Title: Form versus function
Performance Task I- Designing a structure
The lesson plans will be broken down further into significant tasks and written with the student in mind. The different curricular standards targeted through these tasks are listed in the Appendix and the descriptions give the student a clear understanding of what they are expected to do, how they have to do it, and how they are going to be assessed. The students will receive copies of the assessment by which they will evaluate their own work.
I don't assume that the students have had much experience with performance tasks learning. Therefore, it is important to model the first few lessons as a class. This will ensure students' success in completing the different steps expected of them. The performance tasks are to be given to the students prior to the beginning of the task. It is the road map that the student, will use to be able to perform what we are asking them to do. As part of the process the students will also be able to preview the assessment tool by which they will be evaluated.
Background: There are many structures around us in our neighborhood that provide us with spaces and that allow us to use them for a purpose.
Task: You will work with your group in creating a structure with at least three different spaces. You have to begin by making a drawing (blueprint) and then creating the structure with any material you choose.
Procedure: Begin by brainstorming with the aid of an organizer the type of structure that you would like to build.
Use the charts and blueprints created in previous lessons to get ideas of the different organizers and of structures, elements, and functions.
Taking turns with your classmates, begin the brainstorm process writing one structure you think your team should build. Go three times around taking turns and each person writing what structures to build.
Before you move on to the next classmate, the student's whose turn it is, will tell to the rest of the team the type of structure they want to build:
· "I think that our team's structure should be a …"
When everyone is done, take your journal; write the title of the lesson "Designing a Structure" and today's date.
Individually write the sentence of the structure you want to build.
Next, discuss with your group which of those structures your team will build. Once you reach consensus, write the following sentence in your journal:
-
· "After discussing with my team members what structure to build, we decided to build a…"
Repeat the same steps to brainstorm three spaces that the structure should include. Here there are some sentence starters to be added to your journal entry.
-
· "I think that our structure should have …"
-
· "We decided that our team's structure should include…"
Finally, using some of the sample blueprints, individually draw the structure with the three spaces that you agreed upon.
Audience: Classmates and teacher
Assessment: Please see Appendix - Performance Task Designing a Structure
Extension: This lesson can be repeated as an integrated lesson, looking at materials, specific elements, or functions. Students will build the structure using any materials they choose. Additionally, they can revisit the brainstorming organizer and each student can sketch or draw their suggestions of structures to build.
Home-School Connection: Students make a blueprint of a part of their house. i.e. bedroom, kitchen, living room, house, apartment, and list the materials that they can observe that are part of the building construction.
Integrated Lesson
Title: Function versus form
There are many structures in our communities that are significant either because of the functions they serve, their design, or both. These buildings and structures are part of the cultural heritage of the community and give a place a sense of history and of character.
Students in groups will create organizers with as many structures as they can think that are unique and part of their community. They will proceed by labeling each of the structures and name the function they serve.
First, we will begin with a shared reading of
Roberto: The Insect Architect
by Laden (2000). We will discuss the different type of buildings that Roberto builds and how the form is related to the function that each of the animals perform in their lives. We will try to figure out why does Roberto become an architect and how does the form relates to the function. Next, we will read the following key concepts and look for examples in our community and the cultures represented in the classroom.
-
· A society cannot maintain economic growth and subsist without functional structures
-
· There are many types of structures according to their intended purpose and design
-
· Weather and environment play a direct role in the type of structures built in a location
Next, students will learn and be able to see, through colorful illustrations, detailed cross-sections of a city, from the Stone Age to the XXth century through shared reading of
A Slice Through A City
(Kent, 1996).
This will be followed by an activity where each group of students selects one of the structures, labels the functions or purpose it serves, and then modifies the building to show what it would look in two hundred years from now and what it might have looked like two hundred years ago.
Second language development
Title: From blueprint to three dimensions
Having performed some fieldwork around the neighborhood and the community, studied the functions of buildings, and some of the elements; now students will embark into the creation of three-dimensional structures to represent their two-dimensional designs.
As always we want to begin with a shared reading experience. For this purpose, the picture book
How a House is Built
(Gibbons, 1990) depicts how to build a house and provides the class with important vocabulary of the many types of workers needed, from surveyors to plumbers. Even more technical and detailed is the must share read
Underground
book by Macaulay (1976). This classic book looks at the buildings underground in a city intersection and explains through pictures the structural underpinnings of skyscrapers and other large building structures. As a class we will create a list of all the workers needed in the construction of a structure and what is needed before we start to build. That is: who is needed and what has to happen from the design to the completion of the structure.
