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Name: Josh Mathews

Date: 11/16/17
Title of Lesson Plan: Coded Messages with Sound
Model of Instruction: Direct Instruction
(Teacher centered: presentation, direct instruction, concept; Student centered: cooperative, discussion, problem -based)

OVERVIEW
Subject Science
Grade Level 1
Topic Sound and Communication
Brief Overview Students will use a device made out of cup and string and decode secret
and Explanation messages that use sound.
PLANNING
Objectives Students will recall that sound can travel through string and cups and will make
deductions between two different five cup listening devices to which one design
will make sound travel the farthest, afterwards, students will count how many
taps are made on a sound device and decode two hidden messages. Commented [GD1]: Make sure to write objectives in the
Assessment Diagnostic: Students will recall that sound can travel and what happens to sound correct format. This sentence is rather long and I would
Pre / Diagnostic when you connect a string to two cups and listen to one end of the cups. recommend breaking it up into more than one long sentence.
Formative It would be very difficult to classify this under one level of
(informal and/or formal)
Formative (formal) students will listen to a five cup ( two different models) Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Summative / Post listening device and use a decoder key worksheet and work together as a group
to write down on the worksheet the hidden message. Students will concur which
listening device made trave sound farther, the device with five strings attached to
the cup, or the device with four strings attached to the middle of one string.

Grading: Students will get a participation grade from their teacher by

participating in the activity. She will grade students based off of if they
cooperated with me throughout the activity and didn’t play around but followed
instructions. Finally, students will demonstrate that they did the activity correctly
by making their predictions on side 1 of the worksheet and then filling out,
correctly, the two hidden messages on side 2 of the worksheet. Students will be
graded on rather or not they completed side 1 and 2 of the worksheet. Commented [GD2]: Excellent Josh! It sounds as if you
Curriculum 1-PS4-4. Use tools and materials to design and build a device that uses light or and your teacher really collaborated here to make a
sound to solve the problem of communicating over a distance. meaningful lesson assessment.
Standards
Teacher Two different listening devices made from cups and string.
Materials Student Worksheets Commented [GD3]: Try to always label the student
Student Science Journals (to refer to notes) worksheets so that they are easily obtained if a sub were to
teach this lesson.
Materials Pencils
Teacher N.A.
Technology
Student N.A.
Technology

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Academic Music/Sound: Students needs to listen to sounds/taps made to decode two

Adaptations
*Differentiated Instruction
*Culturally Responsive
*ESL needs
*Meet the needs of ALL
messages.
Intra Personal: Students will sit in groups together and work together by listening
to a communication sound device to un-code messages.
Logic: Students will predict which device will carry sound the farthest and
students will count how many times sound travels through a device to decode
hidden messages.
Linguistic: Students will use vocabulary from ELA to read a decoder key and un-
code the message using those vocabulary terms.

If students have problems sounding out terms uncoded from the code key, I will
sound out the word with the whole group and have them blend the sounds
together orally for those students with reading needs.

Throughout the lesson, students will be able to hold something in their hand,
rather that be a pencil for writing down observations and data, or the cup by
holding it up to their ear to listen.

Students will be be in mixed device groups diverse by, ethnicity, gender, socio-
economic, and meets intelligence and high and low intelligence. If students are
struggling with following along with the taps, they can either turn to their partner
next to them to help them count correctly on their graph, or they can turn to the
teacher who can assist them in counting correctly and finding the right word.

Integration Reading/Vocabulary: vocabulary terms from their unit Commented [GD4]: What are these terms? Make sure to
(across and/or within) History : How tap codes were used by prisoners of war list them here😊
Math: Counting different taps and keeping track of those taps by examining a
graph.
Science: Vibrations Commented [GD5]: There are many opportunities for
Vocabulary and Communication. Code. Decode. Key. integration in this lesson.
Key Concepts ELA terms: Lend, Send, Fast, Past, Sink, Wink, Who, Of, Eat, No, Under.
Science Terms: Sound, Vibrations, Predict, Observe
Lesson Specific Terms: Code, Message, Communication, Decode, Key, Travels,
POW’s, Vietnam War. Tap Code. Commented [GD6]: This lesson is very rich in
Reading Students will be using a decoder key that is made up of all their vocabulary words vocabulary!
*Text used from their reading unit that week as well as all of the science vocabulary terms
*Strategy used
that have been learning in the sound unit. This lesson immerses students into
vocabulary terms they have been learning in two different content areas and is a
reinforcer for what those terms are and so that they can have more exposure to
those terms and see the relationships between vocabulary terms in ELA and
vocabulary terms in Science.

