Technology & Pedagogy

          By analyzing the lesson plan, I realize that teaching strategies and technologies used in the classroom have to directly support students' learning. I choose the lesson plan, "Adding it all up" because it aligns with the Common Core State Standards and NJCCCS, incorporates technology into the lesson and has clear learning objectives and goals. There are no gap between the curriculum goals, standards and teaching strategies. The lesson uses different teaching strategies such as class discussion, group works, and lecture to address the learning objectives and goals. The curriculum goals are perfectly aligned with the state standards as well. For example, having students to come up with the sum of the interior angles of a polygon formula (sum=180(n-2)) on their own addresses one of the Common Core Practice standards, "reason abstractly and quantitatively." Students first have to draw different polygons, use actual numbers to calculate the number of triangles that can be drawn in each polygon and the sum of its interior angles, and use that information to make conjecture about the sum of the interior angles of the polygon with n number of sides. Students reason quantitatively first and then use what they observe to reason the same problem abstractly. The Angle Sum tool aligns with the lesson because students are able to draw different polygons with different angle measures using technology and see what happen to the angles and angle sum. Drawing polygons with different angle measures by hand can be much more challenging than the actual task itself. Therefore, the Angle Sum tool is in perfect alignment with the technology standard in the NJCCCS and absolutely essential to achieve the curriculum goal. It supports the learning objective by letting students to explore the topic first, and then use what they have come up with using the Angle Sum tool to form a conjecture about what they think is true about polygons with different number of sides and angle measures. The lesson requires students to use inductive reasoning, and the Angle Sum tool clearly supports that.
          Although the lesson plan is well-written in terms of its alignment with the standards, I would like to add something to the lesson plan if I am going to teach this lesson to my students. I would probably let students to share their answers at the end rather than go over the answer with them as a class. I want students to confirm each other's answers by either defending their own answers or refuting other people's answers. In order to do that, students will have to show a deep understanding of the lesson. Therefore, I believe that the addition is necessary and will definitely help to improve this lesson plan.

Spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AsoaTIT87eE1dG1WM2RzVTZrZk9xMmE4M25EdUFRVUE&usp=sharing