Author: Jennifer LowellLesson PlanDate: 7/25/07
Content Lesson Plan: 45 minutes total
Aim:
How do I prepare myself to take the regents exam?
Objectives:
SWBAT answer difficult regents-level exam questions
SWBAT use context and word roots to break down regents exam questions
SWBAT physically and mentally prepare themselves for the regents exam
Warm Up – 5 min
Students come in and:
- Grab a daily agenda
- Begin the warm up:
- Answer the following questions in your notebooks: 1) When I take large, important tests, one thing I do well is ______. 2) One thing that I have trouble with is ______.
Purpose Overview – 2 min
Share out. This is a chance for me to see if students have any specific concerns about the upcoming regents exam. I’ll write the aim on the board now.
13 minutes: Mini-Lecture
Aim: How do I prepare myself to take the regents exam?
I will have students copy the following questions from the board, leaving space between them. I’ll spend the mini-lecture going through the answers to the summary frame questions:
1. What should I do a week before the regents exam?
-Study past regents exams, go to regents prep, study the units we’ve covered, and come to me with any questions or concerns that you have about the test or material
2. What should I do the night before the regents exam?
- Eat a dinner with a lot of carbohydrates, like pasta! Carbohydrates are good brain food, and will provide good energy for you through the next day.
-Get some sleep! Make sure to get 6-8 hours in order to be refreshed for the test.
3. What should I bring with me to the test, and what is provided to me?
- Bring pens, pencils, erasers, rulers, and an approved calculator.
- You’ll be provided with the answer booklet, reference tables, and graph paper.
4. What should I do if I don’t know the answer to a regents exam question right away?
Here, I’ll model how to break down a regents question using the following question, taken from a regents exam:
Let’s say that I initially don’t know the answer right away. Here are the steps I take to try to make a best guess:
1. What are the words or groups of words in the question that are important to my getting the right answer (what are the buzzwords), and what do I know about them?
2. If there is a word I don’t understand, can the words around it tell me anything?
3. Are there any answers that I know are incorrect?
Let’s go through the steps for this question. The words I see that are going to help me decide what to guess, or the buzzwords, are:
Gas – this is a state of matter in which the molecules fill up the container they’re in. I know that the molecules in a gas are free to move a lot with respect to each other.
Kinetic molecular theory – We studied this when we studied ideal gases. I remember we filled in a table for KMT
Heated – When I heat something I am raising the temperature. I remember that temperature is a measurement of kinetic (moving) energy
Number – How many gas molecules
Collisions – Interactions between molecules where they bounce off of each other
Average velocity – speed (distance over time)
Volume – how many particles are in an amount of space
What don’t I understand?
I don’t know what a closed rigid cylinder is. However, I can read “sample of a gas is contained in a closed rigid cylinder,” and I can guess that: 1) the gas is contained, or inside, the cylinder, and 2) the cylinder is closed, and when something is closed, nothing can go in or come out. So the gas must be inside a container where nothing can go in and nothing can come out.
Are there any answers that I know are wrong?
Well, I know that since the container is closed, nothing can go in and nothing can come out. Therefore, I know that the number of particles can’t increase or decrease and so number 1 is wrong. Since volume is a measure of the number of particles in a space, I know this won’t change either, and number 4 is wrong!
So which of the remaining answers is correct?
I remembered that temperature is a measurement of moving energy. If a sample is heated, then the temperature is raised. If the temperature is raised, then the sample has more kinetic (moving) energy, and so the answer is number 3, “the average velocity of the gas molecules increases.”
20 minutes: Independent Work
Practice exam questions: Students are given a worksheet with exam questions from a past regents exam. They are to highlight the buzzwords and answer the 3 questions from above for each:
1. What are the words or groups of words in the question that are important to my getting the right answer (what are the buzzwords), and what do I know about them?
2. If there is a word I don’t understand, can the words around it tell me anything?
3. Are there any answers that I know are incorrect?
During the independent work, I’ll circulate and check to see that students are on task.
Worksheet
Steps to answer the Regents questions:
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5 minutes: Closure:
Exit Slip: Are there any questions that you have for me about the regents exam? Is there anything I can do to help you prepare for the regents exam?