Storyboard Creation

4SI Lesson Study – Glebe Collegiate Institute – English Eng 2P 
First lesson plan – Storyboard Creation.
By Katherine Caldwell

 The idea was to get the students more involved in “accountable talk” and critical thinking. I wanted to engage them in an activity where they could use previous knowledge and create their own meaning.  The students came into the class knowing  the essential components of what a story entails (plot diagram, terms etc) . The desks were placed into groups of 4, with a white board, markers, chart paper , post it notes ,a picture of a random setting and a picture of 2 characters and  the questions: who, what, where, why, when, how.  Students were 3 to a group. Once they were seated and had a chance to look at everything, I discussed with them the idea of story creation...the importance of a good introduction and WHY, and engaged them in a short discussion about what they felt was necessary in a good story. They generated answers of conflict, relatable characters , interesting setting and everything from humour to suspense.

Following the short discussion, I asked them to look at what was on their desks.  I told them that they were to generate a short story outline using the questions, prompts and the ideas taken from discussion.  Also....there were 2 bags at the front of the class, one contained pictures of random settings, the other characters. If they were not satisfied with the pictures on their desk, they were allowed one trade. As well I would walk around with another bag, containing random objects ( Lego, candles, dental floss, toys etc) One member of each group was to blindly select an object. The object was to be used in the story.

Immediately, the groups were engaged. They quickly began discussing what was on their table and how they could be put to use. The objects brought forth many ideas for creativity and they began to work together to put their ideas on the white boards.

The use of whiteboards was very beneficial as they could jot down their ideas and easily erase if needed. They began to talk and each member of the group was contributing to their story plan. I was surprised at how well they were working and talking together. They began to ask questions and they were having fun with it. Even one group of boys, who are generally are not engaged, were creating and talking.

As they put their ideas on the whiteboard, they would review and add or take out information. As the story outline took place, the groups then transferred the ideas onto chart paper. This was done by either following a storyboard outline(sectioned into smaller squares) or along a plot diagram. If they wanted to add information they would use the post it notes and place it right on their paper.

Once the chart paper was filled out, we put them on the front board and groups walked around and looked at each story creation.  The students took pride in their stories and liked having them on display. Having them in small groups, not only encouraged accountable talk but also encouraged critical thinking, as they felt comfortable exploring their own ideas. Essentially there was no wrong answer. It was fun, creative and they were able to successfully accomplish the learning goals.

In the post discussion, we felt that is was a very positive experience. The use of the desk placement, whiteboards and other tools greatly benefited the students and the learning environment. The students became responsible for their learning. Often, applied students are not comfortable speaking up, yet they were offering up ideas and fully engaged...even going back and adding information after having reviewed the other groups up on the board.

Othello Murder Mystery - English 2D - February 2013

By Kathy Bol

The first lesson I did as part of 4SI was for an English 2D class. This was a typical 2D class - about 30 students, some ELL learners, some at-risk students, and some academic students. We were about to start studying Othello and I wanted to do a pre-reading activity to prepare the students for the play. In the past, I would have started this unit by having the students copy a note with all the details about the play - themes, images, etc. With the focus on critical thinking, my aim now is to let the students "unpack" the text on their own as we read. However, I still place a lot of value on pre-reading activities, especially for difficult texts like Shakespeare. I also wanted to incorporate the strategies which we were focusing on with 4SI - accountable talk, questioning and making inferences.

One of the ideas I brought to the group was a "murder mystery" activity which we refined together.  Each group of students would be given a bag containing several items: a picture of a sword, a picture of a pillow, confetti, a letter from Iago, a news article about Othello, and several quotes from the play. One of the ideas that was generated by the team was to change the names and details so that they weren't directly from Othello (in case some students knew the play, and not to give away too much of the story). So, the letter was from Rick to Ian, and the article was about General Leo and his wife Diane. I was careful not to tell them that it was about Othello.

The class would be told that there had been a murder and they were to use the items in their bag to solve it. The questions they had to answer were: Who was killed? By whom? What was the murder weapon? What was the motive?  They had to write out their scenarios on chart paper and justify them to the rest of the class.

