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Digital Readiness Unit Template Created By: Shelby Mallory and Cherry Ross

Topic: Breaking down a problem into sub-problems

Grade Level: 2nd

Digital Readiness Standards: 2.CCP.6 Define a problem or task, decompose it into smaller sub-problems.

Tennessee Academic Standards for Science Connection Disciplinary Core Idea(s): 2.ETS1.3 Recognize that to solve a problem, one may need to break the problem into parts, address each part, and then bring the parts back together.

Science & Engineering Practice(s): Planning and Carrying out controlled investigations

Cross Cutting Concept(s): Energy and Matter

ELA Standards: 2.RI.KID.2 Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within a text. Additional Standards (Social Studies, Art, Physical Education): Social Studies (2019 new Social Studies Standards): 2.29 Examine the significant contributions made by people of the U.S, including: Benjamin Franklin Lesson Summary: Students will define a problem or task and decompose it into subproblems in order to help them be persistent when facing a problem or challenge. Students will be using the engineering design process in order to decompose a larger problem in order to come up with a solution to the problem. Students will use this same process while determining the topic of a multi-paragraph text. Students will look through the lens of Benjamin Franklin’s accomplishment in order to see that real world inventors have to persevere through difficult tasks in order to prevail. In the end students be

Multi-Dimensional/Driving Question: How can we use strategies to persevere through problems and why is it important to preserve?

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efficient in decomposing problems into sub-problems and strategies effective for themselves in order to persevere.

Lesson Performance Expectations (Culminating Event) ● Construct and communicate an explanation to a friend about persevering through a problem. Imagine your friends is

working on a problem and feels like giving up. What advice would you give them to help them persevere? Why is it important to persevere?

Engage (Warm Up) Materials and Resources:

● Images of Architecture- Teacher Resource Folder (or print images of different structures) ● See Think Wonder (Adapted from: Making Thinking Visible by Karin Morrison, Mark Church, and Ron Ritchhart

Procedures:

● Print images, in color if possible, of different structures. Appendix A ● Students participate in a gallery walk using the See Think Wonder strategy.

The goal is for the students to generate questions, and thoughts on different architecture around the world. This is the “hook” into the coding and engineering.

Exploring: (Part 1 Engineering using the Digital Readiness Lesson) This lesson is from Code.Org (Course C: Lesson 1 Building a Foundation) Supplemental activities are listed in this lesson plan order to integrate with multiple disciplines. Standards: 2.CCP.6 Define a problem or task, decompose it into smaller sub-problems. Indirect Standard: 2.ETS1.3 Recognize that to solve a problem, one may need to break the problem into parts, address each part, and then bring the parts back together. Science & Engineering Practice(s): Planning and Carrying out controlled investigations Cross Cutting Concept(s): Energy and Matter Objective:

● Students will define a problem or task

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● Students will break it into smaller sub-problems ● Students will recognize when they become frustrated ● Students will come up with a list of productive responses to do when they are frustrated.

Materials and Resources:

● Course C: Lesson 1 Building a Foundation) lesson plan ● Engineering Problem- Teacher Resource Folder ● gumdrops and toothpicks ● text book or another book to test the designs ● Chart with the vocabulary words persistence, perseverance, and frustrated ● post it notes

Vocabulary: persistence, perseverance and frustrated Persistence: continuing firmly in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition Perseverance: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition Frustrated: feeling or expressing distress and annoyance, especially because of inability to change or achieve something. Teacher Notes: This lesson is modified from the original Course C lesson. The purpose of this lesson is for the students to experience a problem and what it feels like to become frustrated. Engineering is not the direct teaching point but is an indirect teaching point. Students need to know what frustration feels like in order to identify the feeling so they can use strategies or know how to break down the problem to persevere. Teacher Instruction:

● Present your students with the problem, (Engineering Problem-Teacher Resource Page) ● Show the students the materials they will have to solve the problem ● Show the students the book used to test the design. ● Give the students the problem (students can be in groups or work individually) ● Give the students 10-15 min. to work to solve the problem. The purpose of this lesson is to let the student feel

frustration and to feel what it is like to try and solve a problem without decomposing the problem into sub-problems or to have strategies to help you cope with the problem.

