Welcome to the lesson plan tutorial. It’s important to understand that these lesson plans focus on demonstrating how to teach the curriculum material in a physical way. The lesson plan descriptions focus far less on the actual subject material, as it is assumed that the teacher already has print materials that cover this component. If you need more information on the subject material, please see the External Resources section that is part of each model.
Now, lets look at how the lesson plans are structured. For the most part each one has the following components.
- Intent of the Model
- Benefits of the Model
- Related Topics
- Applicable Grade Levels
- Time Needed
- Materials Needed
- Physical Vocabulary Used
- Suggested Process for Using the Lesson Plan
- Detailed Description of How to Run the Models in the Lesson Plan
- Diagrams to Show the Set Up and Movement Patterns
- Drama Tips!
- Ways to Extend the Model
- Reinforcement Activities and Evaluation Questions
- External Resources
- Teacher Forums
For This Tutorial We Will Use a Grade 3 Lesson – The Ear
- Each of the lesson plan sections are described here.
- Each one is followed by an example from The Ear lesson plan.
- The first thing you will see in each lesson plan is the coloured box at the top of each model page. Included in this box are 8 information headings. The main lesson plan is below the coloured box.
- Pretty obvious. Info to let you know what type of models are used in the lesson plan, and of course – what it’s about!
Example from the Ear Model
Intent of the Model
Learning about the ear in this way gives students a more animated and dynamic understanding of what happens to sound waves entering the ear, and how those waves affect our ears.
- Essentially – why it makes sense to teach this unit physically.
Example from the Ear Model
Benefits of the Model
Learning about the ear in this way gives students a more animated and dynamic understanding of what happens to sound waves entering the ear, and how those waves affect our ears.
- Topics that are cross referenced with this one in the keyword index (part of the lesson plan index).
- Clicking on these keywords will take you to other lessons that are also referenced to the same keyword.
Example from the Ear Model
Related Topics
science human body hearing sound sound waves
- Another search tool.
- Clicking on a grade level at any time will give you a listing of all models associated with that grade.
Example from the Ear Model
Grade Level
Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4
- Usually this refers to just one part of the lesson plan. As most lesson plans have multiple parts, you could certainly come back to them a number of times. Once you know the model you can lead variations on it quite quickly, or use it as a quick review process- which is why many of the lesson plans say that they can be used in 15 minutes or less.
Example from the Ear Model
Time Needed
15 – 30 Minutes
- For the most part, most models use no props, however if they do, they will be listed here.
- If a model uses drawing or writing supplies, those will will not be listed here, as almost all models use drawing and writing as Reinforcement Activities.
Example from the Ear Model
Materials
none
- Physical vocabulary are the shapes that make up the models. These shapes are the key to making the models quickly and easily. They are simple but effective – such as a circle facing in, a circle facing out, 2 parallel lines, a semicircle, or find your own space.
- Their purpose is to give the model an easily definable shape, as well as to eliminate excess movement in the classroom. Once your students get familiar with the shapes, learning new models is very easy.
- The vocabulary shapes are very adaptable to different size groups. Use the shapes with 5 students or use them with 40 – they work both ways.
- It also makes no difference as to the grade level. They are just as important and useable at Grade 1 as in Grade 12. A big advantage to using this system is that the work done in early grades supports work done in later years as the methodology is very consistent.
Example from the Ear Model
Physical Vocabulary Used
line 2 parallel lines facing in
- This section has suggestions on what may need to be done before starting the models in the lesson plan. Such as, a suggestions on what ideas to introduce first, or what things might be helpful to have on hand.
- It also may have notes on suggestions for incorporating desk work activities.
Example from the Ear Model
Suggested Process for Using the Model
- Create a preliminary discussion about sound and vibration.
- Ideas: – How do we hear sound? – What is sound? – What are examples of vibrations? – If we look at a speaker in a stereo, what do we see? – What does that vibration do?
- On the board, draw and label the parts of the ear and their purpose. Talk about how vibrations go into our ears, down the ear canal, vibrate the ear drum, then get sent to the brain. After drawing the ear, suggest making a physical model of the ear to better understand how the ear works.
- A lesson plan often consists of more than one model or model variation.
- Each model or variation has a section that explains in detail how to use the model.
- Usually the first section deals with how to set up the model physically in the room. Feel free to adapt the model to the size of group. Almost every model can be adapted to be done with only a few students or a whole class.
- In the following example the green text is the physical vocabulary which tells you which big shape to put the students into.
