LESSON PLAN

December 10, The Magic Keys (adapted lesson from Taking Shape) K
Date Lesson Title Grade Level
2019
Laura Mathematics and Language Arts 9
Developed by Subject Lesson #
Wostradowski

IDENTIFY DESIRED RESULTS

Learner Outcomes from the Program of Studies
Mathematics – Students will:
 GO: Describe the characteristics of 3-D objects and 2-D shapes, and analyze the relationships among them

Language Arts – Students will:

 participate in class and group activities

Objective in student-friendly language Assessment Strategies

By the end of this lesson, students will create magic keys out of
squares.
Formative:
 Observation of students during the discussion in the story and
the creation of the keys
o During the story, the teacher will be able to determine
student understanding of shapes, specifically squares
o During the creation of the keys, teacher will get to see
student experimentation to create different 2-D shapes

Resources Personalization/Differentiation

 square tiles (5 for each student) Universal:

 pentominoes  Story will be read slowly while ensuring to show off the
 Document camera illustration so that students truly understand what is going on
 SMART board in the story
 whiteboards o Story will provide verbal, oral, and visual
 socks representation
 whiteboard markers  Document camera will used to allow every student to see the
pentominoes made so far
 Students will have their own tiles and whiteboards in front of
them so they can experiment to figure out different “keys”
 Differentiation:
 Teacher will model how students are meant to make
pentominoes first
 Teacher will prompt students if necessary
 Student A in the morning class and Student B in the afternoon
class will be placed in a chair during this lesson to ensure
focus if necessary

LESSON PLAN SEQUENCE

Introduction
The teacher will read a story to activate student prior knowledge on shapes.

Learning/Activity Sequence

What is the TEACHER doing? What is your plan for the body of What are the STUDENTS doing? How are they engaged while
Approx. time
the lesson? What steps are taken during the lesson? you are teaching the lesson?
 State an oral story about the magic keys  Listen to story and participate in discussion 10 minutes
o Ex. “Once upon a time, in a kingdom far, far
away, there lived a king. There was also a
dragon who did not like the king very much
because the king had all of the treasure. So, one
day, the angry dragon stormed the castle the
king lived in and stole him and the treasure
away. The dragon locked the king up in a big
tower that had a big door. On that door, there
were 12 locks. As adventurers, it will be your
job to create the magic keys. These keys will be
made up of five squares (show the tiles). Do
you think you can help the king by finding all of
the keys?”
 Have students make a circle (go to the edge of the  Listen to explanation 5-10 minutes
mat)
 Tell students they will be working with special shapes
called “pentominoes” which are made up of five
squares. These pentominoes will be magic keys that
can open the 12 magic locks
o Model the rules by creating a pentomino and
verbalize thinking (squares must touch along
side, not at corner or along part of side)
o Show the students the pentomino they made
and say it is “congruent” meaning it is the same
 Place it in the centre of the circle for all
to see
 Give each student 5 tiles (go over expectations: “When  Make keys and listen to explanation 10 minutes
I say to stop, you put down the tiles and turn your
eyes to me”)
 Ask students to try and make a different key
o Stop once a student has
o Ask students if the key the student has made is
the same as the one I made earlier
 If it is new, bring out the pentomino and
put it in the centre
 Ask students what the key looks like
o Make the key I made earlier, but different
orientation. Ask if it is congruent (turn it if
necessary)
 Pair students in the circle  Make keys and record them on the whiteboard 10-15
 Ask students to find more keys and record them on minutes
the whiteboards (state expectations for
whiteboards: only meant to be used to draw out
the shapes you make, not for any other drawings.
If I see other drawings then it will be taken away)
o Give them time to make a few and help those
who need some prompting
 Allow each pair to share one of the keys they found
and place pentominoes in the centre as they do
o Ask:
 What does the key look like?
  How did you know that two keys were
the same or different?
 Give students time to find all 12 keys if they have not
already (stop once they start losing focus)
o Throughout ask: Is this “magic key” the same
as one that has already been built? How can we
prove that they are the same or different?
 Congratulate students on the keys they made so far
and go over the shapes they made

Conclusion
By going over the shapes students made, students will gain an understanding of how basic shapes, like squares, can create other shapes.
PRE-SERVICE TEACHER SELF-REFLECTION
In your self- reflection of your lesson, please consider the following questions:

1. What went well in your lesson? What were the strengths of the lesson?
2. What are the areas that need to be refined? What might you do differently next time?
3. What are your next steps to further develop/ refine this lesson? How will you continue to grow in your practice? What actions
will you take?

These are additional questions that can help guide your response to the three self– reflection questions.

 How do you feel your students experienced this lesson?

 How were they able to make explicit and self-evaluate their growing understanding, skills and/or knowledge?
 How did you employ formative assessment for/of/as learning?
 Were you successful in reaching all students? How do you know? How did you accommodate for diverse learners and those
requiring accommodations?
 Were there opportunities to address Indigenous, multicultural and interdisciplinary activities and knowledge?

