Same Lesson, Different Consolidation

Doug was part of our lesson study a few weeks ago when we were in Sarika's class.  He is just starting to work on area and perimeter with his Grade 5 class and wanted to use the lesson that he saw to help him gauge where his students are at in terms of their knowledge of the topic.

He started with the same minds on - a discussion about area and perimeter.  He had his class come up with a working definition of what area and perimeter are.  Instead of writing out the definitions for each, he put the words that the students used under each heading:

For his action, the students then completed the problem.  Doug changed the name to reflect the name of the environment club at the school.

As a consolidation, Doug wanted to work with the students on using the success criteria to help them with their answer.  As the students shared the success criteria was referred to over and over again (for both the good things that they had included, and the things that were missing).  The work was sorted into several groups:

This first group all used size words as their justification of their choice.

This next group used the word "equal" and then were able to talk out what they meant by "equal" and how their knowledge could have been written more clearly on the page:

The black writing is what came out of them as they were discussing.

The next group started to use measurement words like area and perimeter in their answer.  You can see that when they were sharing their answer, one group told us how they got the perimeter and it was recorded in black as they spoke.

The last group used multiplication as a way to find the different area of each shape.  However, they did not write out the formula for area.  BUT, since this lesson was at the very beginning of the unit they have not yet formally learned the formula for area (that is a goal to have achieved by the end of Grade 5).  Knowing that you could get the area by multiplying is a huge "a-ha" moment for students, and will help them as they progress through the grades.

As the "exit" out of the lesson, the class was asked to think about what our discussion was during our consolidation, and share one thing that they would do differently next time.  What was interesting is that several students not only shared a very important thing they would do differently (e.g, use more math words like "area") but also highlighted how that what they would do differently was in the success criteria (e.g., The last group said that they would be sure to use the formula for area, just like what is in the success criteria).

Remember...You don't have to re-invent the wheel when teaching.  Ask a colleague for ideas on what you could do, and you might be surprised at how it turns out.