Example from the Ear Model
- Use the Physical Vocabulary to create the model with students (see the top-view diagrams below)
- Create the model by bringing students up in the following order
- Have 2 lines of students face each other to be the ear canal / 2 parallel lines facing in
- Add 2 students at one end of the parellel lines to be the outer ear
- Add 2 students to be the ear drum and the brain
- Add a student to be the ear plug
- Add a line of students to be the sounds / line
- Now ask someone from each part of the model who they are in the model and what they do.
- Repeat this interview process with more and more detailed questions each time you run the model
- The 2nd, 3rd or 4th sections will most often deal with running the model with a number of variations.
- It is important to realize that you (or a student) are essentially narrating the model. In a way you are the animator – you interview the parts, call the action, tell everyone what is next. So, you are part sports announcer, part academic (you are bringing out the content details that you feel are important), and part theatre director as you look for the fun and dramatic bits that will make your students want to keep exploring the model. If you do this, you will find that the model can help show a great deal of information.
Example from the Ear Model
- Four or five students form a line opposite the ear. Have each student name what sound they are. A door bell. A cat meowing. A bird chirping. Each sound then runs through the ear making the sound and the pattern of a sound wave with their hands in front of them. They touch the ear drum in the back and then return to their starting spot. The ear drum then repeats the sound to the brain. Ask the brain what it heard.
- These diagrams can be static or animated. If they are animated they are activated by moving your cursor over the diagram. If the diagram is a series of circles then it is an overhead view of the model. In general then, each circle represents a student. To scale a model up for more students, simply add more students to the group roles in the diagram (usually the physical vocabulary shapes as opposed to the individual roles).
- There may also be video footage or photographs. In most cases these will show an aspect of the model being run in a classroom.
Example from the Ear Model
- These are suggestions for ways to add more humour and drama to the models. It is important to do this. The more fun that you can make the model, the more your students will want to use them. Think of what this means for a second. More energy, more focus, more desire to use the models means more learning and more long term understanding of the material. So many teachers say that reviewing material at the end of the year, to get ready for exams, is the time that it is hardest to get students to focus. However, use Act2Learn to review your subjects and you won’t have this problem.
Example from the Ear Model
Add earrings to the model
Pretend you have a microphone and interview the parts of the model
Add ear wax to the model (have it lay down). Pull the wax out of the ear with a student representing a wash cloth (it’s fun to let the wax crawl back in at least once)
Treat the earplug as a hero and have the student flex their muscles after protecting the ear
- These are suggestions for ways to extend the model to demonstrate related concepts. In a perfect world we would have already documented many of these – but hey, jump in and be the first!
- To try a model variation, just add or change the necessary parts of the model and try it. The important thing to ask is – what does this new part do in relation to the existing parts? If you can verbalize that relationship then you can act it out.
- Once your students understand the process, they may be very interested to try the variations and present them to the class, or to create entirely new variations on their own. If you do create new ones -please let us know.
Example from the Ear Model
- Modify the model to show how a hearing aid assists the ear.
- Modify the model to show what happens when our hearing is damaged.
- Show how cleaning our ear with different objects affects the ear. ie; sharp objects or wash cloth
- Add other components of the ear to the model – hammer, stirrup, anvil, auditory nerve
- In most cases you will have a group of students working on the model and a group of students at their desks. You can assign reinforcement activities to the students at the desks. Usually it is a good idea to run the models a number of times so that all students get the experience. In that case, after a group has run the model, have them work on the reinforcement activities while other students run the models.
- The evaluation questions can be used in many ways. Stopping the model and asking questions to the participants is a very good way to measure true understanding, as it is easy to phrase the question to determine this. It is important to understand that these questions are only meant to get you started and in no way are to be considered complete.
Example from the Ear Model
- Have a student lead the model
- Have students draw the ear and label the parts.
- Have students write a story about a sound wave travelling through the ear.
- Have students write a story about the life of part of the ear.
- Freeze the model and ask students to explain what each part of the ear does.
- How does your hearing change when you listen to lots of loud sounds?
- How does the earplug protect your ear?
- What happens when our ear is full of wax?
- These are hyper links to other sites.
- These links may be helpful in providing background info on the subject material or could be used as part of the reinforcement activities
- There may be diagrams, pictures or charts to explain the actual material (seperate from the diagrams we provide that show you how to teach it physically)
- If you have hyperlinks that you think would make good additions – send us an e-mail and we’ll check them out.
Example from the Ear Model
National Hearing Foundation Sound Testing Lab How You Can Protect Your Hearing
- There is a discussion forum attached to each lesson plan.
- The link to the forum is at the top of the lesson plan page – under the title
- Check the forums to see how other teachers are using the lesson plans.
- This is also a good place to post a message regarding new model variations or suggested processes for using the existing models.
- Or post a question about using the model or Act2Learn in general.
Example from the Ear Model
View Discussion About This Lesson Plan