The following key concepts will be the overarching underpinnings of the lessons.
· All buildings have a structural system (constructed elements which give strength, stability, and definition to the form they enclose)
· All objects have a structure which give the object form and strength and equilibrium
· Pushes and pulls (forces and moments) in a structure have a direct relationship to equilibrium
Next, we will talk about how we can gather data by making observations using our senses in the neighborhood walks. As described earlier in the introduction, this will be one of the most important lessons in as much as it will lay down the process and procedures to follow when doing observations. The emphasis will be on gathering data using the senses, how to enter a journal entry, and on presenting the findings to the group and the class.
Performance Task II-Gathering data from neighborhood walks
Background: Every community has buildings and structures that are representative. A community is a group of people who share a geographic location under a local government. Some examples are schools, post-offices, temples, churches, or residencies. Within each structure there are many elements integrated and represented.
Task: You will collect data from around the neighborhood looking at the buildings and make notes and sketches of the functions the buildings serve and how are alike and different from each other.
Purpose: To gather systematic data of everything you observe in the community and to begin discovering the interconnections between structures, functions, and forms.
Procedure: Take your journal and write today's date.
In the next line write the street and the number of the building you are observing.
Next, write the time of the day that you are making the observation.
After, draw all the structures you can observe.
Label all the structures and elements you can name.
Use the rubric
Gathering Neighborhood Data
to assess your work.
Audience: Classmates and teacher
Assessment: See Appendix - Performance Task Gathering Neighborhood Data
Extension: The same activity will be repeated with the sense of hearing, and smell. The students then can gather data by using all the senses at once to create a chart.
Home-School Connection: Students observe their block or other part of the neighborhood and make a list of those structures and elements that they can name.
And then there were more
The following lessons will share the same structure as the previous ones and are listed as extensions here. All of them will begin with a book from the teacher or student bibliography, followed by some of the key concepts listed above. We will then discuss what we learned in the previous lessons and relate what we are about to learn, to our lives. Consequently, the other standards listed in this unit will be targeted during the implementation of these activities.
Language arts: Students will create their own settings for any of the stories read during read-aloud or shared readings. For example, the students will re-write the story of the
Three Little Pigs
in a different country or place. They will also add more descriptive words based on the word sorts and word walls generated during the community walk-through.
Art: Create an imaginary structure to be built in space or in any given environment (i.e. underwater, sea, North Pole, etc.) Choose the materials that would be needed to withstand the environmental factors for each of the settings.
Science: Students will create structures able to withstand weights and forces that are greater or equal to a given amount. Students will look at how materials affect the stability of a building and begin to make connections between environment and how natural resources are used in building structures. Also, will look at how animals use colors and patterns to hide from predators.
Social Studies: Students will look at traditional structures of the nations and peoples represented in the classroom. Students will answer questions related to typical and common building materials, elements, and structures that are representative of those cultures, i.e. "How are doors and windows alike and different?" "What are the most important building materials of each structure?" " How does environment affect building styles and construction?"
Mathematics: There are many mathematical concepts and principles related to numbers, shapes and quantities that can be applied throughout the unit. For example, students can collect data and graph the number of windows and doors per floor or per building, that can be seen from outside versus inside the school.
The field of architecture requires the understanding of signs and symbols necessary to create and read a blueprint. Students will learn some of the basic symbols for the different types of doors (double, sliding, pocket, interior, etc.), windows, walls, etc.; and simple elements of algebra, calculus, and geometry applied in the construction of simple structures. Students will be involved in estimating and measuring the perimeter and area of different rooms around the school, and creating structures using given scales based on a blueprint.
From the school's backyard to the students' front door
Once the students have made multiple observations and entries in their journals and created some simple structures of their own, students will begin to map some of the building structures they come into contact and see as they go back and forth from home to school. As a result the students will begin to apply the concepts and ideas here presented to other areas of their lives.
The Fair Haven community in New Haven is lucky to have an incredible wealth of historical sites and structures that have survived the passing of time. Students can research some of these sites and comparisons made among the structures. Thus, houses around the Quinnipiac River, part of a once well known oyster culture, can be compared to houses around the main artery to downtown New Haven, Grand Avenue.
Additionally, students can continue exploring how the design of spaces and the environment around, which they are built, are often complementary of each other.
