Part 1: Selecting the Task What is the task?

Anticipatory Set: Give students the following questionHow many 3-D shapes can you come up with? Ask the students what information they will need to answer this question. Day One: Define 3-D shape. Show examples and compare to 2-D shapes. Work on Understanding the Problem. What is the unknown? What do we need to figure out? Work on Devising a Plan. Using marshmallows and toothpicks and licorice, how many 3-D shapes do you think we can make? How will we know when we have made them all? Day Two: Carry out the plan. Make 3-D shapes out of pipe cleaners and marshmallows. How do we know we have made them all? We will begin by making 2-D shapes and converting them into 3-D shapes, then exploring further from there. Day Three: Reflect. Look back and discuss. The students should, at this point, be able to come up with rules for constructing 3-D shapes.

What are the goals of the task?

K.M.2a : describe in their own words how objects are alike and different using one or two attributes K.M.2b : identify, sort, and classify a set of objects by color, shape, size, number, and other attributes; K.M.2d : model a problem situation using actual objects; K.M.3b : identify and compare threedimensional objects; K.M.5c ask and answer questions and make predictions based on data collected;

How does it build on previous knowledge?

The students will have to utilize their knowledge of shapes thus far. Mostly they have dealt with only 2-D. They will use this to compare to 3-D. So far the students know squares, circles, triangles and rectangles. They know the difference between each shape. They will need to know what a 3-D shape is and what attributes make a 3-D shape. - Faces - Edges - Vertices Where do you see 3-D shapes in the classroom? What are some examples of 3-D shapes in your home?

What do the students need to know before completing the task?

What questions will I ask to get students to access prior knowledge and cultural experiences?

We will use the attributes we discussed to drive this conversation (Does the shape have faces, edges and vertices?)

What are all the ways the task can be solved? - Which methods do I think students will use? - What misconceptions might they have? - What errors might they make?

All 3-D shapes are suitable answers (Cubes, cuboids, cylinders, hexagonal prisms, cones, square-based prisms, triangle-based prisms, and triangular prisms). They can use the attributes of the shapes they created to suggest names for themselves. Anything they come up with should reflect the attributes. We will use this to move into using the language of 3D shapes. I think most students will immediately create 3-D shapes that have a square base and assume that theyre done. I think they also may think that two cubes are different due to size differences and other things of that nature. This is where the questioning and using objects in the room as a reference will help.

What challenges might be presented for ELLs?

ELLs might have a hard time with the definition of 3-D. I am hoping this problem can be solved by the use of examples and manipulatives. I expect students to experiment with the toothpicks and marshmallows in making 3-D shapes. They will use this to discover how to make 3-D shapes. Im pulling a small group of students for this activity, so they will work small group for discussion and independently for making their shapes. They will be able to discuss with one another during independent work. By giving the students the problem first, I believe I am giving them the opportunity to have them recognize that there are pieces of the problem they need to understand before going ahead with it. I believe this also keeps the cognitive demands, as Im not telling the students how many 3-D shapes there are or how to make them. They need to figure out what will work best for themselves to solve the problem. I will be working with the students, so I can help guide their learning without getting in their way. We will keep discussion going throughout the three days. I will hear ideas about how to construct their shapes and sharing possibilities. They should start using language like sides, faces, angles and things that relate to attributes of 3-D shapes. They should be starting to comment on the differences of faces for each 3-D shape and how they are unique to the shape.

What are my expectations as the students work on the task? - What resources will they have to use? - How will students work? (Small groups, independently, large group) - How will students report/record their work? How will I introduce students to the activity so as to provide access to all students while maintaining the cognitive demands of the task?

How will I ensure that students understand the context of the problem?

What will I hear that lets me know students understand what the task is asking them to do?

They should be constructively helping and observing on each others shapes and guiding one another. They should be starting to come up with a basic set of rules that would justify their shapes to be 3-D.

