Lesson Plan 2: Finding Shapes in a Mandala

I. RATIONALE:

Provide a reason for teaching the lesson. (i.e. Grade level curriculum, meets the common core standards/Arizona’s College & Career Ready Standards)

I will teach this lesson because students, as well as adults, need to be able to identify shapes in our everyday life. We need to know how to identify a triangle traffic sign, or where to fit the square tile on our counter-top... etc.

II. OVERVIEW

Grade Level: Kindergarten

Subject(s): Mathematics 

Topic of Study: Geometry

Time Allotment: 30 min

Standards: K.G.B.4: Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/“corners”) and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length)

Objectives: Student's will be able to identify a square, circle, rectangle and triangle.

Reflection: Assessing Prior Knowledge and Planning Instruction What do the students need to know prior to the lesson? Students will need to know how to count to ten. Students will need to know how many sides make up a square and why it is a square rather than a rectangle, how many sides are on a triangle, and whether or not a circle has sides. How will prior knowledge and experience be assessed? I will assess if students know how to count by formative assessment at the beginning of the lesson. I will hold up my fingers and have students count out loud while I raise one finger at a time.  I will assess if students know how many sides make up a triangle, square, rectangle and circle by asking them. I will ask students to give me examples of these shapes in everyday life. How will you use this information in the planning process? If students are able to count to ten then we will continue on with the lesson. If they are unable to count to ten we will review this concept.  If students know how many sides make up the shapes, we will continue the lesson. If not I will explain to them that a triangle has three sides and a square has four equal sides, while a rectangle has four a circle has none.  I will do this by showing students a square object and asking what it is. If they call it a square I will explain to them that it is because it has four equal sides and four 90 degree angles. If they grasp this then I can show them a rectangle and show them that all the sides are not equal, and that is why it is not a square. The same process with a triangle and circle.  Why should the content of this lesson be taught at this grade level? The lesson I plan to teach needs to be taught to students, because we need to be able to identify shapes in our everyday lives to see how parts and pieces fit together.  How do the objectives that you have for the lesson align with the standards? The standard states that students will need to analyze and compare shapes. My objective has students identifying (analyzing) shapes, based on their number of sides, and whether or not their sides are equal.  When will the lesson be taught in the course of the school year? Why? I believe that most students know shapes by the time they enter school, so I would teach this at the beginning of the school year to get a good understanding of where my students were at, and give them some mathematical vocabulary for the names and definitions of simple shapes.

III. IMPLEMENTATION

Procedure: (Include a step-by-step description of what the students and the teacher will be doing (i.e. walk me through the lesson)

I will begin the class by asking the students to name a few shapes. 

I will ask them then if they know how many sides make up these shapes.

• Triangle
• Square
• Rectangle
• Circle?

I will ask students to give me an example of these shapes that they see in their everyday lives.

I will then ask students to count my fingers as a class as I raise each one - assessing whether or not they can count to ten. I will have the students count in both English and Spanish. 

I will then pull up the picture of a geometric mandala on the smart board. I will ask one student to come up to the board and outline the sides of a square. As they do this I will ask the other students to count the lines as they outline each one. After they have successfully outlined a square, they can color it in. 

I will call up another student to do this same process with a triangle. Then another student to outline and color in a circle. Then another to outline and color a rectangle.

I will then ask students:

• How many sides does a triangle have?
• How many sides does a square have? What makes it a square?
• How many sides does a rectangle have?
• How many sides does a circle have?

Depending on if they understood the concept or not, we will either go over the information again and repeat the above process. If they did understand the information then I will send students back to their seats and I will provide them with another mandala coloring page. I will ask students to color all of the triangles one color, all of the squares one color, all of the rectangles one color and all of the circles another color. I will ask that the students give me a 'legend' to their pictures, saying which color represents which shape. 

Technology Integration: (Describe how students and the teacher will use technology throughout the lesson)

Students and the teacher will be using the smartboard to color and identify shapes.

Differentiated Instruction: Describe how you will differentiate the instruction for each of the following:

• Cognitive delay

This lesson is designed to help cognitively delayed students by the use of reaffirming information multiple times. I will also be available to help the student individually while the others color. I believe the hardest concept for a student to grasp would be the fact that both a square and a rectangle have four sides, but only a square has four equal sides. 

• Gifted

Gifted students will have a hay-day when they are able to color their whole mandala. I will also ask them to write out a short one sentence definition of each shape. 

• ELL

ELL students will probably have some trouble understanding the class discussion when we are on the board. I will be incorporating Spanish into the counting aspect of the lesson. I will also give students translated directions into their native language on the mandala coloring page.  

Reflection: Designing Instruction (InTask Standards 7 and 8): Why are you using the instructional methods you have described? I am using these instructional methods, because it includes cooperative learning between students. Also students are motivated by the coloring, as well as being able to draw and color on the smartboard. How do the instructional methods align with what you know about best practices (think about your methods classes)? In my opinion social and cooperative learning is very important because we need to know how to work together using one another's strengths and weaknesses to solve problems. Also I like using more than one subject in a lesson.  How are you engaging students in creative and higher order thinking? This lesson encourages higher order thinking because students have to use their creative abilities to identify and define shapes.

IV. ASSESSMENT

Procedure: Read Assessing Student Learning (Include a description of how you will determine the students' success in meeting the standards and objectives of the lesson (You must include what artifacts and activities will be assessed as well as a description of the assessment process))

My assessment will not only be formative at the beginning of the lesson, but I will be using the student's coloring pages to assess weather or not they can identify the shapes.

