Overview and PlanningBrain-based learning is a focal point in education and its importance are easily represented by the scientific data. Students engaged in learning that activates the whole brain provides deeper learning and more retention. To do this, educators must utilize cross-curricular planning to provide more connectivity between the subjects. Ideally, all of the lessons and activities stem from a problem-based learning embedded in the real world issues of today. As a piece of a 1:1 Science Academy, we designed four separate PBL challenges for students to work towards in each nine weeks. This takes intensive planning and professional development of the staff. While ideal, this sometimes seems a large task and limits the amount of teachers interested in cross-curricular lessons. When moving in this direction, it might be better to structure smaller lessons to provide opportunities for teachers to feel successful before jumping to larger conquests. I recently read Ron Ritchhart's Cultures of Thinking and came across a lesson on Othello, where the math teacher structured a lesson for students to construct creative mathematical equations to represent characters from Othello. Students then had to explain and document their thinking to spark metacognitive processes. We were currently entranced in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and students were unable to fully describe and detail the characters, more specifically, Lee's use of the characters. I decided to restructure the lesson in Ritchhart's book to work for my specific students. Rather than creating open-ended equation process for students, I wanted something more systematic for students to use in exploring equations and opening their mind to using math as a concrete symbol for the abstractness of characters. I went to developing the packet and an example first during the planning stage. InstructionSince this was a unique experience and the first integration of math into ELA for many of the students, I decided to work closely with the students. I explained, modeled, and then provided a time for a section. I made sure to circulate the room looking for strengths and weaknesses at the stage that would impact the outcome of their understanding and their work. When finished, we briefly reviewed each section prior to moving on and repeating the process. During the first stage, students became excited about listing traits and even began working on the second character, even though my expectation was to complete the first in the given time. This promoted some differentiation of process and time allotment. The packet above includes directions and examples in every section, specifically the math part. I honestly thought I would get more pushback from students, but even some of the most troublesome students were engaged and helping others around them. Out of the year, it is easily one of the highest in student engagement and quality of work. We continually modeled and shared examples throughout the process and students in every class asked to take the second character home to work more in-depth. TipsProvide some prereading or preteaching on traits and attributes of characters. My students had enough base knowledge to proceed with the lesson, but I was hoping for more diversity and specificity of the traits. A lot of students were plagued with a vocabulary access. They knew what they wanted to list about the character and could even describe it in length with support; however, they struggled with finding a precise word for it. Guiding students in the vocabulary of traits and attributes ate most of the time when I circulated.
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Mr. Brenton DeFlitchStriving to provide unique and research-based strategies to modernizing the educational experience of students. Archives
February 2017
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