Observations

The students were very engaged from the moment they saw the bags on the tables. Fortunately, no one realized that it was about Othello, or if they did, they did not know the story. (When I did it again this year, some of the students figured it out right away, so it didn't work as well). The goals of accountable talk, inferencing and questioning were definitely met as they actively discussed the items in the bag and what they meant. The students presented their ideas to each other, then posted their chart papers around the room. Once we started reading the play, the other benefits became apparent - they were constantly making references back to the activity ("Ohhhh, that's where the pillow comes in!"), and it really helped with their level of engagement and their understanding of the play.

In our debrief session afterwards, the group was positive about the lesson and felt it achieved what we wanted it to achieve. One interesting observation was about the students' presentations to the class. The first group got up to present, said their part, and I responded with  "Good job". France observed that, after that, the other groups started presenting to me, rather than to their peers, and the audience lost interest. We discussed the effect of teacher comments on students. If they think they are being judged or evaluated, even informally, their behaviour and performance changes as they focus on "What does the teacher want?" We have discussed this several times since. We naturally want to encourage our students, but we need to be careful of when we give feedback and what kind of feedback it is. In this case, it should have come from the class and not me, at least not until after everyone was done, and then what is most useful are specific comments. (ie: "I noticed that this group decided that the sword was symbolic rather than a literal weapon.”)

Math Goes To The Movies

By Bruce McLaurin

The lesson we created for my grade 9 applied class (late April 2013) took a page from a lesson that I was involved  in an earlier lesson study.  That lesson involved experimenting with the relationship between the volumes of popcorn kernels and popcorn.  We decided that in this lesson, rather than telling them what to do, we would ask them to come up with the question.  We would provide a number of items around the popcorn theme and asked the students to come up with a good question that could be solved with math and then go ahead and solve it.  Students would work in small groups of 2 or 3.  The groups were based on ability groupings with social considerations.  In other words, students would be working with other students of similar mathematical ability who they had worked with before.  Each group would be given 100 g of kernels and the cost in bulk,movie theatre popcorn pages with the price attached for small medium and large, cubic centimetre linking cubes, a measuring cup and an instruction sheet.  At the top of the question sheet was a For Better or Worse cartoon with the caption "You can tell how smart someone is by the questions they ask."  They also had access to electronic scales and an electric corn popper as well as chart paper and markers for recording their work.

When planning the lesson there was one more critical piece to consider.  What were the teacher moves?  What would I be doing to facilitate the lesson?  We had a guest at the table for that planning session who offered "Do nothing".  So we agreed that instead of moving about the room and encouraging and cajoling, I would sit down and make myself available for questions. 

On the day of the lesson, the observing teachers were given a list of mathematical terms that they could listen for as evidence of accountable talk.  My introduction to the students was very short and the students got down to work rather tentatively at first.  I found it incredibly difficult to just sit there and let things happen.  I answered a few questions and I was pleased when one group eventually got around to using the corn popper to make popcorn.  As it turned out they just wanted to munch on popcorn as they did their question.  In fact in all the groups the mathematics produced was at a very low level.  There was a group of two with the strongest students.  I had little contact with them until the end of the period.  After more than an hour their chart paper showed that 1000 cm linking cubes fit in a cubic measuring cup that was 10 by 10 by 10.  They had asked a question and answered it just like I directed.

The questions that seemed obvious to us never materialized;  "How many kernels to fill a bag?", "What does it cost to fill a popcorn bag?", "Which size bag in the better deal?".   Interestingly the least academic group came closest to what we had in mind. 

In the debrief with the teachers I expressed my disappointment.  How could they not see what we could see?  What a flop!  Thankfully one of the observing teachers picked up on a comment made almost immediately in a group farthest from me.  As soon as they saw the price on the bulk corn kernels and the price on the movie popcorn the comment was "What a rip-off!".  They got it.  But why couldn't they parlay that into a good question?

After some discussion, the thought occurred to us that there was a huge disconnect between the math classroom and what goes on in the 'real world'.  For their good question, these students were giving us bizarre random worksheet/textbook style math questions.  They were giving us what they thought we wanted.  We can speculate that for years they have been subjected to questions that had little context and even less meaning.  Why wouldn't they mirror that?  To quote Pogo, "We have met the enemy and the enemy is us". 

In this lesson the students learned very little.  We learned lots.  We were blown away by how much we learned about the how little the students understood about good questions.  We knew that we had new challenges ahead.  

