Diane LeFevers

Grade Level: Second Grade

Lesson:
Lesson Duration: 4 sessions (50
minutes each)

TAG Learning Objectives:

Creative Thinking & Creative Problem Solving Skills

Creative Thinking & Creative

Problem Solving Skills

CTCPS1. The student questions accepted practices, rules, and existing principles to discover new knowledge.
CTCPS2. The student designs, applies, evaluates, and adapts a variety of innovative strategies to when problem
solving (e.g.,
recognizes problems, defines problems, identifies possible solutions, selects optimal solution,
implements solution, and
evaluates solution).
CTCPS4. The student demonstrates skills in fluency and flexibility to solve problems or create new products.
CTCPS9. The student recognizes and assumes risks as a necessary part of problem solving.
CTCPS10. The student monitors and reflects on the creative process of problem solving for future applications

Advanced Communication Skills:

ACS1. The student uses written, spoken, and technological media to convey new learning or challenge existing
ideas.
ACS2. The student produces written and/or oral work that is complex, purposeful, and organized, includes
relevant supporting
examples and manipulation of language.
ACS3. The student creates products and/or presentations that synthesize information from diverse sources and
communicate
expertise to a variety of authentic audiences.
ACS4. The student uses a variety of multi-media and innovative technology to create illustrations, models, charts,
tables, and graphs
as tools for communication.

ACS7. The student responds to contributions of others, considering all available information.
ACS8. The student participates in small group discussions to argue persuasively or reinforce others good points.
ACS9. The student maintains a journal or log for self-reflection and/or self-evaluation.
ACS10. The student supports and defends his/her own opinions while respecting the opinions of others.

Higher Order Critical Thinking Skills

HOCTS1. The student asks probing, insightful, and relevant questions.
HOCTS2. The student responds to questions with supporting information that reflects in-depth knowledge of a
topic.
HOCTS3. The student conducts comparisons using criteria.
HOCTS4. The student makes and evaluates decisions using criteria.

Second Grade Standards

RL.2.1 Ask and answer questions about key details in the text.
RL.2.2 Retell stories including key details and demonstrate understanding of their
central message or lesson.
RL.2.3 Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges.

Essential Question: What was the problem in the story? How was the problem solved in the story? How
can we use our own experiences to draw conclusions about a text? How can determine the best solution to a
particular problem?
Objectives: The students will
a Know
a That illustrations can be used to describe key ideas
b How to ask & answer questions about key details in the text
b

Understand
a Paying attention to the key details in a story helps us understand the central message in a story
b How to infer possible solutions to the problem within the story
c Do
a Describe how characters in a story react to major events and challenges
b Make predictions about the storys ending based upon prior knowledge
c Rank the best solutions to the storys problem
Activity

Listen to the visualization. Discuss how you felt during the visualization. The teacher reads the beginning
story,
The Terrible Thing That Happened At Our House by Marge Blaine.
Steps
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

to CPS:
Fact Finding: Use the story to identify characters, setting and main idea.
Problem Finding: Listen and identify the problem(s) in the story
Idea Finding: Brainstorm solutions to problem
Solution Finding: Rate the solutions and evaluate ideas to determine which is best
Acceptance Finding: Once best solution is found, make a plan for a different ending to the story.

Work as a class to find a solution to: The Terrible Thing That Happened At Our House by Marge Blaine.

Learner Modifications:

Process/Interest modifications:
-- Allow students to work with a partner to complete the CPS Steps
-- Process doesnt require the use of technology unless student is interested.
---Pair students by ability levels
Product modifications--Student choice of final product (poster, journal entry, write a letter, Book Creator app)
Final Products after the Decision Making Lesson:
-Students can work on creating a poster or book on the I-Pad Book Creator app of a terrible thing
happened
at their own house and how that problem was solved.
-Write a journal entry about a problem that needs to be solved at their own home.
-Write a persuasive letter to help solve a problem at home, at school, or in our community.
Visualization: Close your eyes and listen to your teacher.
Think about sitting at the dinner table with your family. You try to say something, but no one hea
what you say.
Then you speak again, and your parents just keep on talking and talking. You say, Pass the milk
please. Still, no one
really listens. Imagine how you would feel. What would you say? What would you do?
Draw a picture of how you might look sitting at your dinner table. Write how youd feel when no
your family
listens to what you are saying.

