groups to show her in a more creative way what we had learned from the presentation. 

Alyssa

Lorenzo- I liked that Lorenzo used a science experiment in his presentation of chemical reactions to demonstrate how acids and bases react.

Gurvan- I liked that Gurvan paused his presentation to answer all questions that the classmates had about basketball and the different passes and shots.

Julia- I liked that Julia included real life examples like a pizza pie or a dozen cupcakes when talking about fractions so students could put in into perspective. 

Bella

Lorenzo taught us something he was passionate about, he shared that he really liked science in school. It was a cool hands-on activity. 

Gurvan showed us three ways to play basketball and explained things to us. He let it be hands-on by letting us catch and throw. 

It would have been cool if we could have gone to a basketball court and been more hands-on.

Julia taught us a math lesson and showed us an explanatory powerpoint and also gave us a hands-on activity. No critique. :) 

Andrea

1. Lorenzo’s project was unique and fun. It was a good idea to do a fun science experiment to engage the class.

2. Gurvan’s basketball lecture was good and informative. I liked that he brought the ball in to demonstrate and I also liked the videos he showed. 

3. I liked the pizza topping fractions activity to go along with Julia’s fractions presentation. It was very informative and drawing the pizza was fun.

Megan

Lorenzo's presentation was very fun and entertaining. i noticed that everyone in the class was actually engaging in the presentation unlike most presentations where only a few people participate. 

Gervins presentation was entertaining and he did a good job explaining different aspects of basketball techniques. 

Julia's presentation was educational and would be a good lesson plan for a class. 

Laryssa

Lorenzo- Different than all of the other lessons we have seen because he made us do an experiment. I feel as though science experiments is what got us all excited as children learning. Very hands on which is good for those with different learning styles.

Jules- Fun activity learning about fractions. Her pizza worksheet is a fun way to get kids interested in learning math!

Gervin- I thought his presentation could have been more organized. Fun presentation!

Sydney

Lorenzo's presentation on chemical reactions was informative, interactive and innovative. I was pleasantly surprised by how seriously he took it and made it fun for the whole class. It was fun to see a small chemical reaction and learn what made the reaction.

Gurvan's presentation on basketball was informative. He did a really great job explaining the game of basketball and it was helpful that he used an actual basketball to describe the steps involved in the sport.

Julia's presentation on fractions was my favorite of the day. She made a seemingly mundane topic fun by allowing the class to express their creativity through drawing their own fractioned pizza. Her presentation was informative and fun!

Becca

Chemical reactions:

Lorenzo could have lead with more of an explanation of what the experiment was representing.  I liked the experiment, it was fun for the whole class.

Basketball: 

Gurvan’s presentation had a lot of information.

Fractions:

She did a great job explaining to the class.  The activity was good and helped the class to understand the point of the lecture.

Jared

Lorenzo: His intent was good and an interesting concept.

Gurvin: Fun concept.

Julia: Fun and inventive, loved her activity.

Scott

Gurvin was a nice refresher on basketball.   

Larenzo was nice and seemed to have it all together and the interaction was on point. 

Julia had a nice plan and the interaction was nice.

Alex

Lorenzo: I thought Lorenzo's lesson was well done. The experiment was entertaining and interesting to do. It engaged us as students well.

Gervin: I thought this lesson was interesting. It was nice learning about the different passes and learning about basketball, which I know barely anything about.

Julia: I thought Julia's lesson was very well done! Her power-point provided great information and an introduction to fractions. It allowed her to introduce the topic and then allowed us to answer questions about fractions. Additionally, the pizza topping activity was fun and a great way to get us creative and thinking about fractions.

Julia N.

Lorenzo's chemical reaction experiment was very hands on and different than normal presentations.

Gurvin's presentation on basketball had a very cool video and he demonstrated it well. 

Amy

Lorenzo:

-fun and hands-on activity! great for older kids who won’t eat the stuff

Gurvan

-good intro video and got the class involved 

Kyle

I thought all of the activities were very good. I thought the fraction activity was an all around great activity.

The basketball activity was very good.

Lorenzo’s activity is a great activity to do with younger students. Its hands-on and its a fun and creative way to teach science. 

Cydney

I really enjoyed all the presentations today. Lorenzo did a really good job explaining the experiment and it was very interactive.

The second presentation was really good as well and I could tell he knew a lot about the topic.

Julia did a really good job explaining fractions and her activity was a lot of fun! 

Brian

Lecture 1- the experiment was a lot of fun to see. He could have done more to explain why it reacted the way it did.

Lecture 2 – Watching the basketball players play was cool to watch.

Lecture 3 -  The activity for making your own pizza would be good for kids.

Jess

Vinegar:

I loved this experiment! Very fun engaging and cute. Loved that he tried to go into the science of it!  

Basketball 

This was fun and engaging. I loved that he employed the help of his classmate!

Pizza

I thought this was a cute lesson. I liked the pizza pie activity a lot.

Bob

1: enjoyed the experiment and he did a good job explaining what type of reaction was happening.

2: a lot of interaction so it was entertaining.

3: presents well organized and engaged the class.

Danielle

Lorenzo: I though that Lorenzo's presentation was well organized and well executed. He took it seriously and came up with a topic that could be applied to the real world. I was impressed.

Gurvin: I thought Gurvin clearly put thought into the presentation, but did not necessarily engage the class, which is problematic if he was trying to teach PE.

Julia: I thought Julia clearly put a lot of effort into the presentation and she did an excellent job of making the class participate by preparing a worksheet. I thought that she appeared to be very teacher-like. 

Suggestions

Chemistry

When doing a science experiment, it is always convenient to introduce the scientific process and asked them for their hypothesis and have them guess about what was going to happen.

The lesson could have been supported with, for instance:  (slideshow, video, something on the screen) and it also could have also made the lesson last longer. 

A PowerPoint to go over the definitions of the different scientific terms used helps visual learners.

Review concept addressed to make sure all learners got it.

Sports

Teaching a sport is effective when broken down into a set amount of moves and tricks and have the classes try them.

Provide more detail about how the actual game works.

 Be inclusive and invite everyone in the class try to do something with the basketball to see if his material was obtained... not just a few people.

Instructions in sports need to be clear and delivery of instruction organized. (For instance with more time students could have tried the different passes, lay-up’s etc).

When showing videos, explain what is happening in the video. 

Lesson needs to be longer and interactive.

Assessment is an important part of the lesson. 

Fractions

Teaching fractions is difficult subject; class participation makes it a more effective process.

Reduction of fraction could have made the lesson more complete since there were a couple that were 4/6 (which is 2/3) or 4/10 (which is 2/5). 

When using food, just make sure to do this right before lunch so students do not get too hungry.

Always ask students to share their work (Example, students could share our drawings!) 

Challenge the students.

Classroom Management

Control the class.

Engage students to reduce talking.

Remain focus.

Have a clear plan to follow.