EDT 473E Lesson Study

Beth Brown and Gordon Donahue

1.

DESCRIPTIVE TITLE OF THE LESSON

A. Measurement of Decomposition
2.

THE TWO SELECTED CONTENT AREA

A. Mathematics and Science

3.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC TO BE ADDRESSED

In this 5 day long lesson we will build decomposition bottles with 2-liter bottles. These
bottles will hold a variety of organic material including leaves, sticks, plants, worms, and dirt as
well as inorganic material like plastic and rocks. Students will observe and hypothesis about
what is happening in the bottles, specifically in reference to how the living things are affecting
the environment. Students will use centimeters and inches to measure changes in the bottle level
as well as to measure worm length. Through small group and whole group discussion we will
discover how living things affect their environment as well as the relation of measurement to
object length.
4. CONTEXT
A.

Second Grade

B.
The learning experiences in our classroom are primarily teacher driven. The schedule,
content, and projects are all chosen based on standards and tests the children must complete in
the second grade. The students are asked to provide a correct answer and then are told the correct
answer should they answer incorrectly. The majority of students are excited to give the correct
answer to the teacher-posed question. Around 5 are extremely excited to be in school, 6 are
struggling and frequently ask when they get to go home, and the rest seem happy to be there but
are not invested in the projects.
One student especially is disaffected, often saying he hates school and wants to go home.
When he is kept on task he is able to focus and succeed, but he is often exhausted and falls
asleep during class. The teacher told us that this students parents frequently wake him up to keep
him from wetting the bed and let him stay up late. The teacher deals with this behavior by
waking him up and telling him to pay attention.
Another student in the class is viewed to be on the opposite end of the spectrum of
success. She follows every rule to the letter and never gets in trouble. The teacher raves about her
ability to complete tasks and pay attention but has told us that her parents see her as
rambunctious at home. After observing this student, it is clear that while she is a model student
she is not invested in the learning. She does not become excited about school the way she is
excited about being outside creeking with her sister.

C.
In relation to content that the students have already been exposed to, there had been a
focus on measurement, specifically on the proper use of rulers and the differential associated
with inches and centimeters. We were provided a post-test the students were given after the
lesson earlier in the year. The test revealed that the students were struggling with the connection
between measurements and length, believing that the object measured with cm was longer than
when the object was measured in inches.
There had been no prior instruction on the effects of living things on the environment. in
the classroom setting.
5. DESCRIPTION OF THE OBJECTIVES OF THE INTEGRATED LESSON
A.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.2.MD.A.2:
Measure the length of an object twice, using length units of different lengths for the two
measurements; describe how the two measurements relate to the size of the unit chosen.
Science-Life Science: 2nd Grade Theme: Living things can cause changes on Earth.

B.
Similarly attempted, this specific lesson study affords students the opportunity to identify
and practice a series of interconnected skills, in accordance with the benefit of scientific inquiry.
While every discipline possesses its own content knowledge, the skills presented and repeatedly
reinforced are applicable across a wide spectrum of more general content areas. So to this is true
with the second grade science theme chosen for this assignment, Living things can cause
changes on Earth. While, in itself, this may appear to be a somewhat self-explanatory idea, the
possibilities suggested by this theme are enormous, in the sense that all organic matter is
effectual to another component of the planet. We want students to come away with the
understanding that all living things have an effect on the world, including themselves.
In regards to math element of the lesson we wanted students to understand that rulers are
tools for measurement and comparison. It is easy to assume that inches and other units of
measurements are objects within themselves and not simply a human designed structure for use
in comparison. This idea fosters the thought that something measured in inches is shorter than
that same thing measured in centimeters simply because there are more centimeters.
6. QUALITIES OF EXPERIENCE
1. In what ways does this lesson respect children and their ability to think critically?
We have learned that children are able to and thrive on thinking critically, though our
own experience as well as through this course. When I have taught children lessons in a dynamic
way that respected their ideas and questions they responded with much more enthusiasm. Last
semester a student asked, When are we going to do work? He usually experienced school
through worksheets that only wanted the right answer without allowing room for student
inquiry and thought.