CPS Step 1: Fact Finding

Read the story to the class. Stop at and looked at me. (page 23).
Display a story map on the interactive whiteboard. The students will record
the facts they learn about the story on their whiteboard (characters,
setting, main idea, etc.) after teacher is finished reading. Students will use
their own story map to record their facts. (See attached for story map.)
Write a prediction of what you think will happen next in the story.

CPS Step 2: Problem Finding

Brainstorm, with your partner, and make a list of possible solutions to the characters
problem.

The students will create a problem statement:

How might you help someone that

CPS Step 3: Idea Finding

Students will share one of their solutions to the problem in the story. Teacher will wri
student solutions on the
interactive whiteboard. The class will decide on their favorite solutions.
What are your top two solutions? (ON)

What are your top three solutions? (TAG)

1
2
3

Discuss with class - How will we know our solutions worked?

Introduce what criteria is discuss the following:

Pretend you are having a sleepover. Who should you invite? Should you ride bikes in the neighbo
or go swimming?
What time should your friend come over? What will you have for dinner? Will you serve popcorn

chips for snacks?

Will you stay up late and tell ghost stories or watch a movie?

Name ______________________________________________________________________________________
Creative Problem Solving
Step 4: Solution Finding
This is for the

three
solutions
from step 3

This is for the criteria you will evaluate the solutions by so that we can
determine our best solution.
Ex: Will this solution cost anything? How long
will it take to try this solution? Would this be a solution that a family could
really use?

Criteria:

Criteria:

Criteria:

Total Points

Solution #1

Solution #2

Solution #3

Choose the solution you think is the best. Put a smiley face in that box.

CPS Step 5: Acceptance Finding

Develop an action plan for implementing your solution. Be sure to include

Who needs to help with your action plan?

What possible problems might they have?

Rubric for Creative Problem Solving Project

Solution

Use of Time

1
No reasonable
solution for the
problem is
identified.

2
A solution for
the problem is
identified.

Student is
sometimes off
task and all
parts of the
task are not
complete.

Student is
mostly on task
and a majority
of the
assignment is
complete.

3
More than one
possible
solution is
given for the
problem.
Student is on
task and
completed all
parts of the
assignment.

Closure: Teacher will read the rest of the story. Students will compare their
solutions to the authors solution.

Reflection of lesson:
My students loved the book, The Terrible Thing That Happened At Our
House by Marge Blaine. We did the visualization activity, and the students
listened to me read the beginning of the story. The Fact Finding and Problem
Finding sections of the lesson went smoothly, and the students were able to
successfully complete their work. I was quite surprised that it took about 50
minutes to complete the first two sections of the lesson. I decided to end the
lesson after Problem Solving because I could tell that the students were
getting fatigued, and needed a break.
We continued with the Idea Finding section of the lesson the following
day. We discussed many possible solutions for the problem, and students
also came up with additional solutions on their own. The students then
picked their own favorite solutions to record. Then we needed additional
time to discuss criteria. My students needed a lot of support to understand
criteria. I was surprised that we needed about 50 minutes on this part of the
activity too. Once again, I stopped the activity because of student fatigue.
The final day, we continued with the Solution Finding and Acceptance
Finding sections of the lesson. The students actually enjoyed ranking their
solutions with the smiley faces. (I was a little surprised that they enjoyed
this part of the lesson so much.) Students were eager to share their work
with their peers. Overall, I think the students enjoyed this lesson. I did feel
that it took much more time than I was expecting it to take. Next time that I
teach this lesson, I will know to allow for 3 to 4 sessions of 50 minutes!