Applied Lesson Plan: Social Constructivism

Title: "Busy as a Bee"
Source: http://www.col-ed.org/cur/lang/lang42.txt
Author: Lorraine M. Tanaka, Sierra Grande Elementary, Blanca, CO
Grade: 5 Grade
Subject: Language Arts

Materials Needed:
1. Uncut fruit (Strawberry, Kiwi, Pineapple, Honey Dew, Apple, Grapes, Cherries, etc)
2. "Quick as a Cricket" by Audrey and Don Woods
3. "The Reading Teacher's Book of Lists"
4. Crayons
5. Drawing paper
6. Writing paper

This lesson would work well being taught using cognitive apprenticeship.
The students would first watch the more knowledgeable other (MKO) demonstrate what similes are and model how to do the fruit activity. They would then listen as the MKO read “Quick as a Cricket” to the students and then showed them how to create a 3 part simile.
The MKO in this lesson would be the teacher (me). I will be the one modeling how different activities are completed and instructing them throughout the entire lesson. The book “Quick as a Cricket” could also be an MKO in that it teaches the students about similes because it gives the students many excellent examples of similes.
Cultural and symbolic tools will be used through out the whole lesson as they are asked to write down their many similes they make.
In this lesson students will be pushed but not to a frustrational level. By challenging them their Zone of Proximal development is increasing. Students will also be aloud to work in groups; this will help all of the students work through questions and complete a task they might not have been able to do on their own.
Scaffolding is used throughout the whole lesson. In the beginning the teacher is giving students ideas as they being to write their own similes; they are then put in groups of three and make group similes and by the end though they are doing it on their own as they create their books and poems.
The dialectical relationship between learner and MKO began at the beginning of the lesson when the teacher started to model similes and explain what they were. In later parts of the lesson the teacher is helping the students and answering any questions they may have. Finally the students are able to do it on their own.