Part 2: Supporting the Students Exploration of the Task As students work independently or in First, I will have students look around the classroom and hear their input about small groups, what questions will examples of 3-D shapes. When students you ask to get stuck, I can always refer back to that. - Help students get started or I will ask students to explain what make progress on the task? theyre making with the marshmallows - Focus thinking on the key and toothpicks and have them talk me mathematical concepts? through their reasoning. I will pose problems to extend understanding, such - Assess understanding? as What if you couldnt do it this way? - Advance understanding? or Have you thought about any other - Encourage all students to share things you can do? What if you started their thinking? the same way but did something

different? Would your shape be different? Can you make different shapes with the same starting steps? Because it is a small group, it should be easier to share thinking but I will start by encouraging questions and exploration. By allowing students to share their questions, they will be more likely to share their answers. When students get stuck, I plan to show a 2-D shape and ask if they can use that face as a starting point.

Part Three: Sharing and Discussing the Task I will start by presenting a 2-D square How will I orchestrate the class and asking the students to describe what discussion so that I accomplish my they see. I will make a list of what they mathematical goals
say on the board. Then, I will show a cube 3-D shape that I have made with the pipe cleaners and marshmallows a cube. I will then have them tell me what they notice about what they see and write what they say as a T-chart with the

 Which solution paths do I want to have shared during the class discussion? In what order will the solutions be presented? Why? In what ways will the order in which solutions are presented help develop students understanding of the mathematical ideas that are the focus of my lesson? What specific questions will I ask so that students will 1. make sense of the mathematical ideas that you want them to learn? 2. expand on, debate, and question the solutions being shared? 3. make connections among the different strategies that are presented? 4. look for patterns? 5. begin to form generalizations?

information from the square. This will drive our discussion of what makes a 3D shape. All solution paths are viable options to be shared, because the goal is that students can create 3-D shapes. Therefore, their path in doing so is what Im most interested in. What do all the shapes have in common? What needs to be in all of the 3-D shapes that we make? How can you be sure that we have created every 3-D shape we can? What can give us some new ideas for 3D shapes that we might not have thought of? Do you see any patterns of how 3-D shapes are created? - Im expecting the students to recognize that most 3-D shapes follow the list of rules we created. What do these shapes make you think of? These are just some examples, and Im sure I will have some spontaneous questions as the lesson progresses.

How will I ensure that, over time, each student has the opportunity to share his or her thinking and reasoning with their peers?

I will facilitate informal discussion, so if I notice that there are some students that are a little more hesitant to share, I can ask them directly in a way that is noninvasive, like What do you think? or What do you notice? I will see shapes constructed and hear discussion related to the shapes.

What will I see or hear that lets me know that all students in the class

understand the mathematical ideas that I intended for them to learn? What will I do tomorrow that will build on this lesson?

This will be determined after I have been able to work with the students for the first day or too. A lot of the expansion will have to do with where students land with this activity.

Anticipated responses/strategies: 1. Begin by taking a 2-D shape and making it into a 3-D based on what they notice about 3-D shapes. 2. Copy shapes they see around the room and construct them based on observation. 3. Im expecting them to get stuck with the most basic 3-D shapes (cube, sphere, rectangular prism) and thinking theyre done. Teaching the Lesson: Day One 1. Present students with the task - Give students the initial problem Make all the 3-D shapes you can. How will you know youve made them all. - The students should - identify that they dont understand the question because they dont know what 3-D shapes are. They will identify that they need to know what 3-D shapes are before they can solve. 2. Present a cube, cylinder, cone and sphere. Also present a paper square, rectangle, triangle and circle. Discuss This initial part of the lesson was slow going at first. The students caught on quickly that they didnt know what a 3-D shape was, but they seemed to want to try to answer the question anyway. It took a lot of guidance on my part to say What words in this problem do we not know the meaning of in order for them to recognize that they werent familiar with the critical information. They did, however, eventually recognize that they needed to know what a 3-D shape was before they could continue. In presenting 3-D shapes, a few of the students already knew their names and what they were. A few of them even connected the term 3-D to a 3-D movie understanding that 3-dimensional referred to the fact that it could pop out at you. In order to have students understand the concept of width I referred to it as finding how fat an object was. Once students got the concept, I began to transition to calling it width. The students quickly caught the fact that 3-dimensional shapes have length, height and width, whereas 2-D shapes

student observations of the differences between the two sets of shapes. Lead the discussion into the characteristics of 3-D shapes. - 3-D shapes have length, height and width whereas 2-D shapes only have length and height. - 3-D shapes often have corners, faces and edges - Objects we see in life are more often than not 3-D shapes (here is where we will connect to prior knowledge). 3. Have students refer back to the problem and make sure everyone understands the task now that 3-D shapes have been discussed. Present the materials (licorice, marshmallows and toothpicks). Ask what we can use these materials for. How will we make the 3-D shapes? How will we know weve made all of them? 4. Have the students dictate a list of what 3-D shapes have in common. Lead students to understand that this list of similarities and general rules can help them in constructing their shapes.

