Ruth E. King Concept Attainment
March 6. 2002
Selecting a Topic:
Wanting to try the model of concept attainment in my
classroom, with the emphasis in the Math area, I pondered as to what
topic in Math I should cover. My concept attainment partners, Lori and
Lisa, developed lessons dealing with the congruency of shapes. My
class was not at this point in Math. I did not want to throw a lesson
at them just for the sake of trying a different model of teaching. I
wanted the lesson to be a part of our studies at this time. So, the
question was before me, what Math concept would be best for concept
attainment? The study of fractions was going to be our next unit,
would this work?
Developing the Lesson:
My student teacher was finishing a Math unit on
division of whole numbers and decimals. Fractions would be the next
unit. This would be a perfect opportunity to jump back into the
teaching of my class and introduce fractions in a new and exciting
way. The goal of my lesson would be to simply define the
characteristics of a fraction. I created yes and no cards on my
computer. They consisted of shaded pictures, written fractions, whole
numbers, word numbers, and decimals. All would be used to help my
students understand the characteristics of a fraction.
The Lesson:
Prior to the lesson, I felt my class would immediately
recognize the first few yes and no pictures as examples of fractions,
give me their characteristics, name the concept, and my lesson would
be finished. After all, this was the class that correctly guessed my
inquiry lesson on the first question asked.
During the teaching of the lesson, I realized that
even though the students might have understood that the pictures
represented fractions, they didn’t necessarily know their
characteristics. That was the challenge!
I started with simple shaded pictures; some divided
equally, other unequal. The students were then asked to look at the
cards and the similarities. After charting their answers, we continued
on. In the second round, students were asked to look at the reasons
they had listed, and decide if the new card was a yes or no. They were
asked to signal in a variety of ways. It was comical to hear students’
"under the breath comments", when I would tell them the card
was a yes, and they thought it was a no. You could actually see them
formulating a new list of characteristics in their minds as more cards
were presented. We stopped again, and I asked the class to re-evaluate
our list of similarities for the yes and no columns. I was encouraged
to see students deleting characteristics from our list, as well as
adding new ones. It wasn’t until after our third round of cards that
students produced the idea that the yes column was made up of
fractions, while the no column was not. The class was able to refine
the characteristics even further by adding the idea of equal parts.
Upon completion of identifying the concept, we
reviewed the parts of a fraction. I then had the class review the name
of the fractions by looking at all of the yes cards. Students were
called upon to name what each fraction represented.
A review page was given for reinforcement.
Generalizations:
Pre-lesson – Once again, I think my students
will quickly obtain the concept in this lesson. Their processing
skills amaze me and I think that during the first round of listing
similarities, my class will be able to list all of the characteristics
of equal fractions.
Post-lesson – My students surprised me again!
This lesson went the distance, three full rounds. My class was
involved every moment, constantly thinking. As I stated before, this
was a lesson where I could actually see their brains thinking. It was
exciting to see the characteristics of a concept grow as new material
was presented.
This model is a keeper. My students were highly
motivated and enthusiastic learners. Introducing fractions to my class
this way was more satisfying than simply showing fractions and giving
the characteristics to them. I enjoy making them think!
Materials used:
Cards: pictures of shaded fractions, equal and unequal
Written fractions
Numbers
Decimals
Interactive Whiteboard
Homework sheet
