Constructivist Lesson

My group chose to plan a second grade science lesson about weather. We thought it would be a good idea to start the lesson by leading a discussion with the students where we pre-assessed what they already knew about weather vocabulary. Because the constructivist approach focuses on how each individual learner creates their own meaning, we thought this would be a good way for students to start organizing their background knowledge and thinking about what concepts they are still confused about. This pre-assessment will also help me because I will be able to adjust my lesson if necessary. I can take out any vocabulary words the students already understand and make sure to focus on the less familiar ones during my lesson. 

 

Although my group talked about presenting the vocabulary words to the class and discussing them in a whole-group setting, I think I would like to break my students into small groups and give them the vocabulary words without definitions. I would then tell students to discuss in their small-groups what they think each word means, research the definitions of the words in a dictionary, watch news reports on the internet to see how each of the terms is used in real life, and create their own definitions for each word. This fits nicely with the constructivist approach because students would be able to construct their own meanings by coming up with their own definitions, as opposed to simply memorizing the ones in the textbook.

 

Next, our group thought it would be a great idea to have the students use what they had learned during the research phase to create their own weather reports using the vocabulary words. Students could write a script and record their weather forecast using a video camera. We thought this project would fit with the constructivist approach because the students would be able to deepen their understanding of the vocabulary terms by connecting them to a real-world situation. Instead of memorizing definitions and having a superficial understanding of these vocabulary words, students would be able to make a personal connection to them, which will help them remember what they mean.

 

I think that each of these activities helps foster student's individual and group construction. The pre-assessment is done in a whole-group settings, so students are able to bounce ideas off of each other and start constructing meanings for each term as a class. Likewise, the research and project are done in a small-group, so students are able to collaborate with each other and create definitions based on their group's interpretations of each term. Even though the definitions are created in a group setting, there is still an opportunity for students to individually construct meaning. Because the research, and project are all done in student-directed small-groups, they allow each student an opportunity to participate. Students can construct a personal definition of what each term means to him/her based on how they interpret the research and discussion that went on in their group. The constructivist approach states that every learner's construction of meaning is unique, so even if two students work in the same group, their personal interpretation of the meanings of the vocabulary words will still differ.  

 

I really liked my group's idea of using a weather forecast to teach vocabulary, so I wanted to include a few links this week that show how this project can be done in our future classrooms. Notice the vocabulary that these kids talk about. They cover things like blizzards, precipitation, temperature, flooding, hurricanes, and so much more! The kids look like they are having fun and you can tell they have learned a lot about weather.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SUYqJcVemE 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=7OYGsmFfZFI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zeSnvo20rU