Lesson Plan for
Focus:
To introduce the Habit of
the Mind to students, to have students think of questions that will help them
to guess what is inside a mystery box.
Process:
1. Introduce the Habit of the
Mind, Questioning, to the students. Tell them it is
the focus for February.
2
Show the mystery box to the students. Tell them that there is something
inside. Ask: What do you want to know about what is inside this box?
(fill
this in under the W of a KWL chart.)
How could we find out about
what is inside this box without
opening it?
Write suggestions on the
board. Try to illicite the response of listening, holding, shaking, etc.
3. Allow a few students to hold
the box. Let them listen to it, tilt it, shake it, feel the weight of it. Have
those students give feedback to the class. Write this feedback on a KWL chart
under the K.
4. Ask for other questions and
methods for discovery. Act on the reasonable responses.
5. Open the box and fill in the
L part of the chart. Write more than answer to what is inside. Write about what
they learned through the process. Help them to discover how their questions led
them to new discoveries.
As a continuation of this acitivity:
1. Have a traveling mystery
box. Each child gets a chance to take home the mystery box (a lunchbox works
well) and put something inside it. They can write 3 clues on a card. The next
day students in the class ask questions in order to figure out what is in the
box. If they are having trouble student in charge may give a clue. Limit
questions to yes or no and set a number so students have to refine questions in
order to get the right answer. (10 – 20)
2. Give every student matching
mystery boxes on the same night and have them bring them the next day for
homework. Then pick a box each day and have the class go through the same
process as above to figure it out.
Some ideas
Think
aloud in your class to model for students the processes we use.
Focus on predictions
(questions) during reading and science.
Use a KWL at the beginning of
a unit.
Keep a hierarchy of questions
posted in your classroom as a reminder.