In the first message students will be introduced to a new vocabulary term that is
grade two vocabulary level, Travels.
Writing Students will build sentences from their content vocabulary in ELA and from
*Strategy used their content vocabulary in science together to form and uncover two hidden
messages.

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Difficulties One device will make sound travel the farthest, i.e., be louder than the other.
In Content Therefore there is a chance that during the experiment time, some students may
not be able to hear taps that distinctly in their cups. I will tell them that most
likely if they can not hear anything than that means that sound is not traveling
that far in that device and that they will have to see if the second device will
make sound travel farther and be more loud.

Some students may not have counted correctly the first time when I tapped out
the first word, Sound. Therefore, I will ask them through the telephone if they
need me to tap it again and I will tap it out again one to two more times to see if
they can hear it or not. If not, then I will have them work with their partner next
to them and have their partner help them count the taps and find it on the key.

Some students may not know the word Travels, even though it is a word in the
first secret message. I will tell them that even if they do not know what the word
is, they can still look at the key and spell it and write it on their worksheet and
then when they are done, I will come over and sound out the word with the
whole group so that they can see that the first message is, Sound Travels.
Difficulties in Some students may want to play around with the cups, especially when I go into
Management the hallway to do the secret message. The host teacher or a para will be sitting at
the table with the students to make sure that they are not playing around with the
cups and to be sure that the cups are at their ears ready to hear the first tapped
message.

INSTRUCTION
Outline
(include all phases of
instruction here, beginning
with clarify aims and
establish set)
Once students see that you can communicate messages by making taps, this may
make a lot of students eager to form their own messages. I will tell the students
that for the lesson I am the one who is to be doing the tapping on the cups, not
them, otherwise that will ruin the communication. If they are good, though, and
they haven’t played around with the cups or made extra taps when they weren’t
supposed to, then at the end of the lesson I can let some students send messages
to each other through making taps on the phone cups. Commented [GD7]: This would be a really fun activity to
allow students to do that finish work early in other content
areas😊 I love this idea! They will be excited😊
*A note on how science is conducted in the classroom. Science is only about 20
minutes a day and students are still finishing math when science begins.
Therefore, the teacher takes groups of five or six students to a back section of the
classroom, the science area, and as a group, those students do the science activity
while other groups are still finishing math. Each group normally gets about 10
minutes to do the activity, therefore, each science activity is spread out over two
days, as there are about 20 students in the classroom. Therefore, this lesson will
be more like centers, were I will conduct the experiment with 5 students at a time
for about 10 to 15 minutes per group spread out over two days. Therefore, the
time for each group will be about 10 to 15 minutes and the time to complete the
entire lesson, four groups, will take about 50-60 minutes spread out over two
days. Commented [GD8]: Thank you for explaining this Josh!
This is important for me to know as I read your lesson plan.
Provide Instructions/Establish Set (1 minute)
One group will put away their Math laptops and come over to the science table in

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the back of the room with their science journals and a pencil. I will have students
flip to the page in their journals were they wrote observations and predictions
about sound and cups. Students will recall that if you attach a string to two
styrofoam cups, sound will travel through that string to the other end of the cup. I
will then show the group two different sound devices were five cups are attached
to one styrofoam cup by five strings. One device will have all five strings
coming out of the cup, the other device will only have one string connecting to
the cup and four strings attached to that string. I will then hand the students the
worksheet for today's activity and have them check a box on the worksheet
which device will make sound travel the farthest. Commented [GD9]: Teaching students to make
predictions is so vital. Remember when we you write lesson
plans to write them as you are talking to your students😊
Conduct Demonstrations
Once students have made their predictions and verbalized as a group why they
think one cup will make sound travel better than the other, then I will I provide
each student with a receiver cup from device number 1, I will stay at the table,
but I will tap into the cup under the table and ask them how many taps did they
hear? Then I will take device 1 away and provide them with receivers from
device number 2 and conduct the same demonstration, tap into the cup under the
table and ask them how many taps did they hear? After students have listened to
me tapping on both sound devices, I will then ask them deduce which device Commented [GD10]: ?
made the sound travel the farthest, i.e. which one was the loudest. Once students
have deduced the correct device, they will then go back to their data worksheet
and check the box that shows which device works better. Then I will review why
that device worked better than the other one. Commented [GD11]: Remember during the
demonstration phase to have no student participation. You
Guided Practice are just showing students how to perform the task.
I will then move on to talk about how we can talk into the cup and hear the other
person on the other side because sound travels. But I will tell them to recall that I
didn’t speak into the cup, I only tapped into it. Then I will ask them if they think
that tapping sounds is communication, or is only talking communication? Then I
will ask them how could tapping sound be communication, how could we
understand what someone was trying to say? Then I will ask students if they
know what a code is? I will then ask students if they think we could listen to
taps, and decode the taps by using a decoder key, if they think we can uncover a
special hidden message?

