Constructivist Lesson

For my lesson I will do second grade vocabulary. Let’s say the students have ten vocabulary words in their unit that they need to know. One activity I would have them do is play charades with the words. They would break up into small groups, have one player choose a card with a vocab word on it, have the player act it out while others guess, and then take turns doing this game of charades. Before I broke them up into groups, I would first go over the vocabulary words, such as how to pronounce them and what the definition is to make sure they didn't come across any words they had no clue what they were. I think it is good for the teacher to give a brief introduction first. After they acted in groups, they would, as a group, write the word, draw a picture, and write a sentence using the vocab word. This may not be as much of a constructivist approach, but I feel it would be help to see that they mastered the content. Another option would be to have students explain why they chose to act a word out a certain way or what made the guesser guess the word in order to check for understanding.

These activities are social activities where students would work in a group. The student does have to work individually to think of a way to act out a word. If they cannot act it out, it might mean they do not know the word. I think charades allows for guessing and conversation about what the actor is doing which is a good way to structure activities. Conversation about the content and verbalizing it is a good way to help learn it. If they practice, they will learn these skills and do them automatically over time.

Check out the following website for additional ways to incorporate constructivist lessons in the classroom. It might also clarify or reinforce the ideas you have about it. There are several additional links on the website to learn more. Click here to go to Classroom Applications of Constructivism.