only have length and height. While making our list, the students needed a lot of guidance in finding characteristics. They wanted to call faces sides, which wouldve been confusing. I gave them some of the terminology they needed in this area. They did a great job in connecting their prior knowledge to think of objects that took on the 3-D shapes presented. They knew that ice cubes are cubes, they thought the cone looked like an ice cream cone and the sphere looked like a ball. In terms of the cylinder, they were a little stuck. They looked for things around the room and noticed that the handle the bathroom stall was a cylinder. I led them to recall that cans were in the shape of a cylinder. The students had a hard time coming up with a basic set of general common characteristics, but Im fairly certain this had to do with the set of shapes I chose to display. Most 3-D shapes have faces except for the sphere. Most 3-D shapes have edges except for the cylinder or the sphere. This made it difficult for them to come up with a set of rules for 3-D shapes. However, we came up with the list shown in the video. All of the 3-D shapes follow the rule of having length, height and width. Most of our references were on that fact. While coming up with a plan, the students stated that they thought the best way to construct their shapes and ensure they made all of them was to just start making shapes and stop when they ran out of ideas. I encouraged this, but also told them to refer to our list.

I asked the students to make a list of 3-D shapes they found in their homes, partly because I wanted to make deeper connections to prior knowledge, but also because I was sensing a lot of frustration 5. Have students return on Day when students couldnt share their thoughts out Two with a list of things in loud. If someone said what they were thinking, I their home that are 3-D shapes. heard AWW!!! and I noticed the students were getting irritated. I did this to cement the idea of 3D shapes but also offer more opportunities for students to share.

Day Two 1. Ask if students can recall the problem. What is the problem asking? 2. Have students share their list of 3-D shapes from home. Talk about how this can help them in making their shapes. 3. Present students with materials. Explain that in order to use our time most efficiently, we will want to make shapes that no one else is making. Walk around as students are constructing to ask further questions, provoke problem solving, and observe strategies that are being used.

The students did very well in remembering the problem. They seemed to be very excited about getting to their construction techniques! They also enjoyed sharing their lists! They drew pictures (which technically were 2-D) of objects they knew were 3-dimensional. They verbally explained what each object was and the shape it portrayed. One of the most interesting contributions was a student who showed a traffic cone as a cone. While I walked around, I heard a lot of the students explaining their shapes as things they knew existed. One student described his rectangular prism as a hallway. Some students did explain that they took a 2-D shape as a face and constructed a 3-D shape from it. I noticed that some students were taking 3-D shapes to make a giant 3-D shape of their own. They connected cubes and triangular prisms to make a trapezoidal figure. We discussed how we can use 3-D shapes to make complicated structures. I felt that this deviated somewhat from the objective, but I really appreciated how the students were taking risks and exploring what they could do. The slideshow shows a lot of the artifacts that were constructed. I noticed that the students seemed to get every shape except for the hexagonal and octagonal prism, which wasnt surprising. The students are introduced to these shapes in kindergarten, but they arent an integral part of the curriculum. Students may not have been familiar enough with them to construct a 3-D shape from them. Because I noticed that only two 3-D shapes were missing, I constructed the faces the students needed to build the shape before they came to me that day. I made a hexagon and an octagon. I explained that I saw every 3-D shape except for two. I showed them the shapes I made. The students correctly identified them and seemed to understand immediately how they would make the missing shapes.

Day Three 1. Go through all the shapes that have been constructed. Note if there are any 3-D shapes that have not been considered. 2. Lead students to construct a

new 3-D shape by creating the face. Break the students up into groups to assemble the rest. Observe their team talk and provoke with questions. 3. Discuss whether or not we solved the problem. Did we make all the 3-D shapes? What makes you think we did or didnt?

