Week One
Differentiated Instruction (DI) and Understanding by Design (UbD) - The Basics
Applying Differentiated Instruction and Understanding by Design to a
Lesson/Activity
Get together with a group of three or four other teachers. Choose one of the
following lessons to apply some of the principles of DI and UbD to better support
student understanding or choose an activity that you currently do with your
students. Use the Understanding by
Design Template to help plan your re-designed lesson. Be prepared to report
your re-designed activity to the class. You will have approximately 60 minutes
to complete the activity and five minutes to present it to the class.
Lesson #1.
Digging Up Dinosaur Bones
Have you ever wondered about dinosaurs? Perhaps you wondered exactly how big
an apatasaurus was, or maybe you thought about what Tyrannosaurus Rex really
ate. There are many unsolved mysteries about dinosaurs because people were not
around to observe them. With every new dinosaur dig, scientists learn more about
dinosaurs and the way they lived here on Earth.
Your Job
You must discover everything you can about the dinosaur that your group has
been given. I will give you directions to follow, so that you know what to do.
Each group will have 4 jobs:
1. One person will be the paleontologist, who will explain how to do his or
her job, and tell about digging for fossils.
2. One person will be the reporter, who tells the other members in the group
what the paleontologist has found.
3. One person will be the museum director, who shares important pictures and
stories that could be used in a museum.
4. One person will be the science teacher, who teaches the rest of our class
what your group has learned about your dinosaur.
Your Project
Your team is responsible for a poster presentation explaining what you have
discovered on your “dinosaur dig.” Each person on your team should
help to create the poster, and each person is responsible for a writing assignment.
1. The paleontologist will tell about what scientists have discovered about
your dinosaur, and write a one page (3 paragraph) journal entry about a dig.
2. The reporter will summarize the paleontologist’s comments, and write
a one page (3 paragraph) newspaper article.
3. The museum director will describe artifacts that would be needed for a good
dinosaur museum, and write a one page (3 paragraph) brochure advertising the
museum’s dinosaur exhibit.
4. The science teacher will tell what 2nd graders need to know about this dinosaur,
and write a one page (3 paragraph) textbook chapter for 2nd graders.
Your Materials
For your dinosaur research, you will need:
* 3 x 5 cards (for jotting down notes from Websites and books)
* pencil
* lined paper
* poster board (provided for you)
* markers, paints, and any other creative materials (for your poster)
How To Do Your Research
Each person on your dinosaur team will read 3 dinosaur books, to give you some
background knowledge on your subject. They are fun, interesting books, so enjoy
them!
Step #1: As a team, rotate and read these 3 dinosaur books on the required book
list. Read at least these 3 books, but also check our classroom library for
more dinosaur readings.
Digging Up Dinosaurs by Aliki
Dinosaur Story by Joanna Cole
Dinosaurs by Gail Gibbons
Lesson #2
Math Curse
Mathematical Strand: Number and Operation
Topic: Students will understand everyday uses of numbers and relationships of
numbers.
Grade Level: 4-6
Lesson Description:
Materials: Math Curse by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, newspapers, scissors,
white drawing paper, markers, crayons
1. Launching the Lesson (engage):
a. Ask children what they think the following means: "You can think of
almost everything as a math problem."
b. Let volunteers give examples of things from the classroom that could be thought
of in terms of a math problem. Tell students to listen to see if any of their
ideas are mentioned in the following story.
c. Read Math Curse.
2. Developing the Lesson:
a. Give each child a section of newspaper and ask them to cut out examples of
uses of math. Allow about 5 minutes. Let them share their clippings in small
groups and with the whole class. As each clipping is shared, call attention
to the math involved and elaborate if appropriate.
b. Tell students that we will be making a class book of how math is a part of
our lives. Each child will create a page of the book. The pages should have
open-ended situations involving people or things outside of school. After writing
about the situations students should illustrate without giving away the answer.
Students should be made aware that they will be asked to share, and should know
the answers to the problems they pose. Challenge students to "stump"
their classmates. (The teacher might want to create an example, however this
can limit student creativity.)
3. Closure/ Discussion/Elaboration:
a. The next day, put students into groups of two. Trade pages and solve the
problems. As time allows, let volunteers share their pages while partners show
the solution.
b. Bind the pages as a class book and put in a place that is readily accessible
to students. Share at parent-teacher-student conferences. (Privately help students
whose problems show a lack of understanding. Help them make corrections so their
pages may be a part of the book.)
c. As an extension, categorize newspaper clippings into math topics and put
on posters to display around the room.
d. The book Math Curse could be read several times as part of math
lessons for other mathematical strands.
Lesson #3.
Book: Magic School Bus In a Pickle
Field Trip Notes
Order in the court! When Keesha comes back from vacation, her prizewinning cucumber
is missing - replaced by a pickle. Could Ms. Frizzle, who has a passion for
pickles, be the culprit? The Friz says a group of tiny troublemakers called
the Mike Robe Gang (microbes) is responsible. But they’re too tiny to
see. The bus shrinks to housefly size, and the kids find evidence that millions
of the gang members are changing things all around them. At the scene of the
crime, they discover that microbes pickled the cucumber, saving it from spoiling.
Case closed!
Lesson Plan:
Time: 10 minutes every day for eight days
Group Size: Three or four
Microbes turned Arnold’s tomato into a goopy, ploopy mess. Here, your
students can discover what microbes need to grow by growing bread mold.
Masking tape
Marking pens
Copies of Getting Moldy
Refrigerator
For each group:
Two slices of bread
Two zip-lock baggies
Ask kids: Where have you seen mold? How do you think it got there?
Have each group put a slice of bread into a baggie, seal the bag. Place that
slice on a shelf or desk where kids can observe it easily.
Have students observe baggies daily, and draw what they see. (Bread contains
water; they may see moisture in the bag.)
Dispose of bread and bags properly.
Lesson #4
The Grapes of Math by Gregg Tang
Mathematics Strand: Number and Operation
Topic: Students will practice mental addition and will use the associative and
commutative properties of addition to solve problems.
Grade level: 6-8
LESSON DESCRIPTION
Materials
Book: The Grapes of Math, pencil, paper
1. Engage:
a. Read the story as you read, ask the students if they can think of any way
to add up the items in the picture, without actually counting the items
b. Talk about grouping certain items... How does grouping items make it quicker
to count? Can you do another operation to find the total of items? (Multiplying
rows)
2. Developing the Lesson:
a) Divide the students into partners or small groups, give each group a photocopy
of one of the picture riddles from the book
b) Ask the students within their groups to find all of the possible ways to
group their items to find the total number of items.
c) Have each group share their findings; ask the class if they can come up with
any different grouping methods.
d) Pose the question: "When you change groupings, did the sum remain the
same or did it change?"
e) Lead into a discussion about the associative and commutative properties of
addition. Define these properties for the students. Then ask the students to
share how they have used these properties in their different grouping methods.
3. Closure/Discussion/Elaborate:
a) End the discussion by stressing that regardless of which numbers you group
together, the answer (sum) remains the same. Ask students why they think these
properties are named as such.
b) You can further the experience by having students explore the two properties
with multiplication. Have them do several problems using the properties they
have learned for addition. Ask them if the properties remain true for multiplication,
does the product remain the same?
c) Students could further the investigation by creating their own math picture
riddles, then exchanging with a peer.