Lesson #3

For our third lesson, we did a concept attainment lesson on wants and needs. Concept attainment had worked really well with this class in the past and we thought it lent itself well to the ideas of "wants" and "needs" as well. However, at the very beginning of the lesson one of the little boys saw the two categories, and kept insisting on sharing them. We eventually realized that our plan was not going to work, and revised our teaching mid-lesson, so that we used the examples we had to help develop their ideas of wants and needs, discussing for instance why a winter coat is a need, or why shoes might be a want as well as a need. We talked about whether a television is a need ("I need a television so that I don't get bored!") and how if you only have one outfit, do you really need any more clothes? ("I can't wear the same thing to school every day, that's ugly!") I was proud of our flexibility and our ability to make use of the materials to develop the understandings further and in new ways for the children. Following the lesson we had them play a game that I borrowed from an activity we did recently in our social studies methods class. The children would be in groups and would have to go "shopping" for items which were on little cards. They would then have to glue what they bought on their worksheet and color in the amount of pennies it cost, and they were not supposed to spend more than ten pennies. They also had the option, at the side of the sheet, of choosing to color in any leftover pennies underneath their piggy bank. We quickly realized, however, that we should have realized that first graders need something more concrete than coloring pennies, because there was no way for them to know when to stop. When we did the activity of course, counting ten pennies was no problem for us, and so it was not a problem that had occurred to use beforehand. The activity was intended to get them to think about wants and needs, and also to start thinking about the idea of saving money, which we would address during the next lesson. However, without constraints, the concepts we wanted them to take away largely fell through I think. Next time, each child will have concrete pennies to glue down, and there will only be ten, so when they are out of money, they are out of money. That will be much more comprehensible to them. Because we had time, I also had them draw a picture of one thing they wanted and one thing they needed, and write a sentence about which one they should choose to buy if they had to choose between the two. I really like this as far as assessment; I think it tells the teacher exactly what they want to know, and in a way that is easy for the child to express. One thing I might do next time is provide them with a journal prompt for the back of their paper, so that they have something to look at. I think also when providing prompts, it might be nice to stop the class, write the prompt on the board while all are watching, and read it aloud, and then have them read it back to you. That way everyone can be clear on directions. Overall, however, I thought that this was one of our most effective assessments.