Cameron Calland-Jones

Expanded Ticket in the Door #3

Course: TAG Identification and Assessment of the Gifted Learner

On April 11, 2017, I implemented my Decision-Making strategy lesson plan

with my 2nd grade class in Social Studies, as a part of a Project-Based Learning unit
on Personal Finance. This lesson included cross curricular standards in social
studies, math and writing. The students were charged with the task of researching
five Atlanta family attractions and using the decision-making strategy to decide on
the best attraction for their family. Students had to research the attractions to
create and answer criteria questions. Once decided, students created a pitch to
persuade their parents to visit the attraction.

Review: This lesson was taught at the end of the day in our social studies
block. I had 21 students. Two are currently serviced in the TAG program, 1 girl and
1 boy. There were 12 girls and 9 boys who participated. Of the 21 students, 1 girl
has an IEP in Reading/ELA for visual processing difficulties, and 4 boys and 1 girl
have a 504 plan for attention issues. This lesson served as the to personal finance
where students will identify goods and services, explore spending and saving
choices, and budget money. The math skills review involves calculating costs and
expenditures. The writing standards cover a review of persuasive letters.

My students were extremely excited about the hook activity that involved
helping me to decide on a new class pet for next year. Modeling how to complete a
comparative decision making matrix proved to be a bit of a challenge, at first, with
my 2nd graders. The major issue was coming up with criteria questions that could
only be answered by yes/no. This struck me as odd because my students usually
have difficulty answering open-ended questions, but are pros at answering yes/no
questions. The other concept that was a challenge was understanding what it meant
to justify. I had a student who made the connection that it was like completing a
CLOSE read where you must go back to the passage to prove where your answer
came from. Its wonderful to know someone is listening .

The students once again showed excitement when I shared that we were
beginning another PBL. This was the 3rd PBL we have completed this year. There
was some struggle with understanding what was meant by the EQ: What choices
have you made that were based on what was available? My students had difficulty
with the concept of availability. I felt as if I was doing too much talking and
explaining until one student gave an example about not being able to wear her
favorite shirt because it was in the laundry room. She said she had to find
something else to wear instead because it was not available. Another student told
her she could wear it anyways!

Reflect: Over all, the lesson went better than I expected, but took longer.
It was very helpful that we completed the class pet matrix together. I posted it on
our PBL wall in my classroom and I saw students going over to take a closer look at
it for reminders. After a while, my students did figure out how to create yes/no
questions for their criteria. It helped that they worked in groups because I could
hear them asking a peer if their questions were correct. One trend a noticed with a
few students is that they began coming up with criteria questions that only applied
to the one family attraction they wanted to attendclever. They were forming
questions that would always be a yes for a specific attraction. I had a few others
who thought about the likes/dislikes of family members and if everyone would have
fun attending. At the end of day 3, I asked my students if they enjoyed designing
a decision-making matrix. We went around the circle and before I could sit, my
students all said it was a thumbs up!

Refine: I enjoyed watching my students think so critically about why they

are making the choices they make. Teaching my students how to create criteria
questions can lend itself to topics across the curriculum. The key thing I would
change in teaching this lesson again is extending it to 4-5 days for the matrix
completion. The product portion of the lesson needs an additional 5 days, also. I
need to be sure that a variety of technology is available. All my students wanted to
get on the internet to research the family attractions. Many students had never
navigated a website that was not kid friendly. The drop-downs and multi-tabs were
a challenge for most. It might help to enlist parent volunteers and secure a class
set of laptops, instead of the 5 desk tops and 3 iPads in my classroom. I did not get
to preview all the vocabulary for personal finance before I started the lesson. I
found using examples from their research made the comprehension more
meaningful because it was based on real-world experiences they could personally
relate to.