Teachers: Antonio Acuna and Lauren Lucky Things to include next time in your

Grade Level: 9th lesson plans

Date: 9/28/2023

Subject: 9th grade Mathematics (55 minute blocks)

Lesson Title: Analyzing Time and Escape with "The Pit and the Pendulum"

Learning Goals:

Students will critically analyze the story "The Pit and the Pendulum" to determine if the protagonist has
enough time to carry out his escape plan.

Students will create a visual representation of the protagonist's situation, incorporating details from the
text. (include your own sketch of what the expectations for the students will be)

Students will analyze the pendulum's motion and calculate if the protagonist has enough time to escape.

Learning Objective:

By the end of this lesson, students will have a better understanding of “The Pit and the Pendulum” by
drawing out what is happening and be able to explain in their own words what they believe is occurring.

Standards

Choose and produce an equivalent form of an expression to reveal and explain properties of the quantity
represented by the expression.★ (CCSS: HS.A-SSE.B.3)

Interpret expressions that represent a quantity in terms of its context.★ (CCSS: HS.A-SSE.A.1)

Materials:

Textbooks of the story "The Pit and the Pendulum"

https://page.mpls.k12.mn.us/Res/interactive_mathematics_program_1_1st_ed_jane_s.pdf

Drawing materials (graph paper, pencils, rulers, etc.)

Whiteboard and markers

Grouping strategy (groups of 3-4 students per group)

Calculators (If we get further in the lesson)

Procedure:

Starter for the day 9/28 (10 mins) – Set Induction

Students begin class by putting their phones in the phone box and beginning the starter which is a 3-4
question paper that. Then volunteers are asked to present their answers.
Introduction (25 minutes):

Begin by introducing the story "The Pit and the Pendulum" and providing a brief overview of the plot.

Discuss the concept of suspense and how it builds throughout the story, connecting it to mathematical
ideas of time and motion.

Activity 1 - Sketching the Protagonist's Situation (30 minutes): Divide the class into small groups and
provide each group with a copy of the story. -- MODELLING

Instruct the groups to read the relevant excerpts as a class first and then create a scaled sketch
representing the protagonist's situation in the prison, focusing on the pendulum and its proximity to the
protagonist. They should consider the dimensions and positions accurately.

Encourage groups to label their sketches with numerical measurements, aligning with the concept of
measurement in math, while we are reading the story.

Group Discussion and Analysis (10 minutes): Reconvene the class and have each group present their
sketches and findings regarding the pendulum's motion and time analysis.

Encourage students to engage in a discussion regarding whether the protagonist has enough time to
carry out his escape plan based on their calculations and interpretations.

Lead a collaborative analysis of the information, connecting the pendulum's motion to the protagonist's
actions and decisions in the story.

Conclusion and Lesson Reflection/Expectations for unit (10 minutes): Summarize the discussion and
emphasize the importance of applying mathematical concepts to real-world scenarios.

INDEPENDENT PRACTICE

Assign a reflection where students discuss the significance of understanding motion and time, and how it
applies to their daily lives.

Lesson for next time:

Instruct each group to analyze the pendulum's motion as described in the story and calculate the time it
takes for one full swing (period).

Then, ask them to estimate the time it takes for the pendulum to reach the protagonist's location from
the given information in the story.

Differentiation:

Provide definitions to class with challenging vocabulary from the poem.

Provide additional support for struggling students by providing guided worksheets with step-by-step
instructions for calculating pendulum motion and time.

Challenge advanced students to explore more complex pendulum concepts, such as researching energy
transformations during the pendulum's swing and relating it to mathematical equations when time
allows.
CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS – recorded by LG and highlighted to show teaching techniques.

Instructions/Content LG Musings Positive Reinforcement questions

Time Observations
8:25 Mathercise C5 posted on the board (3 patterns, what comes next in pattern,
solve and sketch). Students walking in, Antonio joking around with students as
they enter. “Yep, only person who changed seats is you” “You’re getting really
good at that (mine, mine, mine). AT 8:28, 6 students are present. Classroom
atmosphere is positive.

