Chris Eames Text set Lesson Plan July 8, 2009

Chris Eames Text set Lesson Plan July 8, 2009 Introduction and Rationale This lesson is designed to show students how area and perimeter are related, specifically how one affects the other. This lesson is meant to be used with sixth and seventh grade students. The students will already be familiar with area and perimeter, but have only done little work with each. The text would be used in the reflection stage where they are working in small groups to complete a worksheet that coincides with it. The lesson uses the story The Tale of Peter Rabbit to help the students become comfortable with the more advanced concepts of area and perimeter, since most students have read it, and helps them visualize a garden. Visualizing a garden is important because the questions in the accompanying worksheet use sizes of gardens and lengths of fences as the examples. Some of the excerpts from the text that emphasize these concepts are: - Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir-tree. "Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. " - But Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor's garden, and squeezed under the gate! First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes; And then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley. But round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor! - Then he tried to find his way straight across the garden, but he became more and more puzzled. Presently, he came to a pond where Mr. McGregor filled his water-cans. A white cat was staring at some goldfish; she sat very, very still, but now and then the tip of her tail twitched as if it were alive. Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he has heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny. He went back towards the toolshed, but suddenly, quite close to him, he heard the noise of a hoe-- scr-r-ritch, scratch, scratch, scritch. Peter scuttered underneath the bushes. But presently, as nothing happened, he came out, and climbed upon a wheelbarrow, and peeped over. The first thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions. His back was turned towards Peter, and beyond him was the gate! *This story is available in many places but here is the bibliographic information for where I found it. Acacia Vignettes Poetry and Stories. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. http://acacia.pair.com/acacia.vignettes/the.tale.of.peter.rabbit.html. July 3, 2009

I chose this story because I wanted to give students something different to read in a math class. The majority of math readings can be very technical and dense so this piece of literature should be more easily digestible by them. A large part of the subject of this lesson is calculating area and perimeter of shapes that aren t standard. The questions that the students are going to see on the SOL tests are going to use the concept of building a garden and measuring a fence and deciding how to use the standard area and perimeter formulas to calculate area and perimeter of non standard shapes. Having them work with these types of problems now with a story that supports it will make them more comfortable with the concepts on the SOL test. SOL s Area and perimeter themselves are a very important part of the SOL s. The most directly related SOL to this lesson is: 7.7 The student, given appropriate dimensions, will a) estimate and find the area of polygons by subdividing them into rectangles and right triangles; and b) apply perimeter and area formulas in practical situations. It also satisifies the NCTM standard for sixth through eighth grades: Understand, select and use units of appropriate size and type to measure angles, perimeter, area, surface area, and volume. In this lesson working on these relations, between area and perimeter, will help the students in higher grades when they deal with advanced concepts like maximization/minimization of area and perimeter using formulas. Student s Needs and Interests The students that I will have, I expect, will be average performing with a few excelling and a few that have fallen behind. Since I will explain the process first and then the students will be working in small groups, I think that the only support from me that they will need is for any confusion that they might have. I would spend time with any ELL students and students that don t seem to understand the story to make sure that they understand the story. Though it is not completely important for them to understand the text it is important that they are able to participate in discussions in their small groups. Those discussions are going to help them more than me telling it to them, therefore it is important that they can participate. Readability I was able to copy the story and paste it into a word file, which is what I used to calculate the readability analysis. The Flesch-Kincaid reading level was between fifth and sixth grade (5.6). This is actually higher than what I thought it was going to be. The story line is very simple and the majority of the language is very basic. There are some words that aren t used anymore, like presently and fortnight; perhaps they re old English. The story seems to follow very logically and the style is very easy to follow. I think the reason

