Wanted Poster Lesson Plan. Diane McPherson

wanted poster example

Diane McPherson

Lesson Plan: Wanted Posters

I LOVE THIS ONE! In the past, I have had students research famous mathematicians within a set time frame. We take a number line and place it in the front of the room. A fifty year time span is displayed on the line. This is called a Timeline. Each student draws a “name” out of the “hat” to research. The student is then given one week to research what the mathematician is known for, when they became credited, and one interesting fact about their life not related to math. I am now going to throw in a wanted poster to place on the timeline instead of just posting the names within their place on the timeline. It will make a great visual and will really help deepen the research of these great thinkers.

Lesson : TWO VOICE ~ Diane McPherson

two voice link

Diane McPherson

Lesson Plan: Two voices

Site link above: http://everything2.com/

I will begin with reading (with a student) the excerpt taken from the website:

1>Mathematics

2>the word has been
kown
1>to conjure up
1>love 2>hate
1>delight 2>despair
1>recreation 2>anxiety
1>joy 2>fear

1>Mathematics

From this point I will start post it on the board and take out the adjectives and have the students come up with their own. Then calling on two volunteers, have the new poem read. From two examples I will pair them up and have them come up with group examples. I will change each group’s topic from Mathematics to a mathematical subject (algebra, geometry, multiplication, linear equations, etc.) I will allow volunteers to read a few of them to the class.

Final Reflection. Diane McPherson

A Summary of My Experience in RE 4620
With Dr. Woodrow Trathen; ASU
By Diane McPherson

I have enjoyed this class tremendously! It was not just the sitting on my couch as I did all of my work. I sat down each evening, visited sites of classmates’ blogs and read interesting ideas by some very potentially gifted educators. I have full confidence that there are some passionate and knowledgeable people in my cohort. I would feel comfortable with most any of you teaching my son. He is in high school so you can all breathe easy knowing you won’t have to though. The instructor offered great feedback on practically every post I made. He was consistent with deadlines and always made you aware before a deadline was approaching. I have learned a great deal of literacy in this course. Even though I am in a Math/Science Cohort, I do see myself as one who will integrate literature into as many lessons as possible.

Blogging! I did enjoy it! I am a Facebook-er, so it was right up my alley. I do wish continue the process. What a great tool to have as a classroom teacher in the 21st Century Learning. This is a phrase, which if you are in education and have not heard it yet, get ready. This is the new craze! It’s all about technology and different ways to utilize it in the classroom. There are teachers in the school I am working in now that use it daily.

Research! Oh yes! Not only do I use it on a weekly basis for my classroom now, I plan to expand on it next year. I have learned to broaden my searches. I have always limited myself to Goodsearch as a search engine, interactive sites, activities, and lesson plans. Where as now, I will stray away (not often) from Goodsearch, to make sure I get a larger genre of information. I can also look for poetry, books, articles and so much more after taking this class. So many people have shared such good ideas, (you are forewarned) I plan to still and adapt as much as I possibly can. Thanks in advance for your permission. As a professor once told me, “Teaching is the creative form of theft” ~ M. Michaels (CVCC).

Allow me to share a bit of my favorite web sites taken from this course:
http://www.udel.edu/dssep/teaching_strategies/ by: Annette Bennett
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/home.jsp by: Christina Byerly
http://www.learnnc.org/ by: Tim Goble
http://www.readwritethink.org/ by: Karen Hardee

and so many more. I feel good knowing that I did help introduce the class to goodsearch.com. If anyone did not see this information, it is a charitable website that you can set up your school or non-profit organization. Each search earns your charity one penny. Search tabs include: web, images, video, yellow pages, and shopping. If you want to see how it works; go there enter “EAMS” in the category of “WHO DO YOU GOODSEARCH FOR?” and look at the amount raised from inception, year-to-date, and monthly.

In closing, I would like to thank Dr. Trathen and his organization of this class. I love it!

