Meg Klingelhofer Subject: Math Lesson On: Volume of Rectangular Prisms Date/Time to be Implemented: Wednesday, 11/20 at 1:15 Grade

Level: 5th Anticipated Time: 45 minutes Core Decisions What? The second unit that the fifth grade students at Penn Alexander learned focused on volume. They completed this set of lessons already, but I want to teach a lesson on finding scaled-down versions of real buildings and manipulating dimensions either to keep the volume the same or to see how it changes. I want the students to use concepts that they have already learned and apply these concepts to more real-life examples. The lesson will review and then apply the definition, formula, and concept of volume, specifically of rectangular prisms. Areas that could pose a challenge include making sure that the students have the understanding behind volume that is necessary to apply it to real-life situations, and ensuring that the students will know the steps that they need in order to complete the independent work successfully. After giving the students time to work independently, using centimeter cubes as well as paper and pencil for calculations, we will have a discussion in which the students will describe their methods for calculating and then manipulating the volume of different buildings. How? I will teach this content mainly through review of prior knowledge, guided practice through discussion of the steps involved, and allowing students to use centimeter cubes to construct models for each step of the process before working out the calculations on paper. The main tasks include a warm-up of finding volume using the spin-a-fact spinner, and then an independent assignment in which students will calculate the volume of a building, find two other sets of dimensions that have the same volume as the original building, and then double each buildings length and width to find the new volume for each building. I will give directions and will be available for more explanation, but the students will do much of the discussion, by presenting their strategies, as well as by helping each other when needed. During the debrief phase of the lesson, I will act as a facilitator by revoicing strategies that students have used and encouraging participation and discussion. Tools included in the lesson are a spin-a-fact spinner for the warm-up exercise, a small white board and dry erase marker to model the guided practice, as well as the handouts with building dimensions, pencils, and centimeter cubes. I will make my expectations for norms known at the beginning of the lesson. My focusing while teaching these lessons is to study the effects of creating a compassionate classroom environment in order to give support to students who tend to be overlooked in classrooms. For this reason, my groups norms will be to be encouraging of everyone and positive in discourse with each other.

Comment [CE1]: What is the concept of volume? Can you break this down? What does volume mean? What strategies might students use to find volume (without a formula)? How can the formula connect to those strategies? What might students struggle with? Use Chapin & Johnson, and the Investigations teachers guide (notes to teachers) to help you flesh this out.

Comment [CE2]: So is this a main concept you are focusing on? If so, then you need to talk about it in your what section.

Comment [CE3]: What about m athematical norms? How will you make sure they are engaging with important mathematical ideas?

Why? I have chosen to teach a volume lesson because the students have just completed a unit on this subject. I decided to teach it in the way that I have because I wanted it reflect the workshop model that my classroom uses and also give students a more real-life assignment than the textbook usually gives them. The workshop model gives students opportunities to engage with mathematical concepts in many different ways. For instance, the warm-up exercise in my lesson is the spin-a-fact game, put into a volume context, which is one of the stations in the classroom math workshop. Also, the stations allow students to do calculations on paper and to work with different materials so that students get a multimodal experience with the subject matter as they learn it. I have included both use of centimeter cubes and paper and pencil calculations in order to give students two different ways to engage with the questions they are being asked in the independent work. I also wanted to give students a real-life example because the textbook doesnt put the volume calculations into any kind of context; it mainly uses number sentences or phrases when asking students to find and volume or manipulate dimensions of an imaginary object. Instead, I have tried to set a real-life architecture context for the problem by having them work with scaled-down versions of real buildings and using a construction mindset to make new buildings. Putting the concept of volume into a reallife context was especially important to me because the standard that is the lessons focus specifies that volume should be in the context of solving real world and mathematical problems. I wanted to focus on real world application of volumes in order to give the students a more realistic goal to help them to remain engaged. In addition to the content goals of the lesson, I want to foster a close-knit community of learners in the group that is based on mutual respect, encouragement, and positivity. This is an essential part of my educational philosophy. Students, especially those who feel overlooked or who are shy, have to feel comfortable with their peers as well as with the teacher in order to participate and bring themselves more fully into the community. Hiebert (1997) refers to the importance of creating a classroom culture that involves collaboration, sharing of different ideas and strategies, and learning from each others mistakes rather than being rude and teasing people. If students learn to think of themselves as a family or a community whose goal is to help each other succeed, the classroom will be a peaceful and safe place. The particular students that I have chosen to become a part of this group for my lessons include children who slip to the background often in a whole class setting, and some of them have been the subject of bullying by classmates recently. I want to help them realize that their ideas are important and that other people want to hear from them. For these reasons, my focus while teaching this lesson on volume is to foster discussion and mutual respect in the group, which I hope I will be able to spread to a whole class setting when I have my own classroom.

