8 DH2 – library lessons.
This was designed to help the students to link work in the classroom to real life. It aims to ask them to reflect on the accuracy of what they read in newspapers and bring together lots of areas of maths.
Homework before lesson one:
It may be best if this was done over a weekend.
You need to give out homework sheet 1 which explains what to do (see later on in document).
Lesson 1: analysing posters and deciding what makes a good one!
Resources you will need:
8 posters that have been made for you. If you are doing this for the first time you will need to make posters. In subsequent years you can use a range of posters made by last years students. If you have a small class you may not need 8 posters.
A3 paper and glue
Analysis sheets for the posters(see further on in the document).
Summary sheets (further on in document)
At the beginning they need to be put into groups of about 4. In the y9 Quality Assurance the students said they worked better if allowed to choose their own groups! You decide… but one of the objectives is to get them to work cooperatively and they need not stay in the same groups all week. The first time I did this, by emphasising the need to be productive the groups changed quite a lot – they do know who will help them work and who will help them waste time!
Introduction:
Aim: to discuss what is in the media at the moment and the believability of the articles.
Using the headlines that they have brought in they need to glue their headlines onto the A3 paper. As they work they should discuss the articles that went with the headlines – was the story believable?, were there statistics in the article?, were theories backed up by evidence?, what form did the evidence take? Etc – you will need to tailor the questions to the ability of your group.
Main part of the lesson:
Aim: to evaluate what makes a successful poster.
They will analyse the posters that have been made for them. There are analysis sheets and students need to move round in their groups filling these in. (Unless you have a dodgy group when the posters can move and the children remain stationary!)They should give the posters a score and see what makes a good poster. I stapled an envelope to the back of each poster and put lots of blank sheets in. they took one out, filled it in, folded in half and returned to the envelope before going on to the next poster.
Plenary:
Give out the summary sheet and get them to add up the scores. Collect the scores together and display the ‘best’ and ‘worst’ posters. Discuss similarities and differences.
Use this to write ‘success criteria’ for your class for the posters that they will be making. Keep a copy of your success criteria!
Homework- bring an article that is SUITABLE to analyse next lesson.
Lesson 2 – making the posters.
Resources you will need
Success criteria that you decided upon last lesson.
Posters from last lesson
A3 paper and glue
Coloured pens/ pencils
Laptops if you haven’t got a set of printed articles or spare newspapers.
Calculators
Introduction:
Aim: to make sure all know what will need to be done to make a successful poster.
Go over Success criteria from last lesson. Give all pairs of students a copy or write on the board and ask them to rank them in order of importance. If you have a low ability class you could rewrite the criteria with words missing and get them to fill in the missing words.
Main activity:
Aim: to make a successful poster that looks at the article from a mathematical point of view.
Working in pairs the students need to make a poster to assess an article from a newspaper from a mathematical viewpoint. To do this in a group of 4 would be inefficient – there would be far too many people with nothing to do! If you have the posters from last lesson around the room, they can be used for inspiration if necessary.
Plenary:
Aim: self assessment of success against agreed criteria.
Posters completed and students give themselves a score against the success criteria. Which is the best poster from that score? Next lesson we will assess each others posters and see if we come to the same conclusion.
OR: prepare for presentation by writing on the back of the poster what you plan to say to show you have fulfilled the success criteria.
After the lesson you will need to laminate the posters that have been made so that they will stand up to being assessed next lesson. You could take the laminator up to the library and do that at the end of the lesson for those who finish early.
You will need to write a sheet for the students to fill in next lesson about how successful they were. (Example given at end)
Lesson 3 : analysing the work of others.
Resources that you will need:
Laminated posters from last lesson.
Individual Assessment sheets
Introduction:
Aim: to get students to decide what they will say about their poster.
Tell the students that they have to speak for 2 minutes about their poster. They have planned this last lesson. If time allows you can give them time to go over what theyplan to say. They are aiming to show how they have fulfilled the SUCCESS CRITERIA that the class decided on in th first lesson. You could give them a sheet to fill in so that they can stand with notes if they need that structure…
Main part of the lesson:
Aim: students give articulate presentation and evaluate posters against agreed success criteria.
Each pair of students has to make a 2 minute presentation on their poster. The other students will score this on their individual assessment sheets. I altered the room so that the desks were pushed against the wall and the chairs were in rows in the middle so that it emphasised the difference of the lesson.
If this finishes really early you could give them time to walk round and look at each others posters to see if they want to change their scores when they see the posters close up.
Plenary:
Add up the scores and compare against who gave themselves the score for best poster last time. If there is no time to do this you can add up the scores yourself later – if there are really students with difficulties this may be a more sensitive approach but it does give you more work!
Analyse what skills they have used in this whole activity! Use the key processes to identify the skills used.
Discuss what led to success! (Preparation, choice of article, good speaking skills, fulfilling the brief…)
Analysing the posters that have been made for you: POSTER NUMBER …………
Individual assessment of presentation:
Student names / Article about / Fill in / These with / Your assessment / criteriacan fill in these before lesson
COLLECTING TOGETHER THE POSTER EVALUATIONS
POSTER NUMBER: ……………
TOTAL SCORESCORES
People in group :
Your Article was about:
Peer assessmentcolour / content / explanations / presentation
Your score / Class Ave / Your score / Class Ave / Your score / Class Ave / Your score / Class Ave
Your total score:
Class Ave:
Effort grade:
I collected the scores and found averages and then merged them onto this document as means of assessment. It did take some time!