that the Flesch-Kincaid number was higher than I expected was because of the some of the words that were used. Qualitatively speaking I think this book would be suitable for advanced fourth graders to average sixth graders. There really aren t any direct mathematical concepts in the text so this text would definitely have to be a strengthener to a lesson. I think having a story for the students to think about gives them a way to relate to the concepts. Lesson Plan Objective: This lesson will help the students understand how the area and perimeter formulas can be used with standard and, more importantly, non-standard shapes. Procedure: a. Preparation stage SWBAT use the area and perimeter formulas, that they have previous experience with, to calculate the area and perimeter of standard shapes and simple polygons Questions for students to recall previous experience with area and perimeter What is the formula for calculating the area of a rectangle? What is the formula for calculating the perimeter of a rectangle? b. Assistance stage Demonstration (Done as a class) How do we calculate the area of the following two figures? 5 5 6 3 How do we then calculate the perimeter of these same two figures? Do these formulas only apply to squares and triangles? Can you think of any other figures that these formulas would apply to? How do you think we can find the area of the following figures? Try to get them to figure out that they can still use the standard formulas with non-standard shapes.

5 5 2 2 3 2 3 5 4 3 6 4 Do we need to change the perimeter formula for these figures? Why not? What is the perimeter of the figures? Can you think of any situations in real life where we would use these formulas? c. Reflection stage In this section the handout (attached) will be passed out and the story will be read out loud, at first by the teacher and then by students who volunteer to read. Then the students will be put into groups of three to complete the worksheet. Each person needs to turn in a worksheet to be graded. Materials The only materials used in this lesson are the worksheet which is attached.

Evaluation The way that the student s comprehension can be tested is by collecting and grading the worksheets. If any mistakes are prevalent then those can be covered again in the next class. The style of lesson is multifaceted. It has the lecture part, for which some students will benefit from, and a cooperative learning section. The only student that I think will have some problems would be ELLs and learning disabled students. I think they could have problems with understanding the story and with applying that to the worksheet. I would definitely talk to them to make sure that they understand everything and would also put them with strong students so that they could help each other.

Name Date Directions: Read the following story and answer the questions that are based on the story. The Tale of Peter Rabbit Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big fir-tree. "Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor. Now run along, and don't get into mischief. I am going out." Then old Mrs. Rabbit took a basket and her umbrella, and went through the wood to the baker's. She bought a loaf of brown bread and five currant buns. Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail, who were good little bunnies, went down the lane to gather blackberries; But Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor's garden, and squeezed under the gate! First he ate some lettuces and some French beans; and then he ate some radishes; and then, feeling rather sick, he went to look for some parsley. But round the end of a cucumber frame, whom should he meet but Mr. McGregor! Mr. McGregor was on his hands and knees planting out young cabbages, but he jumped up and ran after Peter, waving a rake and calling out, "Stop thief." Peter was most dreadfully frightened; he rushed all over the garden, for he had forgotten the way back to the gate. He lost one of his shoes among the cabbages, and the other shoe amongst the potatoes. After losing them, he ran on four legs and went faster, so that I think he might have got away altogether if he had not unfortunately run into a gooseberry net, and got caught by the large buttons on his jacket. It was a blue jacket with brass buttons, quite new. Peter gave himself up for lost, and shed big tears; but his sobs were overheard by some friendly sparrows, who flew to him in great excitement, and implored him to exert himself. Mr. McGregor came up with a sieve, which he intended to pop upon the top of Peter; but Peter wriggled out just in time, leaving his jacket behind him. And rushed into the toolshed, and jumped into a can. It would have been a beautiful thing to hide in, if it had not had so much water in it. Mr. McGregor was quite sure that Peter was somewhere in the toolshed, perhaps hidden underneath a flowerpot. He began to turn them over carefully, looking under each. Presently Peter sneezed-- "Kertyschoo!" Mr. McGregor was after him in no time, and tried to put his foot upon Peter, who jumped out of a window, upsetting three plants. The window was too small for Mr. McGregor, and he was tired of running after Peter. He went back to his work. Peter sat down to rest; he was out of breath and trembling with fright, and he had not the least idea which way to go. Also he was very damp with sitting in that can. After a time he began to wander about, going lippity--lippity--not very fast, and looking all around. He found a door in a wall; but it was locked, and there was no room for a fat little rabbit to squeeze underneath. An old mouse was running in and out over the stone doorstep, carrying peas and beans to her family in the wood. Peter asked her the way to the gate, but she had such a large pea in her mouth that she could not answer. She only shook her head at him. Peter began to cry. Then he tried to find his way straight across the garden,

