5 minute lesson plan

Ideasman · #1 $Old$ October 14th, 2009, 11:00 AM

I have to give a 5 minute lesson plan for Teach for America:

Quote:

Sample Teaching Session

At the beginning of the day, each applicant will lead a five-minute teaching session while the other applicants and interviewers participate as students. Applicants should plan for questions from the other students/applicants and budget time to answer them.

We adhere exactly to the five-minute time limit in order to make this a fair process for all of our applicants across the country. We allow one minute between lessons for the next applicant to set up his/her materials, so you should come already prepared with any materials for your lesson. You may teach a lesson of your choice that you have planned for a specific grade level, from pre-K to 12th grade, and subject area. Your choice of grade level and subject area has no bearing on your ultimate subject and grade level assignment if you are admitted to the corps.

You will be asked to write the following information on the board during your one-minute set-up time, so please come prepared:

* Name (e.g., Mary Smith)
* Subject (e.g., American history)
* Grade level (e.g., eighth grade)
* Lesson objective (e.g., students will list four primary causes of the American Revolution)

It is acceptable for you to assume some prior knowledge, and you should communicate this to the interviewers and other applicants by beginning your lesson with a reference to an earlier lesson (e.g., “You'll recall, students, that yesterday we began discussing literary devices. Today we're going to talk about one specific literary device called the simile, and you're going to learn how to pick out a simile when you come across one in your reading.”).

As I majored in math, I am obviously going to do something math-related. Anyone have any good ideas of what I can do? It's only 5 minutes.. so maybe something like explaining supplementary/complementary angles or even just explaining what a variable is.

I would LOVE some ideas and also what I can use to check for understand, give visuals, etc.

Swlabr · #2 $Old$ October 15th, 2009, 01:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ideasman $View Post$

I have to give a 5 minute lesson plan for Teach for America:

As I majored in math, I am obviously going to do something math-related. Anyone have any good ideas of what I can do? It's only 5 minutes.. so maybe something like explaining supplementary/complementary angles or even just explaining what a variable is.

I would LOVE some ideas and also what I can use to check for understand, give visuals, etc.

I would say variables sound good. As far as I am concerned, maths is all about concepts and abstraction and variables is the first step towards understanding this.

mr fantastic · #3 $Old$ October 15th, 2009, 04:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ideasman $View Post$

I have to give a 5 minute lesson plan for Teach for America:

As I majored in math, I am obviously going to do something math-related. Anyone have any good ideas of what I can do? It's only 5 minutes.. so maybe something like explaining supplementary/complementary angles or even just explaining what a variable is.

I would LOVE some ideas and also what I can use to check for understand, give visuals, etc.

5 minutes is not much time especially when you have to budget for questions. I suggest something simple like prime numbers.

Deadstar · #4 $Old$ October 15th, 2009, 07:23 AM

How about the Eulerian Path thing? The thing about how if every vertex has even an even amount of edges coming from it you can start and finish at the same point crossing each edge once..?

You could use the drawing the letter thing as an example. (in attachment).

You would only really need to define a vertex, an edge and a path and your goal would be teach students to be able to tell if you could start and finish at same place etc...

Might be something good because you could use visual examples.

EDIT: Just saw that you could only go up to 12th grade. This would probably be considered above it although I think it's pretty easy to grasp.

Ideasman · #5 $Old$ October 15th, 2009, 09:47 AM

This sounds like a terrific idea (the Eulerian path/circuit thing). Or I could even do Hamiltonian path/circuits...

Hmm. So I was thinking that or prime numbers. I will need visuals/perhaps pre-made hand-outs. I will think it over and if you have further suggestions, please do let me know! Thanks guys.

Ideasman · #6 $Old$ October 16th, 2009, 09:53 PM

I was going to do the Eulerian thing but then I realized that it isn't really taught in any grade until post High School. Also, variables is a bit too boring.

So... I was thinking PRIMES. Anyone have suggestions on how to teach prime numbers, or perhaps what application of prime numbers to teach? ... something that would check for understanding too and be interactive.

mr fantastic · #7 $Old$ October 16th, 2009, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ideasman $View Post$

I was going to do the Eulerian thing but then I realized that it isn't really taught in any grade until post High School. Also, variables is a bit too boring.

So... I was thinking PRIMES. Anyone have suggestions on how to teach prime numbers, or perhaps what application of prime numbers to teach? ... something that would check for understanding too and be interactive.

It's meant to be your presentation, not ours! Google is a good place to start.

Prove It · #8 $Old$ October 17th, 2009, 08:22 PM

Aneasy activity might be to give each of your "students" a 10 X 10 table that contains all of the numbers from 1 to 100.

Then have them use the "Sieve of Erastothenes" method to colour in any number that is not a prime.

Once they have finished (gone through all numbers up to 100), you can talk about the numbers that haven't been coloured only being able to be divided by 1 and itself - and these numbers are called "Prime".