Describe a constructivist lesson you would teach.
The lesson I have in mind for this would be for a tenth-grade English class. Most tenth graders (at least at my high school) were required to read Night or The Diary of Anne Frank as an introduction to a Holocaust unit. I think that this is an excellent place for some cross-curricular learning, but it is also a good time to expand students' knowledge and their conceptual understanding through the use of project-based learning.
According to Ormrod's text, project-based learning is a "classroom activity in which students acquire new knowledge and skills while working on a complex, multifaceted project that yields a concrete end product."
The project would include a mini-research paper/reflection (2-3 pages total) covering an article found on the United States Holocaust Memorial website (<-- link). After researching and writing (probably the following week), students will begin reading the chosen, related novel. This will help to build the conceptual understanding (a constructivist notion) students have of the Holocaust and how it relates to the literature. Plenty of class discussion time would happen during the course of the unit and the novel.
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