Ayers support of this quality is important, in regards to this particular lesson. On page
107 of To Teach, he discusses Joan Cenedellas class. Joan had taken her class on a trip to
explore the city. While this is a worthy endeavor, the children were focused on the river nearby
and began to ask questions. Because Joan respected her students ability to think critically she
allowed them to take the lesson in a different direction instead of keeping to the original
assignment of exploring the city. She did not view their ideas as inferior to hers. Ayers says, In
my classroom, themes would often emerge from the children, and I would be running to catch
up, making connections, asking challenging questions, arranging next steps, ( To Teach, pg.
109). By respecting students ability to create and think we are then able to engage them in real
learning about topics they are interested in.
The article Patience or Understanding promotes the idea that teachers must be
understanding, not patient, when working with children. This means that teachers know and can
work with students needs without becoming frustrated. Such teachers make time to allow
children to discover their world and build their reality through interactions with objects and
people, (Patience or Understanding, pg. 53). These teachers respect their students ability to
think about subjects and allow them the necessary time to fully flesh out an idea without the
teacher rushing in with correct knowledge.
Because we have seen the teacher in this classroom become impatient with students and give
them the correct answer, we want to ensure we take the time to answer questions students have as
well as help them vocalize their own thoughts.
2. In what ways does this lesson connect core subjects to the students lived experience?
Mary Cowhey tells us in Black Ants and Buddhists about reading Paulo Friere. In his
Pedagogy of the Oppressed he spoke of the need for problem-posing education instead of the
current banking concept approach of depositing knowledge into students. Problem-posing is
the concept that, students and teachers are coinvestigators of problems that arise organically
from their daily experiences, (Black Ants and Buddhists, pg. 17). This supports our belief that
learning, while tied to core subjects and skills, should involve lived experiences. Students should
not have to question when they will need a skill in the real world. The teacher should provide a
learning environment that makes the connection clear.
Ayers states that, Outstanding teaching is built on a base of knowledge about students,
(To Teach, pg. 86). Lessons should be built using childrens real life, and the teacher should work
to facilitate student problem solving within the contexts of their lives. In order for this to happen,
teachers need to have a base knowledge about what the students lives are like. It is very
important to us, and Ayers, that we know about the children and their lives in order to best teach
them.
Because the students have frequently provided us with questions about things outside of
the teachers lessons without receiving answers we want to thoroughly explore the taught
subjects in connection with their questions about their lived world.
3. In what ways does this lesson inspire children to think critically?
We have established in the first quality of experience that children have the ability to
think critically about real world problems. It then becomes the teachers responsibility to inspire
children to think critically in school as well as to scaffold students ability to observe, inquire,

and grow from the introduction, research, and absorption of knowledge. As a result of this
instructional mentality, students will be more invested in their education as they are able to see
the real world context behind the standards and concepts that they must be able to demonstrate
proficiency in. As no idea exists within a vacuum, students who realize the relevant worldly
connections will be fitter to participate as knowledgeable and contributing citizens.
In To Teach we find that the use of higher order thinking skills inspires children to think
critically; through a higher order of thinking ability, students are more apt and willing to
participate in conceptual studies in their education (To Teach, pg. 124). As educators, we see that
using real world problems as a driver for students education is not enough. We must ask them to
solve these issues the same as we had asked an older adult to because children have real world
experience to contribute to the discussion. Their solutions may not work, but the time taken to
scaffold them through the critical thinking process in order to reach a successful solution will
teach them how to think through future problems.If educators do not take the time to develop
lessons with a focus on higher order thinking skills and instead use pre-structured tasks they
believe to be easy the students will not be inspired to think beyond what they were given.
In the book A Reason to Teach we find, and agree with, the idea that it is important and
essential that a teacher love and care about their students but that educators must further
challenge students to utilize their increasing knowledge to peer more deeply into the trials and
troubles of the world. Only in the way of developing critical inquiry will students be able to
more aptly able to apply their knowledge and perspectives to call for changes against such
inequalities and injustices that they see best fit, and necessary, to address (A Reason to Teach, pg.
4). So while we must respect childrens intellects during this lesson, we must also challenge them
to look deeply into the subject matter.
Because of several students desire to leave school near the end of the day due to
boredom, we wish to include more opportunities for students to think deeply about the world
around them in ways that they may not have before.
7. DESCRIPTION OF LESSON DESIGN
This lesson is constructed around the interconnected concepts of the natural, fluid change
caused by living things with a nod towards the mathematical uses in scientific observation.
The structure of this lesson initially starts with the assessment end of the educational agenda
because data drives instruction. Even though a lesson had already been constructed and was
ready to go, it is essential to acquire pertinent information on a students prior knowledge,
concerning a specific topic. Within the realm of conceptual thinking, it is imperative that an
instructor identifies what his or her students know, generally, about a concept so that he or she
can adjust his or her lesson to a more developmentally appropriate plane. Essentially, a teacher
needs to go from the abstract and potentially undefined to the domain-specific, in that students
are able to identify, research, and understand content that is defined under one specific discipline.
Furthermore, past this act, teacher and student should be coming together, through discussions,
projects, and shared academic experiences that will serve as a router to connect seemingly
independent ideas to one another and ultimately help construct the framework that is critical
inquiry.
However, before this point, the initial assessment needs to be put into play. At only five
questions long, and all based around student dictation, these simple environmental and
measurement based questions making up our pre-test interview pose very little possible chance