Comment [CE4]: Can you be more specific about why centimeter cubes and pencil and paper are good tools to use to get at the concepts you are focusing on?

Comment [CE5]: Yes, but all of this in the service of deeper mathematical learning and engagement with important mathematical ideass

Lesson Plan Pedagogical Focus: Throughout my lesson, I will emphasize facilitating mathematical discussion around mathematical ideas by eliciting, clarifying, and following up on student explanations. To do this, I will elicit talk moves, especially wait time, revoicing, and asking students to apply their own reasoning to someone elses reasoning. Content Goals/Objectives SWBAT use volume formulas IOT calculate the volume of scaled-down versions of famous structures of varying shapes. SWBAT use the volume of the structures, in combination with prime factorization, IOT make structures that have the same volume but different dimensions as the original structure. SWBAT manipulate the length and width of the structures IOT calculate the new volumes with these different dimensions. Standards 5.MD.C.5b Apply the formulas V = l x w x h and V = b x h for rectangular prisms to find volumes of right rectangular prisms with whole-number edge lengths in the context of solving real world and mathematical problems. Materials and preparations Pencils Print-outs of the buildings used, with the buildings scaled-down dimensions o Empire State Building, New York, NY 4ft long x 2ft wide x 14 ft high o Sears/Willis Tower, Chicago, IL 2ft long x 2ft wide x 17ft high o White House, Washington, DC 17ft long x 9ft wide x 7ft high o Freedom Tower, One World Trade Center, New York, NY 2ft long x 2ft wide x 18ft high o Tower of London 11ft long x 10ft wide x 9ft high Small white board White board marker Scrap paper Cm cubes Spin-a-fact spinner Classroom arrangement and management issues The lesson will take place in the pod outside the classroom. The group of five students will sit at a round table. They will have brought a pencil with them, but I will provide the other materials. This will reduce the possibility for the students to become distracted with materials that they have in their possession while we have our discussion and read aloud. I will assign the seating around the table so that the students do not have the urge to talk to their friends, as they might if they sat next to each other.
Comment [CE6]: ? Comment [CE7]: Can you frame this in clearer mathematical terms. Are they finding volume of rectangular prisms or irregular shapes? Comment [CE8]: ? Comment [CE9]: I am not familiar with this acronym