but he became more and more puzzled. Presently, he came to a pond where Mr. McGregor filled his water-cans. A white cat was staring at some goldfish; she sat very, very still, but now and then the tip of her tail twitched as if it were alive. Peter thought it best to go away without speaking to her; he has heard about cats from his cousin, little Benjamin Bunny. He went back towards the toolshed, but suddenly, quite close to him, he heard the noise of a hoe-- scr-r-ritch, scratch, scratch, scritch. Peter scuttered underneath the bushes. But presently, as nothing happened, he came out, and climbed upon a wheelbarrow, and peeped over. The first thing he saw was Mr. McGregor hoeing onions. His back was turned towards Peter, and beyond him was the gate! Peter got down very quietly off the wheelbarrow, and started running as fast as he could go, along a straight walk behind some black-currant bushes. Mr. McGregor caught sight of him at the corner, but Peter did not care. He slipped underneath the gate, and was safe at last in the wood outside the garden. Mr. McGregor hung up the little jacket and the shoes for a scare-crow to frighten the blackbirds. Peter never stopped running or looked behind him till he got home to the big fir-tree. He was so tired that he flopped down upon the nice soft sand on the floor of the rabbit-hole, and shut his eyes. His mother was busy cooking; she wondered what he had done with his clothes. It was the second little jacket and pair of shoes that Peter had lost in a fortnight! I am sorry to say that Peter was not very well during the evening. His mother put him to bed, and made some camomile tea, but Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-tail had bread and milk and blackberries for supper. Now answer the questions that come from the story Show all work-all answers should be written in complete sentences **Don t Forget Your Units** The following is a drawing of Mr. McGregor s backyard; use it to answer the questions. 50ft 0ft SHED 5ft 6ft 4ft 7ft 9ft 9ft Peas Lettuce Cabbage Beans 35ft 6ft Parsley Onions Potatoes Radishes 22sqft Pond

Show all work-all answers should be written in complete sentences **Don t Forget Your Units** What is the area of Mr. McGregor s backyard? What is the area of Mr. McGregor s entire garden? What is the area of the radishes and parsley sections of the garden? How much fencing is needed to completely enclose Mr. McGregor s backyard? How much fencing is needed to completely enclose Mr. McGregor s entire garden? What percentage of the area of the entire garden is lettuce and cabbage? Mr. McGregor reads in the Farmer s Almanac that animals will not eat onions and potatoes so he decides not to fence in the potatoes and onions. How much fencing will he need now to put fencing in the garden? What is the area of the garden that is fenced in? If one side of Mr. McGregor s backyard is enclosed by the house (no fencing is needed) how much fencing would be needed to enclose his backyard?

Show all work-all answers should be written in complete sentences **Don t Forget Your Units** What is the area of Mr. McGregor s backyard that is not garden? Given that the area of Mr. McGregor s pond is 22 square feet, what is the area of Mr. McGregor s backyard that is useable? (yard that is not covered by a shed, garden or pond) Can you think of a way that Mr. McGregor could change his backyard (move things around) to get the most area of space that is not covered by a shed, garden or pond. Draw a picture of this newly designed garden that maximizes the area of space that is not covered by a shed, garden or pond. Make sure you include the measurements from the original backyard so that Mr. McGregor can accurately rearrange his backyard. Explain why you think your changes make the most space that is not covered by a shed, garden or pond.