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GENERAL INFORMATION Name: Kevin D. Gilbert Lesson Title: Fish Go Pop Sleep Grade level(s)/Course: 7th Date taught: Monday, 1st day of class INFORMATION ABOUT THE LESSON Content Standards:
7.EE.2. Understand that rewriting an expression in different forms in a problem context can shed light on the problem and how the quantities in it are related.

Enduring Understanding and/or Essential Question: Mathematics is a language similar to that of the English language. How can you understand meaning if you dont speak the language? Instructional Objectives: The student will be able to evaluate the relative effectiveness of different translation methods. Prior Learning/Prior Thinking The students may speak a language other than English, have tried to understand someone who doesnt speak English, or have tried to communicate with someone who doesnt speak English. The students have had experience translating from English to Math through word problems. The students are familiar with algebra. Some of the students have taken or know a language other than English. Some students may believe that mathematic equations are a task to complete, as theyve memorized and has no practical value in the real world. LESSON IMPLEMENTATION Anticipatory Set/Elicit Prior Knowledge NOTE: This lesson plan is tailored to my own talents and personality. Other teachers who are not comfortable doing something that seems potentially embarrassing may want to adapt this section to

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something theyre more comfortable with. The teacher begins the class pretending they cannot speak English. They take attendance by pointing at themselves, saying their name, and pointing at the student. If the student doesnt respond, they show them the class roster and have them point to their name. The teacher then sits down, with their hands folded and speaks four sentences of gibberish to the students. As the teacher nears the end of each sentence they, pause, then say one heavily accented word in English. The four words are fish, go, pop, and sleep. The teacher then breaks the illusion by admitting that he can speak English but also is fluent in a language called Gie-bairsh and writes on the board Gibberish. The teacher asks the students what words of English they heard. As the students give the answers he writes fish, go, pop, and sleep on the whiteboard. Then he polls the class for what he may have been trying to say. He writes their responses on the white board. The teacher asks the students, What if I had expressed myself like this? He repeats each word and gestures as he does. For fish he holds his hand out flat, thumb side up, and moves it away frm his body. For go he uses his finger to draw an arc that starts on the right, goes up, and comes back down on the left. For pop he holds out a fist and suddenly opens his hand. For sleep he closes his eyes, tilts his head back and opens his mouth. The teacher asks the students what they think it means now, erasing any of the previous responses that the students dont think fit anymore and adding any new meanings. The teacher asks the students, How about this? and repeats the words, drawing on the board as he goes. For fish he draws the outline of a submarine with waves above it. For go her draws the same type of arc as his gesture leaving the submarine. For pop he draws something similar to an asterisk at the end of the arc and for sleep he draws a couple of stick figures on their backs around the asterisk. The teacher again asks for revisions to the possible meanings and revises their responses on the whiteboard. The teacher asks the students what words he could have used that would have better expressed his meaning. As they give him words he writes them on the whiteboard. The words should be similar to submarine, shoot, explosion, and dead. The teacher then asks them if the meaning might change if he has said the words in this order; shoot, submarine, explosion, and dead. If there are no responses from the students, he may suggest that it might mean that someone shot at a submarine, it exploded, and everyone onboard was killed. The teacher then writes Vague Words, Gestures, Drawings, and Specific Words on the whiteboard and explains that these are all methods of translation. Going from the weakest to the

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strongest. The teacher tells the students that Math, too is a language and you can translate in the same manner from English to it and back. As an example he says, If you have a bunch and get rid of a few you have some. and writes it next to the Vague Words. He then repeats the phrase gesturing as he does. For bunch he holds up ten fingers. For get rid of a few he folds in his thumbs, leaving him with eight fingers extended as he gets to some. Next he repeats the phrase, drawing as he does next to the word Drawing. He draws 10 small circles and erases two of them. Finally he writes Ten minus two equals eight next to Specific Words and finishes by writing the expression 10 2 = 8. In conclusion the teacher writes Word Order on the white board and reminds the students that the meaning of ten minus two equals eight is not the same as two minus ten equals eight. Focus/Purpose Statement Math is a language just like English. You can translate from Math to English and back again the same way you can with German, Spanish, or any other language. Today we will learn different methods of translation and how effective each one is. We will also learn that, like English, the way the words are arranged can affect the meaning of the sentence. Procedures The Anticipatory Set will take much of the class time. It introduces the theme of the unit and gives the students several translations methods. Unit Project The teacher tells the students they will be working in groups of 4 to create a phrasebook for Math. He passes out the Math Phrasebook Project sheet which describes the project, gives the due dates for the rough draft and the final draft and contains the rubric for the assignment. He tells the students that there will be sometime during each class that they can meet as a group to work on it. He mentions that they need to hand in a hard copy but should keep a digital copy that they can add to throughout the year and refer back to when needed. The teacher then divides the students into groups and tells them that he has a number of different phrasebooks that they can refer to as an example of how they may want to construct their project. Differentiation The teacher will use many different teaching techniques to appeal to students with different learning styles. There will be open class discussion, illustrations, written direction, group work, and physically illustrating a meaning. The students of different levels of ability and content knowledge will be assisted through the group

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work. Student with language differences may actually be at an asset help the groups understand the concerns of a person who needs to translate between languages. Closure As the class drawn to a close, the teacher will have the students return their desks to where they found them. The teacher will ask the students to get out a piece of paper and write their answers to the following questions as an exit slip. 1. 2. 3. 4. What methods of translation did we learn about today? How does each method compare to the others as far as their effectiveness? Even if you use very specific words what affects their meaning? What questions do you have about the project?

Before the students leave, the teacher should remind them of the rough draft and quiz on Friday. Materials and Resources Whiteboard & dry erase markers Phrasebook Assignment sheets, a minimum of 1 per student Phrasebooks, a minimum of 1 per group. Table & chair.

Classroom Management/Democratic Practices I will expect students to raise their hands and be called upon before answering a question or speaking in a discussion. If a student blurts out an answer, I will ignore them and call upon someone who has raised their hand. If students are talking during when they are not to be talking, I will remain silent and watch them until they stop talking. If they continue to talk, I will use proximity, then a verbal reminder that when someone is talking everyone else needs to be listening. Since this is the first day of class, I will not have class rules determined. Once they are I will expect the students to abide by them. ASSESSMENT Before the lesson Gathering information about student knowledge This lesson is an introduction to the topic for the unit. There will not be a pre-assessment until the second lesson. Pre-assessment that may be used

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None During the lesson Informal Formative Assessment During the class discussion portion, I will determine by their responses how well they understand. After Ive explained a new concept, I will ask, What questions do you have? and count silently to 6. If there are none, I will proceed. If there are, I will explain the idea in a different way and check in the same way before I continue. I will also move around the room during group work to monitor for understanding. I will ask each group a question or two to determine if they understand or not. Formal Formative Assessment Exit slips at the end of class. At the end of the lesson Formative As noted in the Closure section, the students will submit an exit slip. The questions cover the main points of the lesson. I will review their responses before the next lesson to determine if we can proceed or if there needs to be some reteaching. Summative None