You have a great rapport with the

students. They feel comfortable with
you in the classroom and had no
issues with you being the teacher.
8:30 “As you are finding your seats, take out your binders. Put your phones in the
phone box, too”
“Math is pretty fun. It challenges my brain hard” (student comment)
“does everyone have their starter sheets for today?”
“Is a stand up day?” “Yes, my back hurts” “these tall desks are good for that”
8:32 Class falls silent as everyone is working on the start up. Antonio is walking
around the room, check in on the work that the students are doing. Calculators
and textbooks, markers, are all on the desk. “Remember if you don’t know how
to do it, just copy down the problem” “You can use a calculator if you’d like (A
says to student)”
8:34 “Henry did you find it?” “I’m missing my white binder; it has everything in it”
“there’s a chair right there you can use it” (students have worksheet with week
and day boxes available to fill out).
8:36 “do you want to present one answer, Ben?” “I’ll do the first one because it’s the
easiest and one I can’t screw up” “Why does it go AFCBDE” “every phase it goes
up by one” “Does everyone see that? Changes location with the letter ahead of
it. B trades with F” and that explains Ben’s answer.” “Did anyone get 2?” Go on
up and present it. “do I start with how I did it or my answer” “You can start with
your answer then show how you got it” “k=9(9-1)/2 = 36. So 7^2 is 49. So 49 -36
= 13” “Good, so you saw how to do it?” “oh, wait it’s +1 not -1, so we can do it
together “do you want me to erase it?” “it’s good… we’ll do it together” “Last
one, #3, anyone want to sketch for the class?” “You can draw it here” “so just
sketch it” “yep” “very nice. Thank you. Are there any questions on the starter
activity? Okay, then put this in your starter binder and we’re going to start our
new unit. Turn to p. 308 in the textbook and we’re going to start” Ben
”textbook!” A”
do you prefer digital?” Ben” mumbles something” What you
8:42 “alright, so we’re going to be reading this excerpt from E.A.P. has anyone ever do well:
heard of him” “Mackenzie” “I love him… he’s a poet” “we’re going to be reading
the pit and the pendulum, which is very math based. We’re going to be Checking for
following along and then have you read different parts of it…” computatio
n
8:44 Looking at the vocabulary is there any “in lieu” what does it mean? “In absence
of instead of” “what is a scythe? What are you think of when you hear that?”
“What the famers use when they cut their crops”
8:45 “is there any other interpretations of this? What’s in front of him? “a
pendulum” what’s hanging from that? A scythe is hanging from it. So he sees
that moving back and forth.

What you
do well:
WAIT
TIME!

8:46 Anyone want to volunteer to read? Voluntold? “What new information did we
get?” “it’s a crescent and it’s going to have two blades and hanging down” (A
draws it on the board). Next paragraph. Anyone want to try? (continue
reading…)
8:48 New student reads. “What does osculation mean?” “Moving back and forth.
Think of an oscillating fan… It’s still moving back and forth but it’s also moving
down now it’s 3 inches from his chest” (continue reading…)
8:52 “Surcingle holding him in his path.” He is being restrained. He can only watch as
he reaches his impending doom. (continue reading…)
8:54 “excellent thank you. This is not an easy read. Is there any vocabulary in here
that you need to know.” “do we need to reread it?” he just puts his head back
and is thinking how screwed he really it. Alright, last page. Flip to p. 310
(continues reading…)
8:56 New information… what did we find out? He’s in a well with rats. (Continue
reading…)
8:57 So, it’s more of him seeing the see-saw motion of the pendulum. It’s getting
faster, gaining velocity, “the juice of the meat was put on the strap” “What do
you think that may do?” a: “are the rats friends or foes at this time?” (students
talk about fear of rats not pendulum, but say that it will eat the strap) continue
reading last paragraph…
8:59 Excellent. Did we catch any new information about this situation? The rats are
chewing through it. “what happened in that last paragraph?” “He got out”
9:01 Now for the activity, I want you to draw a sketch of what happened in the story.
Include the data (numbers and such) from the reading. Sketch the prisoner’s
dilemma. “what are somethings that should be in your sketch?” “rats” “Just
rats?”
9:07 Walking around comment on pictures. “I like that” “where’s the person?” “draw
a guy on a table somewhere”
9:10 Go back and look at the story to find out, “Is there time for him to carry out this
escape plan” “Go back, and look for any scientific or mathematical facts and put
them into your drawing”

Classroom management is ON POINT!

You had the majority of the class
focused for the majority of the time.
9:18 “One minute, and theWhen
struggle
theywill be over”
starting is in the
sketching reading. Put this on your
nobody
paper and put the papers away.
was off task.