I am including the slide deck I used to help deliver the lesson
I prepared the lesson as recommended by the plans but very shortly into the lesson I changed gears and modified it because it was clear that I was losing student interest.
Modifications:
Students seemed unmotivated by the information because it was something that they were familiar with because it is late in the year)… I decided to instead ask them to compare the model for problem solving being presented with any other system they could find and document.
Students were asked to present an artifact comparing them and create hypothesis of why there were differences between them.
The discussions were very insightful particularly when students were discussing the value of simple models vs. more complete or complex models.
Notes: Even though the lesson did not go well as originally planed I am aware of how important it is and I am sure that when I do it again at the beginning of the year it will run much better.
I am teaching six classes, three seventh grade and three eighth grade. The classes are one hour in length and meet every other day. They have had computer classes every year since first grade, but they have not done any computer science other than “hour of code” type activities. Each student has a computer to use during class. They are keeping journals, grade seven on line, grade eight on paper. I am doing this to see which method gets more meaningful results.
I followed this lesson pretty closely using a slide presentation as a guide. User “spear” posted a very helpful slide show on this forum.
I think the lesson went well, but it took longer than I thought. I had the students answer a journal prompt at the beginning.
Prompt: We use the term “problem” to refer to lots of different situations. I could say I have a problem for homework, a problem with my brother, and a problem with my car, and all three mean very different things. In your journal, I want you to brainstorm as many different kinds of problems as you can and be ready to share with the class.
Next they shared examples and I wrote them on the board and we created categories and placed the problems into the created categories. This led to the idea of having a strategy and the activity guide. We did all activities in the guide and shared some responses. In the next class instead of making posters. I gave each group 8 sticky notes and wrote the four steps on the board. I then asked them to write two strategies for each step and post them in the appropriate place on the board. We read what was written and I consolidated the responses in a document. I will post this in the classroom. Strategies
I think this lesson went well. It was straightforward. Students seem to understand the four steps and the importance of having a strategy to solve problems. I think the journal entry helped them brainstorm problem types.
Once again thanks everyone for the awesome feedback and sharing your resources! Its great to see that some people are using the resources others have shared!
I teach at a high school in SLC, Utah. My class is very diverse in that we have multiple languages in the class, English is not the native language of 95% of my students, I have pretty close to 50/50 boy, girl ratio and the class is a good representation of students from the entire school ranging from grades 9-12. Our class period is 90 minutes every other day.
Things that went well:
The activity guide did a great job of helping students organize their thoughts with the 4 steps. It also gave students the chance to see that the process can work forwards and backwards.
Things to reflect on:
It took some brain storming for students to come up with things they are good at. Perhaps have them think about the prompt the previous day so they can talk with a friend or family member about it.
I was gone the 2nd half of the lesson where the were to find a classmate to solve a problem with, so this part of the activity was a little tricky because the students are new to the course and haven’t built strong relationships yet to feel completely safe sharing what they are/are not good at.