Here I will show the decoding key on their data worksheet. It is a key made up
words from their vocabulary unit. It is based similarly off of the tap key code
system used by POW’s during the Vietnam War. I will then demonstrate that if I
tap three times and then I tap two times and if I use the key I will come to the
word Hello. I will then practice again by tapping again on my cup and them
listening to their cups and using the code key to find what word did I just tap out.
Check for understanding
Once students have mastered the technique, I will then go to the hallway with my
cup and they stay at the table. I will then ask them if they are ready for the secret
Commented [GD12]: Make sure to briefly talk about this
during the lesson if you are wanting to count it as
integration.
Commented [GD13]: Nice job practicing this with
students a few times before allowing them to complete the
task on their own.

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message, once they are ready and have all of their cups to their ears, I will then
tap out the message “Sound Travels”. I will then ask in the sound device if they
need me to repeat the code? Once they think they have it, I will ask them to write
down their answer on the worksheet and I will come back to the table to see if
they have uncoded my message correctly.

Extended Practice
Once they have correctly decoded my message, I will then go back to the
hallway and tap a harder message. Once they have decoded that message I will
then show them that there are many different ways to create coded messages by
using sound. I will show them the POW tap code made by prisoners of the
vietnam war and show that they made codes by making letters. I will then ask
them is there any other way that we could make codes by using sound? Commented [GD14]: Excellent! I like that you are having
students complete one independently to determine if they
If there is time, next week's unit is on light, therefore to set up for this, I may ask understand the concept.
students what are other ways to communicate other than by tapping or speaking?
Then I will lead students to think about other ways we could make codes without
making sound, like by flashing a light, for example.
Closure Once they made their final comments about how sound travels and how one
communicate through making sound or taps, then will have them take their
worksheet and their science journal back to their table and ask for the next group
to come over and redo the same experiment with the next group. Commented [GD15]: Your closure should include you
Assignment There is no content homework, but students are encouraged at the end of the summarizing the key points and then previewing coming
*This must align to your lesson to think of ways on how to create coded messages by using sound and in lessons. I see that you have some of this above but I
objective(s) recommend dropping it down. When you write your lesson
the work sheet I give them the Tap Code created by POW’s which they can take plans as you are speaking to the students it makes this
home and try to make messages to their parents or other friends or family section easier😊
members.
Commented [GD16]: Great job! I like how you are
providing an opportunity to involve families in the learning
process of this lesson! Students will be excited to show them
what they have learned and complete some of this together.

Blank Worksheet
Name:

Tap Code Data Worksheet

Part 1: Observe and Predict

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Step 1: Observe
Step 2: Prediction:
I predict that Device_________ will make sound travel the farthest.
Device A Device B
Step 3: Gatherer Material and run Experiment.
Step 4: Collect and Record DATA:
Based off of the data collected, Device __________ traveled the farthest.
Device A Device B

Tap Code Used by POW’s (Prisoners of War) in Vietnam War

Decoder Key

1 2 3 4 5

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1 Lend Send Sound Fast Past

2 Sink Wink Who Of Eat
3 No Hello Code Tap Predict
4 Uncode Message Communication Travels Secret
5 Observe Vibrations Key Can Under

Hidden Message #1

_________________________ ______________________________

Hidden Message #2

_____________ _____________

______________ _______________?

Filled Out Worksheet

Name:

Tap Code Data Worksheet

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Part 1: Observe and Predict

Step 1: Observe
Step 2: Prediction:
I predict that Device____A_____ will make sound travel the farthest.
X Device B
Step 3: Gatherer Material and run Experiment.
Step 4: Collect and Record DATA:
Based off of the data collected, Device ____A_____ traveled the farthest.
X Device B

Tap Code Used by POW’s (Prisoners of War) in Vietnam War

Decoder Key

1 2 3 4 5
1 Lend Send Sound Fast Past

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2 Sink Wink Who Of Eat

3 No Hello Code Tap Predict
4 Uncode Message Communication Travels Secret
5 Observe Vibrations Key Can Under

Hidden Message #1
Sound Travels
_________________________ ______________________________

Hidden Message #2
Who Can
__________________ _____________________
Wink Fast
__________________ _____________________ ?

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