 

Open Strategy Cup Stacking

By Al Overwijk

I volunteered to do the first lesson study for our professional learning team. Having had some experience with lesson study I figured I would take the risk and jump right in. This lesson was done in April of 2013. This particular idea comes from the Math Twitter BlogoSphere #MTBoS. The idea I brought to the group was based on three act math tasks via Dan Meyer. Cups are stacked inside each other and a model is created so that students can predict how many cups to get to a certain height. Read about it here.

Being our first lesson that we studied everyone was very interested in three act math tasks. Also our math coach from the board participated as well. Thank you Robin McAteer. (@robintg). She did an amazing job observing the lesson, creating a video and creating a summary of observations.

So what was discussed in our pre-planning:

1. Groups would be made by ability. (Since we have learned the negative consequences of this.)

2. The students would ask the questions based on the image of me standing beside a cup. Come up with a stacking plan, guess to low, too high and give a best guess. Letting the students decide how to stack the cups was a risk. Who knew what they would do?

3. Each group would be required to create a poster with the following: a table of values, a graph, an equation and a stacking diagram.

4. Once a group was done a particular stacking method they would redo the process.

5. Students would fill out an exit card at the end of class.

6. Observers would fill in this form while watching the lesson.
 Lesson:  Classroom Observations (Cups Lesson)

Learning Goals:

®    The students will make connections between a real life context and a mathematical model

®    The students will use the mathematical model to solve a problem

®    The students will use different representations, and make connections between representations (algebraic, graphical, numerical / table of values)

  

 Were the learning goals met?

Discouse / Accountable Talk

§  Were the students talking about Math?  Were they asking each other questions?

 Explaining to each other?

§  Were the student thinking critically?

–   making connections, conjectures, choosing tools and strategies, reflecting on thinking, justifying

               Differentiation / Engagement with task

·         Was the task appropriate for students to engage in learning?

·         Were students connecting to prior learning?

·         Grouping for learning (Similar ability groupings)– did it work ?

Questioning

§  Student to Student questioning

§  Teacher questioning / scaffolding – what did the teacher say?  how did students respond?

Other observations? 

7. Here is a picture of the stems I used.

I blogged about the activity on my blog at slamdunkmath.blogspot.ca

Here are notes that I made to help me be organized.

CUP STACKS

·        Provide all observers with:

Photocopy of names with pictures

Observation sheet

Lesson plan

Group Guess Sheet

Groupings

Timing	Teacher Moves	Observations / Improvements
Before students arrive	·         Photo of Al with cup on floor showing on the overhead ·         Desks grouped in 3’s ·         Groups of 3 by ability-pre determined (variable depending on who shows up)-name tags on the desks ·         Scrap paper for students to generate a question or questions ·         Cups, chart paper, markers, rulers, meter sticks ready and waiting ·         Stems ready and waiting
As students arrive	·         Hand them a cup, and encourage them to find their name at a set of desks ·         After announcements ask students to write down any questions that come to mind when looking at the picture ·         Write questions on the board and settle on “How many cups to reach Mr. Overwijk’s height”-hopefully
9:10-9:20	·         Have each group decide how they will stack their cups and fill in Guess Sheet for Cup Stacks ·         Ask them if they need any information to help answer the question? Provide the information or the tools to get the information. ·         Once they are committed they can grab 10 cups, ruler, chart paper, markers, graphing calculator, anything else they need
9:20-9:25	·         Outline product for chart paper. Title, Group members names, diagram (picture) of stacking plan, different representations ( table, graph, equation) ·         Calculation of number of cups needed (multiple ways if possible)
9:25-9:55	·         Monitor group work and discussions ·         Any groups that have generated a poster can redo the entire process with a new stacking plan
9:55-10:05	·         Exit Card ·         Equipment away

In our debriefing session we were all pretty excited. Things went great. A few things I remember:

A) France (the principal) commenting how nervous I was. This was nerve racking. Presenting a lesson in front of many people whom I respected deeply and did not want to disappoint. I think being slightly nervous can increase performance.

B) Other teachers in the room interacted with groups. This would be something that we would need to work on. The lessons needed to be something one teacher could pull off.

C) Student engagement was visible. Accountable talk was visible.

D) I mentioned that I was panicking once groups started because six of seven groups all stacked the same way (top bottom top etc.). I wanted to interrupt and steer some groups in another direction but this was not the plan. I let it go and groups quickly finished and went on to a second technique to stack. Whew!

Questions
The math coach (Robin) was kind enough to create a list of all the student questions.