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● While students are working, walk around and ask the students prompting questions about how they are feeling. How are you feeling? Is this the best way to solve the problem? What are you thinking? Take notes of how the kids are asking and what they are saying.

● After 10-15 minutes, stop and tell the students it is time to test their design. ● Test the designs. ● Give the students time to reflect individually or as a group. Did your design succeed? Why did it fail? How could you

improve your design? How did you feel while working on your design? Was there a time you wanted to give up? Did you recognize when you became frustrated? What did you do when you were frustrated?

Whole Class Discussion: ● Bring the students back together and have a group discussion leading to the definition of persistence, perseverance

and frustrated based on their experiences. ● Discussion: Example Questions: How did you feel when you first heard the problem? How did you feel when testing

and designing? Was there a time when you wanted to quit? ● Ask the students: How can we use strategies to persevere through problems and why is it important to preserve?

(you may want to post this in the room for the following 2 lessons) ● Show the students the vocabulary words and the definitions of the words on chart paper. Discuss the definition of

the words, ● Have the students go back to their seats and write a connection to the words on the post it notes. (teacher can add to

the charts- purpose is for the students to make connections to the words) ● Students come back to the whole group discussion area and place their post its on the Vocabulary charts. ● Tell the students to look at the chart and notice the connections. Everyone gets frustrated. Everyone has experiences

with perseverance and persistence. We are going to work together to come up with strategies on what to do when you are presented with a problem and become frustrated. See the digital Readiness lesson Course C: Lesson 1 Building a Foundation) under teaching tips.

● Discuss how when we are faced with large problems… How to break apart a problem. ● Computer programmers have to break smaller problems into subproblems. They have to work step by step in order

to create programs. Engineers face large problems and they have to break it down into subproblems.

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● One way they do this is breaking down the problem and then using the engineering design process. Show them the engineering design process form.

● Discuss how they are going to use the design process to help them decompose the problem in order to help them persevere.

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Explaining (Part 2 Engineering using the Digital Readiness Lesson) This lesson is from Code.Org (Course C: Lesson 1 Building a Foundation) Supplemental activities are listed in this lesson plan order to integrate with multiple disciplines. Standards: 2.CCP.6 Define a problem or task, decompose it into smaller sub-problems. Indirect Standard: 2.ETS1.3 Recognize that to solve a problem, one may need to break the problem into parts, address each part, and then bring the parts back together. Science & Engineering Practice(s): Planning and Carrying out controlled investigations Cross Cutting Concept(s): Energy and Matter Objective:

● Students will define a problem or task ● Students will break it into smaller sub-problems ● Students will recognize when they become frustrated ● Students will use the list of productive responses they came up with to use when they are frustrated.

Materials and Resources:

● Course C: Lesson 1 Building a Foundation) lesson plan ● Engineering Problem-Teacher Resource Folder ● gumdrops and toothpicks ● text book or another book to test the designs ● Chart with the vocabulary words persistence, perseverance, and frustrated ● Perseverance strategies/chart from previous lesson ● Engineering Design Page-Teacher Resource Folder

Vocabulary: persistence, perseverance and frustrated Persistence: continuing firmly in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition Perseverance: continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition Frustrated: feeling or expressing distress and annoyance, especially because of inability to change or achieve something.

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Teacher Instruction: ● Review previous lesson and vocabulary. Review how the students felt yesterday while working on the problem

without strategies and without decomposing the problem first. Review what students can do when they are frustrated when working through the problem. Review real world jobs that involve breaking down large problems into smaller problems. Review the engineering design form.

● Give the students the problem again. ● Break down the problem with the students. ● Show the students the engineering design form and discuss the form for the purpose of breaking decomposing the

problem into smaller parts. ● Have the students break off into groups or independently. ● Walk the students through each section of the engineering design form until you get to the building part of the design

process. ● Give the students 15-20 minutes to build their structure based of their design on the form. (this can be in groups or

individually) ● The teacher will circulate around the room asking probing questions on how the students are persevering and how

they are breaking down the problem. The purpose is for the students to use the strategies learned on the previous day to persevere through the problem.

