Tag Archives: Magic Tricks

Magic Lessons, Conceptions of Teaching, and a Few Bits and Pieces: Update for Monday, 1 November 2010

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Delivery of the Magic Lessons

After considering how an ability to do magic tricks might be useful for a classroom teacher and reviewing the goal of this task – to comprehend and apply the Lesson Design components through the planning and delivery of a lesson, each group taught what they had planned.

The post-conference was structured around answering the questions:

  • What worked? Why?
  • What didn’t work? Why?
  • What next? Why?

When all lessons were delivered and debriefed, we revisited the Lesson Design Anticipation Guide that I used to introduce the topic.  Also, I urged you to use the Lesson Design structure when planning lessons of your own during prac.  It is tried, true and allows for a great deal of flexibility in the way learning experiences are structured.

Here’s a LD lesson planning template for you to use:

In addition, here are a few sample lessons from previous TCs that show you what a completed LD lesson plan might look like:

By the way, here’s an advanced version of Cups and Balls performed by Penn & Teller in Vegas.  Enjoy… but don’t try these tricks on your waterbed!

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPyvAtQYVok[/youtube]

Inquiry Article Processing

We used the Carousel Brainstorming strategy to process the 2 articles – Freire & Danylewycz and Prentice – read for a prior class.  At the end, of this activity, I asked you to complete an exit slip that was a reflection on any new ideas that emerged during your thinking on and talking about the articles.  Overall, the goal was to examine conceptions of teaching – past, present, and yours (… for the moment, at least.)

Here are the three questions that guided our examination of the articles:

  1. What are some present day understandings of teaching and teachers?
  2. What are some historically significant understandings of teaching and teachers?
  3. What understandings do you hold about teaching and teachers?

Instructions for Carousel Brainstorming (Lipton, L., & Wellman, B. (1998).  Patterns and practices in the learning-focused classroom.  Guilford, Vermont: Pathways Publishing.) are below:

Revised EDUC 310/316 Calendar

I wrote the updated calendar on the board.  Here’s an electronic copy:

Permission to Capture Video / Still Images While on Practicum

We will be asking you to videotape at least one lesson on your long practicum and, to do that, you will need permission from the parents of your students.  Most students will have signed some form of consent for photography at the start of the year.  You need to find out who has consented and if the permission given extends to you taking video and still images for your educational purposes, namely for use in your ePortfolio and for the analysis of a videotaped lesson.

Here is a form you should use to get the required permissions, if need be.  Be sure to add in the details where prompted and, before you copy the letter to send home, to proofread the file to make sure it reads in a way you’re comfortable with.  While the gist of the letter should remain the same, you can feel free to make subtle tweaks to the style:

[NOTE:  This is a different form from the one I first posted.  There were some significant concerns with a lack of clarity in the original letter. – LH on 3 Nov 2010]

Print out one, copy as many as you need for the students in your home room, and hand them out.  Set a due date and over the Tuesday visits collect them in.  You have a lot of time on your hands now so you can chase those who have late forms.  Also, this will give you another opportunity to connect with the students in your class.

Looking Ahead to Unit Planning

As per the revised calendar, we will be starting to look at unit planning on Wednesday.  In preparation, I’ve asked you to read the article linked to below and to design an entrance slip – using the same process as the entrance slips you followed for the Inquiry Articles – for use in Wednesday’s lesson. Use this link to the article if you didn’t receive a copy in class.

See you on Wednesday.

– Lawrence

PRO-D Ideas, POT Reading, & Lesson Design: Update for Monday, 18 October 2010

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After fielding a few questions about the first day of the Tuesdays Practicum we got down to new business.  Here’s what happened;

PRO-D Day on Friday, 22 October

This provincial PRO-D day is a great opportunity for you to participate in some outstanding professional learning conferences. Most Provincial Specialist Associations (PSAs) organize a conference on this day and they offer reduced rates for teacher candidates.

You can access a list of PSAs and their websites (with conference info and registration) here.  Please note that there are general-subject conferences that may be of wider interest at the middle years level. PITA puts on one:

The advantage of attending a PSA day, apart from lots of learning, access to resources and networking, is the annual membership that is included, thus opening up many other professional learning opportunities during the year and beyond.

EDUC 310 Reading Schedule

We are transitioning from EDUC 316 – Communications to EDUC 310 – Principles of Teaching in our sessions.  As such, we will begin a series of POT-related readings and discussions.  Full details on the readings and the reading schedule can be found in the EDUC 310 Course Outline.  This was handed out earlier in the term but I’ve re-posted it here for easy reference:

For class on Monday, 25 October please read the following pieces from the EDUC 310 Reading Package (available for purchase at the bookstore):

  • Friere, P. (1998). Teachers as Cultural Workers: Letters To Those Who Dare Teach. Westview Press, pp. 39-46.
  • Danylewycz, M. & Prentice, A. (1991). Teachers’ work: Changing patterns and perceptions in the emerging school systems of 19th– and early 20th-century central Canada.  In Prentice, A. & Theobald, M. R. (Eds.). Women Who Taught. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 136-159.