I initially heard some talk of making a different face on the top than I had made on the bottom, but we discussed that a 3-D shape like that might not hold up very well. I broke the students up into two groups (one group to make the hexagonal prism and one for the octagonal prism) and allowed them to discuss with one another about how to construct the shape together. They assigned each other roles, they shared materials and had great team encouragement! I was really impressed with this. I offered small pieces of advice such as Maybe one person in the group can be in charge of holding up the sides while the others work on building up the shape and they took it from there. At the end, we discussed how we knew all the shapes have been made. Students picked up on the fact that they didnt have a lot of time, so because of that, they felt like they couldnt have made all of the shapes. They assumed it would be a project that takes a lot of time. We discussed that they made as many shapes that connect to a 2-D face as they possibly could. Even after this discussion, they still felt like they wanted more time to be certain through their own exploration.

Monitoring Form: Observations Strategy Using shapes to drive faces Who and What Brody began making shapes by using all the shapes he could think of and making those the faces of his 3-D shapes. Sophia, Sean and Lily began using 3-D shapes they already had to drive the construction of new shapes, even if they had no prior knowledge. They said These shapes dont exist, but now they do because we made them. Order 1st

Using 3-D shapes to connect to other 3-D shapes to create something new

2nd

Starting with a shape I made to create a 3-D shape that is traditional, but not commonly seen in everyday life Removing pieces from a shape they constructed to make it more like something theyve seen.

New 3-D shapes being made from happenstance with the materials

When the kids broke into 3rd teams, they took a hexagon and an octagon to make prisms that theyd never seen, but are traditional 3-D shapes Lily made a cube with 4th random toothpicks sticking out of the top. She said I dont really know what this is. I asked her how she can make it into something she knows. Lewis told her to remove the toothpicks on the top, and shed have a cube. Lewiss cube had squishy 5th marshmallows, so it began to lean, making the faces into parallelograms. This provided opportunity to talk about how shapes can change and still be 3-D

Reflection: A lot of the components of this lesson contradicted my expectations! I expected the students to say initially that they understood the problem even if they didnt. I knew that I would have to ask a few times, Are you sure? For some reason, Ive seen a lot of kindergarteners reluctant to admit that they dont understand something. This part of the lesson went exactly as I expected. The students were able to identify what exactly in the problem they didnt understand. Things started to turn toward the unexpected in the prior knowledge piece. The students made connections to the 3-D shapes displayed and ones theyve seen in real life with very little coaching. They did this almost automatically. I was expecting to have a lot more support in making this link, but the students were able to explain very quickly. In terms of problem solving, I was almost certain the students would model the shapes they were constructing on things theyve seen in real life (I made a 3-D shape of a house instead of I made a cube). Some of them began to initially (Brody described one of his shapes as a doorway, Lewis described his as a long hallwayPicture 1), but mostly the students began with a familiar 2-D shape as the face and began construction from there. I was very surprised at how quickly they started