Instruments: (Include [or link to] any tools that you will be using to assess your students (i.e.. rubric, checklist, worksheet, test)

Based off of this worksheet below, I will use my checklist to determine whether or not the student grasped the material.

Checklist:

Student:	Yes	No
Created a legend
Identified most triangles and colored them according to their legend
Identified most squares and colored them according to their legend
Identified most rectangles and colored them according to their legend
Identified most circles and colored them according to their legend

Reflection: Planning Assessment (InTask Standard 6): How does the assessment align with the standards and objectives of this lesson? The objective of the lesson is: Student's will be able to identify a square, circle, rectangle and triangle. In my assessment they are showing exactly this. My objective is the first step in having students achieve the standard, but I believe that the standard will take more than one lesson to achieve, since the standard is such a large topic: Analyze and compare two- and three-dimensional shapes, in different sizes and orientations, using informal language to describe their similarities, differences, parts (e.g., number of sides and vertices/“corners”) and other attributes (e.g., having sides of equal length). How does the assessment demonstrate that the students have been successful in learning the content? Using a checklist determines whether "yes - they learned the content." or "no - they need more practice with the content.  How does the assessment demonstrate student engagement in higher order thinking? The engagement in having to find and dissect the mandala, while using the arts proves that students are using higher level thinking skills.  How does the assessment demonstrate that individual student needs were met? This is a very self directed activity. Student's demonstrate individual knowledge, and will be able to work at their own pace since this is a coloring activity.

IIV. MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

In this section include any examples you have created for the students, resources (software, web links, books, crafting items, etc.) and other necessary items

Reflection: How does your lesson meet each of the ISTE NETs Standards? How does your lesson meet Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity ? I think this answer is obvious in that I am having students color and create their own legend, allowing them a little leniency in the product's proof of their knowledge.  How does your lesson meet Standard 2: Provide Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments? My lesson uses the smartboard, and also gives students the opportunity to work with the technology. They then can use the information in their everyday lives in any type of application that uses shapes.  How does your lesson meet Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work & Learning? How does your lesson Meet all four elements of Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility by: advocating, modeling, and teaching safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. Considering that the students are in Kindergarten, they first need to learn respect for each other, before they need to apply the concepts in technology. This lesson promotes this in the way that students will be helping one another to find the shapes while we are working on the smartboard.  addressing the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources. Using the arts in my lesson, as well as having students create their own legend on their assessment gives  promoting and modeling digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information. As I mentioned above, I will have students work in a community environment to help and support one another in identifying and finding shapes.  developing and modeling cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools. The simple use of a mandala is an introduction into cultural understanding and global awareness in the way that students will be using a platform that they may have never seen before. This helps them to begin to raise the idea that geometric shapes are universal and used in every culture... If I was to use this lesson in a classroom it would be apart of a larger subject unit.

Lesson 1 Reflection

1. Instructional Decisions/Teaching (InTask Standard # 9): Discuss the implementation process and describe
• What went well and what didn't go well during the implementation of your lesson?
• I really liked how engaged my students were. They were excited to use the web page and they stayed on task for the entire lesson. Unfortunately I used feet instead of meters for my final assessment, and students were confused and wondering weather or not they needed to convert meters to feet to solve for their costs. 
• How well was the alignment to objectives and standards maintained?
• I think that my objective was a little vauge. It was moreso an explination of the activites students would be doing, rather than being a description of what they would be learning. 
• Describe any modifications made during the implementation of the lesson
• During the lesson I told students that they could use meters instead of feet for their final math equations, and I also had to offer my computer to a student, so that they could jump on right away, and not fall behind.
2. Mechanics:
   • What technologies did I use (for the teacher and the learner)?
   • My students used the online resource roomsketcher.com on the pc software of the computers. As a teacher I will only use the computer to look at the screenshots my students took. 
   • How were the technologies used (by whom and in what manner)?
   • Students used the webpage on the computer to build a virtual home which they used to calculate the costs of building their virtual home. 
   • My lesson was within the correct time frame.
     • The lesson was within the correct time frame because students were able to build a basic structure, however they could have used more time to do their actual calculations. 
3. Assessment of Learning (InTask Standard # 6): Refer to Assessing Student Learning
• Include at least 2 digital artifacts that demonstrate what you or your students (peers) have created as a result of your lesson







• Describe your students' level of success in achieving the standards and objectives for your lesson based on your assessment
• Student's needed more time to finish their math equations, however I believe that if they had the time given to figure out the total costs of building their virtual homes, they would have been successful in achieving the standard and objective in the lesson. 
• Describe the level of success you had in teaching the lesson
  • How do your individual reflections support this?
  • I think that I was successful in teaching because the lesson encouraged a lot of student motivation because they were creating something that they were able to have fun with. I think I did a good job teaching it because I didn't stand in front of the class and lecture the whole time, I let students spend the whole time playing on their computers. They were never distracted and I was able to walk around and comment and encourage my student's work as necessary. 
  • How do the comments from your classmates support this?
  • On my peer reflection survey someone wrote, "It was great! Fun activity!" You can tell that they were super engaged and they had a good time with the activity. 
4. What did you learn from designing and teaching this lesson and how will you use this in the creation of future lessons/learning activities.

• From this lesson I learned that it's really important to choose an activity where students are going to be self motivated! If students have interest and care about what they are working on, then you avoid having to constantly redirect students, and classroom management becomes a breeze!
• I learned that I really need to look over every aspect of the resources I choose to utilize. It was disappointing  that my student were so confused by weather or not they needed to convert to feet or just leave their measurements as meters. 
• I also learned that it is very important to be accessible to all students and be constantly walking around to help students where needed.