● After 15-20 minutes, students will test their design. Teacher Note:

● Students will not participate in the redesign in this lesson. They will stop and reflect after the first test. If you have time, you can have them redesign and test and present their final design.

Student Reflection: ● Have the students reflect on the lesson. You can use the following that you used the previous day. Did your design

succeed? Why did it fail? Did the design form help you break down the problem into smaller parts? How did you feel while working on your design? Was there a time you wanted to give up? Did you recognize when you became frustrated and how did you handle being frustrated? Did you use any of the strategies from the previous lesson to help you persevere through the problem?

Whole Class Discussion: ● Have a whole class discussion over the questions above. ● Ask the question: How can we use strategies to persevere through problems and why is it important to preserve?

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Elaborating (Connecting Digital Readiness standards and engineering standards to Inventors in the past.)

Standards: 2.RI.KID.2 Identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text as well as the focus of specific paragraphs within a text. 2.29 Examine the significant contributions made by people of the U.S, including: Benjamin Franklin Objectives:

● Students will identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph text. ● Students will identify the important details in a paragraph. ● students will find patterns in the details in a paragraph. ● Students will use the patterns to identify the topic of the paragraph.

Materials and Resources:

● NewsELA Benjamin Franklin Text- Teacher Resource Folder ● Ben Franklin - Word Sort Cards - Teacher Resource Folder ● Boxes and Bullet Page- Teacher Resource Folder

Teacher Instruction: ● Cut out words from Ben Franklin - Word Sort Cards. Give the words to the students. Students have to try to figure out

what they all have in common (like a sort)... in the end, teacher reveals that they are all Ben Franklin’s accomplishments.

● Link the purpose of the text is to show that even Benjamin Franklin persevered. ● Based on where your class is in standard 2.RI.KID.2 you will have to model or scaffold to your class. ● Students will be assigned different sections or paragraphs of the text. ● Students will determine the important details of the text using the boxes and bullets page. ● Students will list those details as bullets. ● Students will look for patterns in the details in order to find what the topic of the paragraph is. They will write the

topic in the box at the top of the bullets. ● Teacher is walking around and asking probing questions to monitor students’ frustrations and to remind them of

different strategies for persevering.

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● Bring the group back together or based on time of year have the students work in groups. Have the students look at all of the topics of the paragraphs and find patterns in all of the paragraphs. What is the topic of the whole text?

● After the students have identified the topic of the whole text, lead a group discussion. ● How is breaking down the text into paragraphs to find the main topic of the whole text like breaking down the steps

in a problem? ○ Does it help to find the main topic of each paragraph before trying to figure out the main topic of the whole

text? ● What if Ben Franklin had given up and not persevered? Show them his quote on perseverance: “Energy and

persistence conquer all things.” ● Pose the guiding question: How can we use strategies to persevere through problems and why is it important to

preserve? ● Have students compose a quick write to the question. (Students can share their quick writes or keep them private)

Extension Activities: (students can program implementing strategies they have learned) ○ Angry Birds Programming: Course C: Lesson 2 Programming with Angry Birds

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Evaluating Materials:

● Feeling Frustrated Student Anchor Chart- Teacher Resource Folder ● Feeling Frustrated Writing Evaluation- Teacher Resource Folder

Student Independent Work: ● Students Create an Anchor Chart: Feeling Challenged? “These are the steps I will take when I am feeling frustrated or

challenged.” ● Construct and communicate an explanation to a friend about persevering through a problem. Imagine your friends is

working on a problem and feels like giving up. What advice would you give them to help them persevere? Why is it important to persevere?

Appendix A- See, Think, Wonder Gallery Walk - Student Example

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Appendix B- Engineering Design Form - Student Example

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Appendix C- Boxes & Bullets Main Topic - Student Work

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Appendix D- Feeling Frustrated? Evaluation Writing - Student Work

TSIN 5 E Lesson Plan Template www.tsin.org