using the term face and other 3-D terms! This allowed them to work through the problem rather quickly. I was expecting repeats of shapes (making a cube and a cube of larger scale, thinking it was a different shape), but using well-known shapes as the faces to begin with eliminated this possibility. At the end, the students still didnt seem confident that they had discovered all of the 3-D shapes, even when I mentioned that they came very close. They seemed to want to create some that they havent seen, but can exist by the reasoning, I made it, so it exists now(Picture 4). This is especially present in the picture of the very complicated shape constructed of several cubes and triangular prisms. In the video, the student who made this seemed almost embarrassed to have made it once she saw that everyone else had made simple 3-D shapes. I wouldve liked to give them more time to explore I think this wouldve solidified the concepts with them a little bit better had they been able to construct their own shape, then say Well this is just a cube with pyramids on it. If I were to do the lesson again, that would be the main alteration I would make. I would extend it over more time. In terms of meeting the objective, I would say that the students met the objectives portrayed in my lesson. They met the standards, but didnt necessarily have the confidence in it that I would have liked to see. Youll notice that the standards that align with this project simply require that the students model, compare and discuss 3-D shapes. They did this through their discussions in the lesson, their construction of the 3-D shapes, and their list of basic rules or generalizations for 3-D shapes. However, the objective of the problem was that they make every 3-D shape that could possibly exist and explain how they know that no more can exist. They had a lot of trouble wrapping their head around the fact that they could make them all. Referring back to the video, I gathered from the discussion that the students related their sense of time to their solution. They felt as though they could make more shapes if they had more time, even though they had already made all the shapes. We were able to discuss the fact that we had made them all, but they still seemed a little unsure after that. As before stated, more time might have allowed students to hit the wall so to speak. The inability to come up with new shapes may have allowed them to feel confident in the fact that theyd found them all. Also, this wouldve allowed us more time to explain how putting several 3-D shapes together doesnt necessarily make a new shape. Referring to the picture of the rectangular prism, the student who constructed it believed that it couldve been a different shape because of the fact that it was three cubes put together. I wouldve loved to have more of an opportunity to discuss this. I think this fed into the idea that the students couldve made more shapes. As a teacher, Ive come across situations like this. Students meet the objective on a technical basis, but their understanding of the material is off just enough for them to believe that they havent. This makes me wonder if they did, in fact, meet the objective. They constructed the shapes, they made them all, but the knowing they made them all piece was shaky at best. They seemed more convinced in our discussion at the end of the video. I hope that the next time I give a task like this, I

allow more time and allow more opportunities for discussion as the shapes are made. Picture 1

Picture 2 This student first made a cube. It began to slant on its own, which led into a discussion of parallelograms as faces.

Picture 3 Students working on building a hexagonal prism off the face I built for them.

Picture 4 One student constructed a 3-D shape out of other 3-D shapes, making the claim that it can exist because she made it.

Picture 5 This student found a way to bypass limitations of the kinds of faces he could have by using licorice to make a circular face. This was without provocation or guidance.

CULMINATING ASSIGNMENT 4 CHANGING THE CLASSROOM CULTURE Culminating Assignment: Changing the Classroom Culture This unit focuses on changing classroom norms, specifically in math and problem solving. One of the classroom norms that I have identified is the requirement that students raise their hands in order to share thoughts, ideas, solutions or ask questions. It is assumed by most professionals that having students raise their hands creates an atmosphere of order. It prevents a rumble of students chaotically trying to share all of their ideas at once. This makes it easier for the teacher to respond to students and facilitate a classroom discussion. It also prevents interruptions and incomplete thoughts. I admit that I am an advocate for a strong sense of classroom management. My question is, does raising hands in order to speak promote classroom management or deter students from responding? Herbel Eisennman brings up this point by pointing out, Although teachers understandably do not want students to

compete in shouting answers, to have one raise ones hands and wait to be called on could deter students from sharing, cause them to forget the contribution they wanted to share, or even tacitly discourage them from coming up with answers: if their hands are not raised, students may think they are not responsible for coming up with a response (Lee, 2006) (Herbel Eisennman, p.36). For our second culminating assignment, I chose to teach a 3-D shapes task to a small group of kindergarteners. Before I met the students, my colleague (their teacher) spoke with me to tell me about them. She informed me that she told the students that she expected them to not speak out of turn. At first, I found this relieving. I thought I would be working with students who would share their thoughts in a very orderly fashion. Upon implementation of the task, I found that this was not so. The students were excited about the task. They were enthused by the fact that they knew answers and had meaningful contributions. The speaking out of turn lecture their teacher had given them had obviously gone to lunch! I found myself consistently reminding students to speak one at a time and raise their hands when they had something to say. Thinking back, I find myself wondering why it was so important to me that they do this. They werent speaking about topics that didnt relate to our problem solving methods. They had productive and fruitful ideas. In fact, the more I tried to control the conversation they were having naturally, the more I found them frustrated and insecure about what they were sharing. After a few times of trying to control the discussion, I found that the students were more trying to mimic what they thought I wanted to see instead of coming up with what they wanted to see come out of the problem. They began to try to answer chorally and they waivered in the responses they gave. Their independent thinking started to become more of a mush of conformity. I didnt get to see their individual strategic thinking again until they were given the materials to make their own shapes and I walked around as the observer. My Plan: Stein states, Our research also illustrates that teachers with judicious of tasks and coaching to prompt student participation in their solution can break out of the role of sole evaluator of student thinking and reasoning in the classroom (Stein, p.112). My goal in this assignment was to see if I could make this possible with the students I worked with. I wanted to see if I could take another task to the students and facilitate a discussion without controlling it by making the students raise their hands. To experiment with this, I met with the same students as the task from the second culminating assignment. I asked their teacher to refrain from reminding them to not speak out of turn. I gave them the math modeling task I used for the third culminating assignment, which is a sorting activity. The video of the problem can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FalOfpMaJ6M.