There are several potential management issues that could come up during the lesson. First, it could be a challenge to make sure that everyone, especially the quieter students, participates. I will try to encourage broad participation by using wait time, as well as by allowing for varied ways of response. These include verbal responses to the whole group, turn and talk responses, and written responses. Additionally, it is a concern of mine, and is my focusing question, to make a safe space where everyone feels comfortable sharing opinions and responses. I plan to tackle this concern by discussing my expectations at the beginning of the lesson reinforcing them throughout the lesson. My expectations on this subject are that all students will respect each other and will welcome others answers and opinions, even if they may not agree with everything that is said. Finally, a problem that arises often when I work with students in the pod is that there are many distractions that arise when working at tables in the pod. For instance, the special education class is right next to the pod table, and the classes that take place there involve a lot of discussion. Because the door to that classroom is generally open, students sitting in the pod can become distracted if they listen to the class occurring in the special education room. Also, the water fountain and bathrooms are located in the pod, so students in the other classes can distract students working in the pod by trying to talk to them, or even just by walking by. I will combat these possible distracters by using proximity and positioning myself away from the water fountain and special education classroom so that the students are directed away from distraction by maintaining eye contact with me. Plan 1) Launch (10 minutes) The students have recently finished a unit in which they learned how to derive volume formulas for prisms, as well as how to apply this formula to calculate and manipulate volumes of these figures. For this reason, I will begin the lesson by drawing on the students previous knowledge by reviewing the definition and formula and types of units needed for rectangular prisms. If they do not have a clear understanding or explanation of any of these concepts, I will have explanations prepared. Once we have discussed these concepts, we will play two rounds of spin-a-fact in order to practice the ability to find volume when given dimensions of a rectangular prism. I will control the spinner and assign a unit for each set of dimensions. After each round, I will ask the students to turn and talk in order to explain their strategy in finding the volume, as well as to tell the group how they decided on the units. In this way, I can encourage all students to discuss strategies in small groups or pairs, and I can hear everyones input without forcing quieter students to talk to the whole group. 2) Work and Explore Guided Practice (10 minutes) I will lead a guided example to set students up to be able to calculate volume, compare structures of different dimensions but the same volume, and manipulate the dimensions to find new volumes. I will do this by walking them through a practice

Comment [CE10]: What is the question you will pose to start the discussion? How might students respond? How will you follow up? Be specific here. Comment [CE11]: What is the understanding that you are looking for? Comment [CE12]: This seems very decontextualized. Will you sketch out a prism with those dimensions and then ask them to find the volume? Will they explain their strategies? It seems like they are just following a given procedure here. Comment [CE13]: What different strategies do you expect to get if they are using the formula?

problem involving an imaginary scaled-down building with the dimensions of 5 feet long by 5 feet wide by 10 feet high. I will ask for volunteers to perform each step of the process and record the calculations on a small white board, as well as modeling how I want them to use the centimeter cubes to construct the building model. I will ask students of differing abilities for each step to check for understanding from the whole group. Independent Work (15 minutes) After we have done a guided example, I will hand out building print outs at random. Each student will receive a different skyscraper. Students will find the volumes of each building, whose dimensions have been scaled down to the size of a model figure. The students should build a model of the building using centimeter cubes to represent the building. After calculating the buildings volume, students will construct two new buildings, using centimeter cubes, that have the same volume as the building whose volume they have calculated, but different dimensions. Finally, they will construct three new buildings that have double the length and width as the buildings that have been constructed and calculate the volumes. I will be available for clarification if they become stuck while working on this assignment. 3) Debrief and wrap-up (10 minutes) When all students have completed the independent work assignment, we will come back together as a group to discuss the work that the students have done. I will ask for each student to present the ways in which they manipulated the original building, so that the group can have a discussion about volume. A combination of sharing and discussion should increase understanding of different ways to manipulate dimensions of structures, both in ways that change the volume and that keep it the same. Anticipating responses and your possible responses This lessons focus is on application of volume after the students have already finished the unit on volume in math class. The first issue that could come up is that students either do not remember the definitions that are necessary for volume or never understood the concepts behind volume. In this case, I will have a definition of volume, as well as an explanation of the formula and units for volume. An issue that I am concerned about is that the students never received the conceptual ideas behind volume, so I want to be sure that the students understand the conceptual ideas before sending them on an assignment to calculate numbers. Although there is a more precise definition, I would explain volume as the amount of space, in cubic units, that an object occupies. Cubic units are cubic because they involve three dimensions. The way to calculate the volume of a rectangular prism is to multiply the length of the prism by the width by the height, which is the equivalent to finding the area of the base and then multiplying the base by the height. Another challenge is that there are a number of steps involved in completing the independent work. I will therefore make sure that each step is explicitly said when we do the guided practice problem. Moreover, I will have a list of the steps available to give the students if they need help with which step to perform next.