A Professional Development. Diane McPherson

juxtapose
A Professional Development Initiative for Developing Approaches to Vocabulary Instruction with Secondary Mathematics, Art, Science, and English Teachers

What a detailed, collage of information! This book/article covered a plethora of information. It contained strategies on vocabulary, parts of speech, roots, meanings, word usage, small group settings, and so much more. There were examples of student work and ideas for everything from Art class to Math to Language Arts. Several genres were included for examples. There is absolutely no way the reader could walk away and not have gotten something useful out of the text.
My favorite was the Literacy Circle that explored Prime Numbers in poem form. It was interesting to see how the dynamics of the literacy circle works. You have a small group setting with everyone in the group reading the same text. This particular poem was similar to a play reading where you have different voices. In this case, one person read the right side as the other read the left. The readings reminded me of “I” poems which are my new favorite types of poetry. I also liked that this small group created a spider web type of graphic organizer.
I also liked the Juxtapose. Which is: to place side by side unexpected combinations of colors, shapes and ideas: according to http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/juxtapose. It was something, as a math teacher, that I had never seen. This came from a study where a teacher had assigned with connecting a word to a color and a sensory experience. How cool! I could see me having trouble with it but what an association. I love the creativity in this. I don’t think it was a class connection as it was an individual connection to the word given.

The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research. Diane McPherson

A responsive summary to “The multigenre paper: Increasing interest, motivation, and functionality in research.” I must say, this author must have talked to one of my high school teachers; “..most unoriginal writings..” I was never very good at research papers! How interesting to research an unsolved murder though! Kudos to that teacher for making it interesting and bringing literature in a real life setting. If only Ms. Finger could have made Julius Creaser’s death an unsolved mystery, my high school career could have taken a completely different swing. The I-search paper scares me a little. There is so much information out there and even I know there that too much information can be a bad thing. It is good to offer this in a language arts class where you can discuss broadness and specific topics to research. The third approach to research papers: survey-based project which I could use in a math class setting. Fourth is the traditional approach, which was not easy for me to write and would not be easy for me to grade. I would have to pester my Language Arts teacher for lots of guidance. Finally, you have the “multigenre, interpretation, and imagination.” What freedom!
I was interested in the fact that this author noted her skepticism in trying a research paper with no format. This is a struggle I have in class often. I hear great ideas and want to use them but desire the use of a template to get me in the right direction. How brave of her to step into untested waters. Her collage class of “pre-serviced teachers” was a great set of guinea pigs. The list of resources was interesting and obviously not used by math teachers: she had 14 students (13 female and 1 male) and 14 usages of poetry! Yet 24 different types of genres came from the newspaper. Not that is a little more down my alley. I use newspapers with my students often. A total of forty-one different genres were used by these fourteen people. This gives me an insight to what to expect from a group of 32 middle school students.
I was delighted to see examples of students’ work. The pamphlet or brochure template never crossed my mind but now makes perfect since! It was eye-catching. I wanted to be able to read them more clearly.
Questions:
How much time does this type of project take up in a math class; should it be mostly done at home?
Would this not be an excellent example of how to integrate into each classroom as support for the research?
Do I need to narrow the genres so as to not get eighty-some different genres? (I would check them all)

I poems: Invitations for students to deepen literary understanding. Diane McPherson

A responsive summary to “I poems: Invitations for students to deepen literary understanding.” I very much enjoyed the detail this article went to in explaining “I am” poems. Working in middle school math, I have little instruction on integrating literacy. For the past two years we had a Literacy Coach at my school and she was wonderful. She had loads of information. I do have to say, they were informative but not instructional. For example, we were informed of different templates we could use in other classes and gave us examples one or two. This however was still foreign to me. I am also familiar with “I” poems. This may have contributed to my comprehension of this article. Apparently there are a few formats to this style of writing.
The author uses I poems not as a subject to teach but a tool to teach other subjects. How enlightening! This is a greater in-depth look at comprehension. Expanding the character, setting, ending and overall understanding of the story or subject being addressed can all be accomplished with this idea. I, in a math setting, have instructed to write summaries on things we have covered in class. I have watched students struggle with where to begin or they have adapted their own format; “Monday we… Tuesday we…” and simple list out things we have done. I am poems would give them a format to follow, show the weaknesses and strength of comprehension, and not take near as much time in class. I feel this would be very beneficial in my class.
These poems written at the beginning of a subject my help in students’ ability to express what they know about Pythagorean Theorem before I teach. This, for me, could be used prior to a pre-test. This would show me if the understand the concept before throwing triangles at them and going into steps.
I am Pythagorean Theorem.
I am a right triangle.
My legs and hypotenuse define me.
Square my legs and square my hypotenuse; you will see
I am Pythagorean Theorem.
This is an example of some one who understands what Pythagorean Theorem is, vocabulary used in it, and when it can be used. I could then make sure that this person knows the steps, relate a real life setting and then, put them to work.
This author included examples of one subject and several different poems on that subject as well as the format in which poems will be written. My favorite part is the freedom to stray and still be expressive.
Questions:
How much variance should I allow my students to stray away from the format of the “I am” poem?
How do I, as a math teacher, set the rubric for grading literacy when using “I poems?”
With all of the possibilities on “I am” poems, do I need to venture into different types of poems in my math class?

