As a final project, we are required to create a lesson plan to implement new learning. My lesson plan will teach a group of fifth graders about chatbots and then they will create one. This will take place over five days and I will do my best to share what happens as I reflect after each lesson!
Day 1 - Chatbot Introduction
We welcomed students, handled house keeping information, and I introduced myself as a guest teacher. We started with a Stand and Talk. Students broke into small groups and we handed them a paper. Their directions were to look over the paper as a group and for the next three minutes they would need to start every sentence with the words:
I wonder...
I see...
This activity is one that I learned at the last CSTA MN meeting I went to.
Let me tell you actually how I came across it. In 2016 I attended the Code.org Computer Science Facilitators Summit in New Orleans. I met Kaitie O'Bryan at the summit. She is a fellow teacher in MN but she teaches at the high school level. We connected while at the summit and have stayed in touch over Twitter since then. Fast forward to fall of 2018. We were electing new officials for our CSTA chapter and both Kaitie and I are now in leadership roles. She is our President and I am the Vice President. At our meeting in November, we partnered with CodeSavvy. At the beginning of the meeting we participated in two activities that could be used in classrooms. One was on computational thinking that Andrea led. The other was a Stand and Talk that Kaitie shared. She had first learned about it through this math webinar.
As an elementary technology integrationist, with a interest in learning more about computer science and teaching it every chance possible, I typically find myself feeling intimidated. I feel like I won't know as much as other people in the room and unsure if I will be able to complete the task. Even though I know this feeling well, I keep putting myself into situations where I am able to take on the task.
I loved this activity!
As I work to teach my students a growth mindset and that there is a lot of value in learning by doing, it is hard for me to remember at times. This activity put everyone at a level playing field. We were all wondering and talking about what we saw.
Now, back to the lesson.
Here is a glimpse into the classroom.
This is what they had to look at and talk about as a group:
In the future I will incorporate more Stand and Talks into the beginning of lessons. While the videos above are only small clips of what happened in the classroom, I saw all students sharing what they saw and wondered, I heard them talking about the possibility of it being code and a conversation. I didn't enforce the "stand" part of the activity. This was at the beginning of class and I felt like it was okay for them to choose. If we had done this activity after they had been sitting for a while, I may have enforced the stand part of the activity.
Stay tuned for part two of the lesson when we get hands on with JavaScript and BitsBox!