Morning Class Reflection:

Overall, I think this lesson went really well. The students really seemed to enjoy the story I made up and, from their questions, I also think
they wanted it to be real or, at least, the locks to be real. The students were able to create most of the keys without any prompting whatsoever
and they were respectful of the tiles since I made explicit my expectations. I just needed to ask them to copy one key and then I asked them to
make the letter “W” like in my name, but most were eventually able to figure those out on their own once I gave the prompts. I was quite
pleased with how this lesson went and the way students were willing to move around the tiles to figure out new shapes. Students also
seemed to gain an understanding of how orientation does not technically affect the shapes from our discussion. Additionally, by doing an oral
story, this lesson almost incorporates Indigenous knowledge (oral storytelling), but I think it could include more by changing the story to
include things like a moral and traditional beliefs or I could potentially find an Indigenous story that relates to the idea of creating
pentominoes. I believe this was a good start though.

I did technically modify this lesson as I was doing it just because it worked better in that way. I modified it by forgoing the whiteboards since
students just wanted to experiment with the tiles anyways and the whiteboard might become a distraction. So, instead of stopping at the end,
I stopped students whenever I saw a new key, then added it to the rest so that the students could see what we had. Also, I did not end up
using the document camera for this class because I felt it was easier for students to see the tiles in the centre of the circle. Now, in thinking of
what I can do for next time, during my story, the students were questioning the morals of the king, so the next time I do this lesson, I may
need more back story to please the students and potentially expand the lesson on whether they should help the king or maybe help the
dragon. Also, I could add in some key elements within the story that relate to Indigenous oral storytelling, like a moral as well as other
aspects or find an oral story that relates to the creation of keys so that this aspect is included within the lesson. Lastly, to refine this lesson a
bit more, I think I need to reiterate the rules of the pentominoes a few times instead of just once to ensure the students truly get this because I
did since I few that had the shapes on the corners of each other or on half of the side or standing up. So, just reiterating the rules multiple
times at the beginning should help with this.

To refine this lesson, I would make the modifications as suggested above. In general, finding more expansive ways to incorporate Indigenous
knowledge within my lessons will help me grow in my practise, so, to do this, I need to think about this more when building my lesson to
ensure I do not just assume it will be difficult to incorporate. To further this lesson, students will continue to work with shapes at the art
centre by creating a heart using different shapes (not just squares).

PRE-SERVICE TEACHER SELF-REFLECTION

In your self- reflection of your lesson, please consider the following questions:

1. What went well in your lesson? What were the strengths of the lesson?
2. What are the areas that need to be refined? What might you do differently next time?
3. What are your next steps to further develop/ refine this lesson? How will you continue to grow in your practice? What actions
will you take?

These are additional questions that can help guide your response to the three self– reflection questions.

 How do you feel your students experienced this lesson?

 How were they able to make explicit and self-evaluate their growing understanding, skills and/or knowledge?
 How did you employ formative assessment for/of/as learning?
 Were you successful in reaching all students? How do you know? How did you accommodate for diverse learners and those
requiring accommodations?
 Were there opportunities to address Indigenous, multicultural and interdisciplinary activities and knowledge?

Afternoon Class Reflection:

Overall, I think this lesson went quite well. The students seemed to enjoy the story I made up and, from their questions, I also think they
wanted it to be real or, at least, the locks to be real. The students were able to create most of the keys without any prompting and they were
respectful of the tiles since I made explicit my expectations. I just needed to copy three keys and then I asked them to make the letter “W” like
in my name, but most were eventually able to figure those out on their own once I prompted them. The “W” was the most difficult one, but
once students had a really good look at it then they started to understand. I was quite pleased with how this lesson went and the way
students were willing to move around the tiles to figure out new shapes. Additionally, by doing an oral story, this lesson almost incorporates
Indigenous knowledge (oral storytelling), but I think it could include more by changing the story to include things like a moral and traditional
beliefs or I could potentially find an Indigenous story that relates to the idea of creating pentominoes. I believe this was a good start though.
I did technically modify this lesson as I was doing it just because it worked better in that way. I modified it by forgoing the whiteboards since
students just wanted to experiment with the tiles anyways and the whiteboard might become a distraction. So, instead of stopping at the end,
I stopped students whenever I saw a new key, then added it to the rest so that the students could see what we had. Also, I tried to not use the
document camera for this class as well, but students were touching the pentominoes in the middle of the circle, so they had to be moved to
ensure that everyone could see the shapes, rather than just a few. Now, in thinking of what I can do for next time, during my story, the
students were questioning the morals of the king, so the next time I do this lesson, I may need more back story to please the students and
potentially expand the lesson on whether they should help the king or maybe help the dragon. Also, I could add in some key elements within
the story that relate to Indigenous oral storytelling, like a moral as well as other aspects or find an oral story that relates to the creation of
keys so that this aspect is included within the lesson. Lastly, to refine this lesson a bit more, I think I need to reiterate the rules of the
pentominoes a few times instead of just once to ensure the students truly get this because I did since I few that had the shapes on the corners
of each other or on half of the side or standing up. So, just reiterating the rules multiple times at the beginning should help with this.
Additionally, to refine this lesson for next time, I would make explicit that students should clear their boards and start from scratch again
because some students were not willing to make new keys or experiment once they found one key, so making this explicit might help them to
attempt to find more keys.

To refine this lesson, I would make the modifications as suggested above. In general, finding more expansive ways to incorporate Indigenous
knowledge within my lessons will help me grow in my practise, so, to do this, I need to think about this more when building my lesson to
ensure I do not just assume it will be difficult to incorporate. To further this lesson, students will continue to work with shapes at the art
centre by creating a heart using different shapes (not just squares).