During- or post-reading, please complete an Entrance Slip that will serve as your “Ticket In The Door” to Monday’s class.  This response – that may be done in any format you wish (writing, drawing, collage, painting, interpretive dance, and the like), as long as it covers the content – is intended to help you to prepare for class discussion by focusing your attention on ideas, questions, and issues provoked by the readings.

The following questions may guide you as you prepare each week:

  • What does this text say that struck you?  Why?
  • What questions does the text provoke?  Why?
  • What ideas, events, or images does the text illuminate or challenge?
  • What dilemmas, tensions, or contradictions are evident?
  • How does the text intersect with (inform, challenge) your own understanding (of teaching, learning, knowing)?

Your Entrance Slip need not be lenghty.  For instance, if you choose to write your thoughts, a paragraph or so will suffice.

At the end of each class we will devote 5 to 10 minutes for writing Exit Slips.  These slips will allow you to return to your initial questions (in the Entrance Slip) and to reflect on them in light of class discussion.  Of course, something new may emerge in the context of class discussion and you may wish to focus your exit slip on that new idea.

Lesson Design: A Framework for Lesson Planning

In preparation for the lesson you’ll teach in your practicum classroom and for the microteaching task you’ll be completing as a part of this class, we turned our focus to Lesson Design, a model for planing instruction.  I followed this steps to introduce the topic:

  • Destinations Revisited (Sharing the Objective)

I showed a slide from the PPT presentation I used at the start of the year to set the context for the class.  I would be focusing on content today and weaving in teaching strategies and skills.

  • Introduction to Microteaching (Sharing the Objective)

I handed out the task sheet – Microteaching Task & Rubric 10-11 – and gave you time to find a group to work with.  In the end, we have 9 groups – 7 triads and 2 partnerships.  They are as follows:

  • Alice & Amber
  • Farisha, Kat K., & Sarah
  • Melanie, Tyrel, & Aaron
  • Amanda, Caitlin, & Kat M.
  • Sally, Ian, & Miguel
  • Jennifer & Lou
  • Lars, Jeremy, & Ross
  • Christian, Shaun, & Devin
  • Leanne, Jenna, & Maria

I asked you to consider topics of interest and noted that, seeing as you only have 20 minutes maximum in which to teach, you should keep your topic narrow; the (sexist, in hindsight) advice I give to my students when they are choosing a topic is as follows: Focus on a man, not man.  Teaching a simple skill works best, generally, although some TCs have had success with knowledge-centred presentations.  Here are few examples of presentations done in previous years:

  • How to perform the basic salsa step
  • How to perform CPR safely and effectively
  • How to make conversations work
  • How to make a drink tag
  • How to tie 4 knots: the bowline, the half hitch, loop knot, and the truckers hitch.
  • How to taste wine like a snob
  • 3 tips for taking better photographs

For next Monday’s class, please have your topic confirmed.  On that day we’ll pick the presentation order.  Lessons will be delivered in class on Monday, 15 November and Monday, 22 November.

  • Lesson Design – Anticipation Guide (Mental Set)

In preparation for our examination of the components of an effective lesson, I asked you to consider some statements related to lesson planning in an Anticipation Guide.  This is a very effecitve pre-reading strategy and it generated some interesing conversations in class.  Here are the statements you responded to:

Here are some details on one way to implement the Anticipation Guide strategy – Anticipation Guide Directions – and a link to a page on Anticipation Guides from the very good and very Canadian (it’s out of Saskatchewan) Instructional Strategies Online website.

  • Lesson Design Components Jigsaw (Input / Information & Check for Understanding)

I organized a Jigsaw as a means to process the content information related to the 7 components of Lesson Design.  You started in a home (or base) group, moved to an expert group to discuss one portion of the material, and then returned to home group to share your findings.  To aid info gathering process, I provided you with a graphic organizer designed around the organization of the reading from Bennett and Rolheiser’s Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Ingegration. Here’s the chart:

After returning to home groups, each group member taught the others what they had learned.  In the end, all group members should know all of the content.  I tested this using a version of the Numbered Heads Together strategy to check for understanding.  NHT is a powerful strategy for building knowledge and randomizing participation.  The PDF below has details on how to use NHT in your classroom:

  • Lesson Plan Analysis (Modelling)

In an effort to model the LD process, I took a moment to break down my lesson plan into its component parts.  I aimed to include all 7 compoenents but, at this point had only done 5.  See the headings above for the breakdown.

  • This Is Where the Magic Happens (Practice)

With a nod to the wonderfully funny animated film Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs, I introduced the magic tricks that would provide the content for the lesson’s guided practice piece.  Here’s the trailer for this little gem that was one of my favourite films of 2009:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP9wtdwgeok&feature=&p=CE0999AA7FAD93C5&index=0&playnext=1[/youtube]

The goal was to work with a partner to learn one magic trick, either Cups and Balls or Spell-a-Card. In the end, you will work together to create a lesson using the 7 components of Lesson Design to teach your magic trick to a partnership that learned a different trick.  It was a bit confusing at first – my bad! – but, eventually, we got things sorted.

We’ll pick up the lesson planning piece in next Monday’s session.  Don’t worry, you’ll have time to review the tricks on the DVD and practice before you have to perform it for your audience.

Cheers,

– Lawrence