6: knowledge construction

Prompt: Make a list of the sequence of skills necessary for ultimate mastery of the content of your lesson through a constructivist approach. Which of these learning activities/skills lend themselves to students' individual or group construction? How might you structure learning activities that lead students to discover these skills/principles?

For this PLE, I am going to use a lesson plan I created for my Ed 422 class. For that lesson plan, I used the direct teaching method, so I am going to modify it to fit the constructive approach. The plan is for 2nd grade math over comparing numbers using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols. Students will show mastery of the content by using the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols to compare 3-digit numbers.

• First I would activate prior knowledge. 
• I would draw the symbols < > = on the board and ask the class what they represent. 
• Next I would write out the words 'greater than', 'less than', and 'equal to' on the board and ask the class what those words actually mean. "What does it mean if I say that something is greater than something else?"
• I would remind the class that it we use these terms and symbols in math when we compare two numbers. 
• I would go over the steps used to compare 3-digit numbers, beginning by comparing the hundreds place, then the tens, then the ones. I would model several examples of this (modeling and scaffolding are aspects of constructivism).
• This time together is representative of social construction.
• Next I would address misconceptions.
• Many students get confused about the direction of the direction of the greater than and less than symbols. I would show a picture of an alligator opening its mouth to the greater number, and remind students that the 'alligator' is greedy, so its 'mouth' is always open to the biggest number.
• From there I would allow students to practice.
• I would let students get together in groups of 2 or 3, one being the 'teacher', setting up the problem, and the others being the 'student', writing the correct symbol on their white boards. 
• This is mostly social construction but also some individual.
• Later I would ask students to explore the concept.
• I would ask my class to come up with real life situations where they might need to compare numbers to see which is greater. (Examples: money, students in 4th grade vs students in 3rd grade, etc).
• This hopefully adds relevance and interest to the topic, and also lets kids explore the idea more deeply.
• This is representative of individual construction.
• Next I would allow the students to participate in authentic activities.
• I would relate the content to real world situations. 
• One example I thought of is if our class could set up a little bowling alley outside. 
• We could use chalk to write out our scores, then use the greater than, less than, and equal to symbols to see which team/person is ahead. 
• This would give the students motivation to understand the concept and add interest since those little boogers are competitive!

This is a link to a website that really explains what constructivism is and how it can work in the classroom in great detail! 

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html