The lesson plan we chose is titled “Integrating Health and Language Arts.” The lesson is designed for two 30-minute periods in a first or second-grade classroom. The specific concepts taught in the lesson are long vowel sounds and the food guide pyramid. The first main activity involves the students learning the song “I Like to Eat, Eat, Eat, Apples and Bananas;” the second involves groups of students finding pictures of foods with a specified long vowel sound; the third activity is a modified form of musical chairs, in which the students must identify both the food-group and vowel sounds in a given food item. Overall, we feel that this lesson plan is effective and successful in implementing many of the concepts we have learned thus far.

The main focus in the entire lesson, as suggested in the title, is to integrate two separate concepts, thus forming associations and helping students to elaborately rehearse. For example, in the song, both the concept of healthy foods as well as the five vowel sounds are utilized. By implementing both concepts, students will form connections between the information, thus giving more meaning and relevance to each idea. This method is more effective than simply having students repeat a concept, because it creates multiple, applicable associations. In other words, the more relevant associations that are attached to an idea means that the student will have more pathways to recall that information.

Furthermore on elaborative learning, the fact that a song is used additionally promotes meaning by creating different types of associations in the brain. Music, for one reason or another, enables us to recall information more easily. In a similar way, the food pyramid bulletin board will help students to better understand the overall concept. By physically organizing the images of food, students will be better able to spatially visualize the food pyramid.

The food pyramid bulletin board also functions as a way to provide positive reinforcement to the students. Each student, after writing down the correct vowel sound, individually goes in front of the class and places their food image on the bulletin board in the proper section. This enables the students to illustrate their own competence of the task in front of their peers. The feedback and recognition of their classmates functions as positive reinforcement. This helps students to increase their self-efficacy at the task. Students who are struggling with the concept could potentially be embarrassed by their shortcomings, but the instructor and classmates can alleviate this problem by helping these students through the task. With their peer's recognition, students will be more confident at this concept and future tasks.

While the bulletin board provides intrinsic motivation as a positive reinforcement, the lesson plan also includes extrinsic motivation through a more physical reward. The group of students which collect and identifies the most correct pictures will be positively reinforced with extra time on computers later in the day. This is considered positive reinforcement because the extra time is something the students want that will be given to them to increase their effectiveness at the task. While this is more extrinsic (than the peer recognition at the bulletin board) it operates in a similar way to increasing student's desire to succeed.

Another way that this lesson plan incorporates motivation is through relatedness. Self-determination Theory states that relatedness, or interactions with others, is one of the three variable for promoting intrinsic motivation. There are multiple times during the lesson where students are working together, as a class or in small groups which consequently motivates them to participate and succeed. Working in cooperative groups serves to improve learning in other ways, as well. For instance, while finding and cutting out the food images, each student is assigned a personal responsibility within the group. Social construction not only motivates students to participate, but additionally creates a more meaningful and therefore more memorable experience. One way the lesson plan insures that students are collaborating is by requiring that they ask all group members a question before asking the teacher. Extra help is available, but students are asked to collaborate first.

Beyond collaboration, groups also allow for peer modeling. The lesson plan explicitly states that the groups should be “heterogeneous in skill.” This means that every group should be evenly split by aptitude at the given task; one group will not be significantly more able than another. In groups which are evenly divided, the more capable students will provide a coping model for those students who have less self-efficacy for the task. If the groups were not divided evenly by aptitude, group dynamics would not allow for effective peer modeling. If all of the more capable students were in one group, the other groups would miss out on these models and have lowered self-efficacy.

Apart from students modeling, the lesson plan also implements teacher modeling. The teacher in the lesson demonstrates both how to find the food images as well as the musical chairs activity. By demonstrating a correct way to complete the activities the students will be able to imitate the behavior. Since the teacher is talking through the examples as well as completing the activity, s/he will provide multiple ways for the students to absorb the material. The teacher could be considered a mastery model, but since the students are already at a working level and have multiple coping examples, the teacher should not lower their self-efficacy.

As well as modeling during the song, the teacher also allows the students to use inductive reasoning. While the teacher is modeling the song, s/he provides the line for the song prior to giving the rule. For instance, the the teacher will sing “I like to ite, ite, ite ipples and bininies,” and then ask the students to identify which vowel was used in that instance. In short, the students must induce the defining attributes of each line. By doing this, the activity becomes a personal and engaging process, students create their own meaning and more easily recall the concept.

Although s/he chose to use an inductive method, the teacher could have easily used a deductive method with the same song activity. Using a deductive method, the teacher could have given the students the first verse (using correct vowels), then given them the next vowel sound (the rule) and ask them to create the next verse (the example). Although it may have been easier to use a deductive method, the inductive model is more effective because it allows students to create rules in their own words (construct personal meaning). Consequently, we feel as though this aspect of the lesson plan was the more effective choice.

This lesson plan incorporates many of the concepts we have learned in class. It effectively utilizes concepts such as modeling, social construction, elaboration, and positive reinforcement. The design of the plan is consistent with research on human development and learning. Overall, we feel that this lesson plan is effective in conveying the concepts.

Lesson Plan: http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1219.html