After the students viewed the problem, I explained that all we were going to do was talk about the problem: How would we solve it? What would be the best way to sort the toys? What makes you think that? In kindergarten, the best discussions happen when the students dont have a lot of paperwork. Kindergarteners are still learning writing mechanics and fine motor skills for drawing, so I did not require them to work out the problem using these skills. I brought the toys and the tubs and allowed students to demonstrate their thoughts during a discussion. Tracking Data and Artifacts Collected: The objective of this meeting was to see if the students would have a more productive discussion in mathematical problem solving and reasoning without the requirement of raising hands to share. To track this, I took note of the following occurrences: Redirections, Wait times, Diversions, Irrelevance, Interruptions and Signs of frustration. Redirection refers to how many times the students needed behavioral redirections (reminders to stay seated, reminders to not play with materials, etc). Wait times are the areas in the discussion that can be described as the awkward silence when students seem to refuse to respond. Diversions are times when the conversation takes a turn into something that is still on topic, but wont necessarily help us solve the problem. Irrelevance refers to contributions to the conversation that are not on topic (which can happen a lot in kindergarten). Interruptions are when students talk over one another in a way that breaks up the productivity of the conversation. Signs of frustration are signals that students are becoming agitated as a result of being interrupted, someone sharing an idea they wanted to share, or other reasons such as not understanding the materials or simply not wanting to do the task. To first have data to begin with, I watched the video from the 3-D shape lessons. The table below shows data I collected from that meeting. Meeting One: The 3-D Shape Lesson Redirections Wait times 10 4 Diversions 8 Irrelevance 6 Interruptions Signs of frustration 13 7

Meeting Two: The Sorting Task Redirections Wait times 4 1 Diversions 6 Irrelevance 3 Interruptions Signs of frustration 3 2

Analysis and Limitations:

From the data I collected, it seems as though not requiring students to raise their hands cuts down on the factors that tend to squelch a problem solving/reasoning discussion. Though I agree, I do feel as though there are many things that factor into these results that could causes limitations to making conclusions. For example, Ive only met with these students twice. If I were their teacher, I would more easily be able to change this part of my classroom culture and notice the difference it is making over time. When changing the discourse of ones classroom, its important to see sustained results. Also, the lesson was different. The students may have not gotten frustrated, made irrelevant contributions or diverted the conversation as much because they spend more time in the curriculum with sorting than they do with 3-D shapes. This also couldve cut down on the redirections and wait times needed. Lastly, the Interruption portion is not exactly a direct comparison. While watching the video of the first meeting, I counted any time the students interrupted me or each other. In the second, I counted the times the students interrupted in a way that disrupted the conversation or led to incomplete thoughts from the person who was cut off. The qualifications for interruptions had to change because the design of the discussion was completely different. Overall, I enjoyed teaching the second lesson much more than I enjoyed the first. I felt as though the students could be a part of the task. It seemed more like a team effort, whereas my first task seemed like I was still the sole evaluator. I do think that this is a change in the classroom culture that can lead to very productive discussions with students, but I think the students need to be accustomed to a classroom that operates this way. There is a difference between a discussion and chaos. Students, especially young ones, find themselves going into conversational rabbit holes or diverting their attention to other things without some kind of structure. I think expectations of discussions need to be made clear. Just because a teacher relinquishes some control to create balance in reasoning and problem solving doesnt mean he or she needs to take hands of the steering wheel completely. I look forward to implementing this strategy in my next classroom.