to push a student into his or her level of frustration. Even given this scenario, because the
assessment is purely built around dictation, stopping the administration is extraordinarily easy;
simply end the question and thank the student for his or her time, as well as any responses that he
or she gave.
Once the data is collected, it will be possible to integrate it into our lesson structure. The
plan itself calls for the construction of Decomposition Bottles which will act as the primary
investigatory and observation tool for the students. Loaded with primarily organic matter along
with a few inorganic compounds (such as plastic and rocks), these bottles will give students a
chance, each day, to observe how the environment, even in a somewhat controlled one as is the
case in this activity, is subject to changes given its condition. Additionally, inserting living
organisms into the equation (the earthworms) will provide both a quantifiable means for the
encapsulated environment to change and a direct way for students to observe the act of
decomposition.
Supplementing this scientific inquiry is the presence of a mathematical context which
acts to integrate second grade measurement standards, regarding the differences between inches
and centimeters. By being provided with rulers, the students will engage in the act of recording
differences in the height of the soil, all the while under the guise (not meant to intentionally
sound misleading but rather addressing two different disciplines at once) of observation. By
contextually showing the differences in unit size, between inches and centimeters, it will be
possible to scaffold a direct, comparable example for students to identify, ponder, and reflect off
of.
This information will be recorded in a packet that students will keep a hold of for the
duration of the lesson. Outside the defining of key vocabulary, that adds the aforementioned
domain-specific subject matter to the lesson, the majority of the packet relates to what students
can personally observe from the activity. This is to invest the students in their own education by
having them take charge of the components that will hopefully lead them to some form of
personal understanding relating to the scientific and mathematical emphasis of the lesson.
We will begin the lesson by building the bottles with the students, introducing them to
concepts necessary to their understanding of the standards. Once the bottles are built we will
have groups form conjectures about what will happen in their bottles, recording it for future use.
The following school day we will all meet to practice observing our bottles and to document
what changes have occurred. In the next couple days, due to time constraints, a teacher will meet
with each small group once to discuss their bottle and their observations, including measurement.
This will form the core of the observation period.
In the final day we will ask all students to meet in as a circle group. This time of
observation will be focused on reflection. What have the students learned? What do they still
have questions about? We will ensure the students comprehend the key vocabulary as well as
think critically about their observations. Where could they see this happening? What will happen
to the inorganic matter? We will also address the importance of measuring as a tool and we have
to use that tool correctly. A short group lesson about how the spaces count on a ruler, not the
lines, will occur.
As a finality, at least in concerns to the definitive lesson plan structure (ideally not the
students inquiry about the subject of natural environmental changes), students will engage in a
formative post-test which will assess what knowledge they have acquired over the course of the
lessons duration. Simply being a rehash of the questions from the pretest, the posttest will seek
to quantify the conceptual understandings the students were perceived to have picked up. While

not being entirely comprehensive in its nature or application, the written format of this
assessment will allow students to extrapolate their concept knowledge in a defined manner.
Ideally, a cumulative project would come about to more effectively tie together the science and
mathematical standards but given the short amount of time available, coupled with the activity
already present within the confines of the lesson, this construct would prove to not be the most
feasible course of action.