Student Questions from the Teacher / Cup Picture

How many cups would it take to be the same height of Mr. Overwijk?

How many cups does it take to make Mr. O’s height?

 What is the difference in size?

 How many times is the cup smaller than Mr. O?

 How many cups does it take to make the same size?

 How big is the cup?

 How big is Mr. Overwijk?

What are the dimensions of the blackboard?

How many cups will equal Mr. Overwijk’s height?

 In cups, what is the width of Mr. Ovewijk?

Why is the cup on the floor?ow tall is Mr. O?

What is the height of the cup?

 If  Mr. O is 6 feet tall, how tall is the cup?

How tall is the cup?

How tall is he?

 How many cups would it take to reach Mr. O’s height?

What is the volume of the cup?

Why is  Mr. Overwijk standing next to a cup?

What is the scale?

How do you find the height of the cup if you know Mr. Overwijk’s height?

How many cups do you need to make a Mr. Overwijk?

Are you able to make an outer shell of Mr. Overwijk with the cups?

Why does your shirt match your cup?

Why?

What is the difference in height between Mr. Overwijk and the cup?

Height of the cup?

Height of Mr. Overwijk?

How many cups does it take to get to the same height of Mr. Overwijk?

How far is the teacher from the cup?

How long is the cup?

How tall is the teacher?

How many cups do you need to reach up to the teacher?

How many more cups are needed stacked up on each other to be the same height as Mr. “O”

How tall is this one?

How tall is Mr. “O”?

What’s the height difference between Mr. Overwijk and the cup?

How far are they apart?  (cup/Overwijk)

Is it supposed to be a graph of some kind?  If so, what kind?

What’s the difference in height?

What are you doing beside a cup?

Height difference?

Why the hell is that cup on the floor?

Stand up straight!

Your legs are cracking me up (oompa-loompa)

How many cups equal your height?

Again Robin summarized the exit card responses

Exit Card Summary

Describe what you learned today Red – Math Green- Stuff about Mr. O Brown – Group work/ Social Black - Other	After today’s activity, what are you unsure about or wondering about? Red – Math Blue – Context / situation Brown – Group work/ Social Black – Other	Name
That the result can change depending on how you stack them	If I’m in the right class If the result will change if different cups were used (bigger width)	A
I learned that Mr. O is same as 1 cups height which is 11.3	I’m not sure about the equation	J
I learned how to create proper graphs for this	I am still kinda confused about equations	M
I learned how to find out how tall you have to be if you want to stack 18 cups on top of each other.  I also learned how tall Mr. O is.	I’m wondering how many cups would need to be stacked up to reach my height	K
I learned proper graphing skills and when to use linear regression	Not a lot, just some formula crap	C
I learned that you need at least 1 measurement to make a graph.  It would have been quite hard to figure anything out without the knowledge of Mr. Overwijk’s height	I’m wondering how you would begin to go about the same activity if you do not know the height of the person	D
I learned that the number of cups… the weight of Mr. Overwijk – 80. If cups is 20.4 cm.	There is nothing that I am unsure about or wondering about	R
I learned that you need to stack about 17 cups to make Mr. O’s height	Nothing	S
I learned how to graph properly	I’m wondering you could you start the graph with	I
I learned how many cups Mr. O is in height	What is the point of this	A
I learned how much cups are Mr. O’s height	How much cups does Lebron James take	I
Stacking cups, teamwork , sharing	What was the point of this, will this save my life one day stacking cups	J
I knew how to equal the height and redo something.	Nothing	B
I learned that with every sample of data, an equation and graph are required.  I also learned that John should never be a math teacher	Is it possible to switch x and y?	H
Teaching people is hard	Nothing	J
I’ve learned that there are many ways to find the same answer	That why can one point change the whole equation	Y
I learned that Mr. Overwijk’s height in cups is 16.2 cups	I am wondering how many cups would it take to reach my height	K
I learned today that how much cups is there for Mr. Overwijk	Graphs	Y
I learned B is cranky on Thursday’s, and that I do all the work in the group and she just writes it out	Why B’s cranky, and why people were watching us and taking pictures… kinda weird	M

Robin also created a video which we cannot share (unfortunately). Too bad-it was pretty cool to watch.

At the end of the day we were all amazed at the learning that went on as this became a very student centered lesson as opposed to a teacher centered lesson. A great start to our journey.