Comment [CE14]: What is the purpose of constructing the model? So now it is being scaled down to centimeters? Again, this seems pretty straightforwardthey are just following a procedure to multiply 5 x 5 x 10. Are you using the model to help them see how there are 10 layers of 5x5 in the building? How will this task deepen their understanding of important mathematics? What is the level of cognitive demand? Are you really asking them to think here?

Comment [CE15]: OK, now you are getting into more substantive material here.

Comment [CE16]: Again, you need to write out your questions and really think about the concepts that you want to focus on. This should link directly to your goals for the lesson, both in the plan and your what section.

Comment [CE17]: But I dont see you doing that anywhere in your lesson. How are you building conceptual understanding of volume?

Comment [CE18]: Are you just telling students this? How will their work with the tools help them understand this idea?

Assessment of the goals/objectives The goals of this lesson are for students to understand and be able to calculate volume of a rectangular prism-shaped buildings, change the dimensions while keeping the same volume, and double the length and width to see what happens to the volume of three buildings that previously had the same volume but different dimensions. This is assessed through the work that students do to make these calculations. Additionally, students will show their knowledge of buildings volume and dimensions by using centimeter cubes to construct different buildings. Accommodations 1) Accommodations for students who may find the material too challenging The challenge in this activity is figuring out how to make the calculations for each step of the problem. To help them remember the components of the problem, I will have a handout available for anyone who needs it that breaks the problem into steps. These steps are: Write the formula for the volume of a rectangular prism. Apply the dimensions of the scale building to the formula. Do prime factorization of the volume, and find different combinations of factors that, when used in the formula, give you the same volume. Construct two more buildings with different dimensions but the same volume using the prime factorization. Then, multiply the length and width of all three buildings by two, and calculate the new volumes. 2) Accommodations for students who may need greater challenge and/or finish early If students finish the independent work early, I will instruct them make two more structures with the same volume but different dimensions, and then to manipulate these two new structures length and widths, as they did with the first three structures. If they still finish early after that, I will give them a challenge problem in which I will provide them with the volume of a sphere and have them try to figure out the scaled-down volume of the Great Stupa at Sanchi, a hemispherical Buddhist holy site in India. Reference: Hiebert, J. (1997). The social culture of the classroom. Making sense: teaching and learning mathematics with understanding (pp. 43-52). Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann. Meghan, My main concern with this lesson is that it needs to be more clearly focused around a single mathematical goal. What is it that you really want to focus on? Is it development meaning for volume and the formula for computing volume? (If so, you really arent showing how the tasks help them develop meaning rather than procedural skill) Is it understanding what happens when the dimensions of a rectangular prism are doubled? If so then I would have them work on doubling dimensions and finding volumes and then have them look for the pattern and express that relationship, through a facilitated discussion at the end of the lesson. Or is your lesson about how prisms of different dimensions can have the same volume? Its too much to try to do all of these things in a lesson, because you end up not doing any of them well. So pick one, and then really think through what is involved in understanding that concept (use Chapin & Johnson and the Investigations manual to help youthe back of the book and teacher notes are very

Comment [CE19]: This seems very procedural. Are you just telling students to follow a series of steps? How will this help them understand volume? What is the level of cognitive demand if there is a set of steps to follow?

helpful), and how working with miniature buildings context will support engagement with that idea. Its not clear to me the purpose of having scaled down versions in feet and then having students build them with centimeter cubes. As you rewrite your lesson plan around a more clearly articulated focus, think about how to engage students in reflection and communication around the important concepts, not just having them follow a set procedure. There are several lessons in the Investigations curriculum that could be used as models, Also write out the questions you will ask during the lessonthis will really help you think it through and help you be better prepared to lead a meaningful discussion.