Instructional Strategies 4

Harid measures up

A Proportional Man: Rubeus Hagrid?

Diane McPherson

Name of Strategy: Pre-Reading

Source (Where did this come from?): Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone

http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/hagrid.html

In Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone, Rubeus Hagrid is described as, “He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide.” My students use this selection to introduce proportion and find his height more accurately. I drag in my Assistant Principal and my class measures his height and shoulder width. I follow up with a non literature activity but the kids love it. I give them some dimensions on the NYC Statue of Liberty and have them find the length of her index finger. The kids love it and they know that she really does exist and the fact that her index finger is 6 feet long is cool to middle schoolers.

This activity is great with 7th grade (Goal 3 The learner will understand and use properties and relationships in geometry. : 3.02 Identify, define, and describe similar and congruent polygons with respect to angle measures, length of sides, and proportionality of sides.) mathematics or as a review for 8th graders (Skill to Maintain).

Instructional Strategies 3

The Greedy Triangle

Name of Strategy: ~ Classification of Triangles.

Source (Where did this come from?): Diane McPherson
The Greedy Triangle by Marilyn Burns
This is a cute little book that I have read repeatedly. It is a great introduction for classification of Triangles, Pythagorean Theorem, and recognition of two-dimensional figures before going into three dimensional figures.
Mathematics ~ Goal 3 : Objective:
3.01: Represent problem situations with geometric models. 3.02 : Apply geometric properties and relationships, including the Pythagorean theorem, to solve problems. 3.03 : Identify, predict, and describe dilations in the coordinate plane.~ Grade 8

Instructional Strategies 2

Real numbers
Diane McPherson
Name of Strategy: ~ Mathematics ~ Goal 1 : Objective: 1.01 Develop number sense for the real numbers. ~ Grade 8

Source (Where did this come from?): figurethis.org
http://www.figurethis.org/fc/family_corner_literature.htm
This is a great introduction reading for the comprehension of “Real Numbers” Two books are used side by side. First book is Holes by Louis Sachar with the discussion between Zero and Stanley on how many letters are in the alphabet. Followed up by The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Jester with the discussion between Milo and the child.
Reading the two selections back to back allows the class to discover what “Real” numbers are and the introduction to classification of numbers.

Instructional Strategy 1

A Pizza the Size of the Sun

Diane McPherson

Name of Strategy: Proportions ~ Mathematics ~ Grades 6, 7 & 8

Source (Where did this come from?): Diane McPherson http://www.amazon.com
A Pizza the Size of the Sun is a collection of cute poems by Jack Prelutsky that fit well into the middle school math concept of proportions. Post reading of the poems helps bring proportions to real life concepts. I read the title poem from the book. I have the background information of the size of the sun, a large pizza, and all of the real life ingredients used in the book. We explore what size the pepperoni should be if we were truly making a “Pizza the Size of the Sun.” I would use this as a post reading exploration for proportions.
Mathematics: Grade 6: Goal 3: Objective 3.02
Mathematics: Grade 7: Goal 3: Objective 3.02
Mathematics: Grade 8: Goal 2: Objective 2.01 & 2.02
All address comprehension of radius, diameter, proportion, and indirect measurement.
As with most of my lessons, I try to bring the “when will I ever use this” question into real life situations.