Last night I got to thinking that many of my students go through the motions of doing the problems without developing a deeper understanding of the math itself. This means I have not spent enough time in my teaching helping them develop the understanding so I need to focus on making assignments so they require higher level of thinking. I know too often I resort to the simple calculations.
I've decided when we do linear equations, I am going to have them find real life examples that use slope along with providing an explanation of what slope tells us. I think an infographic or similar activity would be good for this. It is time to revisit what I need taught and how it will be done. Up to know I've used previous plans with technology inserted as best I could but now I am going to rethink my plans and ideas to see if I can improve .
I need to consult Blooms digital taxonomy to see if I can utilize higher levels of thinking so maybe they will do better.
Tomorrow and Thursday my ebook on "Teaching Math using an iPad will be available on Amazon for free. It is a short ebook talking about certain types of apps and specific suggestions for using them in the math class room. I admit this is geared for older students but you might find some things applicable in the elementary rooms.
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
There is a push for my students to do more reading and writing so they do better on the standardized testing. I've been thinking about how to include in my classrooms.
1. Word problems - Use the KWC after underlining the important sections. Perhaps even have a short video or illustration included so my students can see what it is. My students tend to be so remote that they have little or no prior knowledge of some of the situations. For instance driving the car from Philly to NYC. We don't have cars and they have no idea of the distance involved. So I end up rewriting the problems to use boats, snow machines or ATV's. If I included a map, perphaps a google trip using google world so they could see the actual routing that might build some prior knowledge. They could fill out a short pdf form for the KWC and then on the bottom write in an explanation for how they came up with their answer. This would add reading and writing into my math class.
2. NASA math problems. I've tried these but the students do not do well with them. Again, if we had a pdf form to help them organize information, pictures or videos on the topic so they can "see" what is being talked about and perhaps have them create a video to record how they came up with the answer, it might help them improve their mathematical vocabulary.
3. Finding real life problems such as telling how long a body has been dead using logs and temps. Include a web page with the information so students can find the equation used to determine the time since death. Provide them with a scenario where they are the corenor and they have a body. They discovered that the body temp is such and such and they make a report on how long the person is dead.
These are just three ideas I came up with to incorporate more reading, writing, and technology into my lesson plans for next year. I did not mention iPad apps because there are several that could be used.
1. Word problems - Use the KWC after underlining the important sections. Perhaps even have a short video or illustration included so my students can see what it is. My students tend to be so remote that they have little or no prior knowledge of some of the situations. For instance driving the car from Philly to NYC. We don't have cars and they have no idea of the distance involved. So I end up rewriting the problems to use boats, snow machines or ATV's. If I included a map, perphaps a google trip using google world so they could see the actual routing that might build some prior knowledge. They could fill out a short pdf form for the KWC and then on the bottom write in an explanation for how they came up with their answer. This would add reading and writing into my math class.
2. NASA math problems. I've tried these but the students do not do well with them. Again, if we had a pdf form to help them organize information, pictures or videos on the topic so they can "see" what is being talked about and perhaps have them create a video to record how they came up with the answer, it might help them improve their mathematical vocabulary.
3. Finding real life problems such as telling how long a body has been dead using logs and temps. Include a web page with the information so students can find the equation used to determine the time since death. Provide them with a scenario where they are the corenor and they have a body. They discovered that the body temp is such and such and they make a report on how long the person is dead.
These are just three ideas I came up with to incorporate more reading, writing, and technology into my lesson plans for next year. I did not mention iPad apps because there are several that could be used.
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Stats and sports
Today, I had a warm-up question where I asked the students to come up with three stats used in sports and how are they calculated. The students promptly replied average, mode, and range. It showed me that they were missing a basic concept in how they have a disconnect between the terms of mode, range, median, and mean. Since we won't be doing much next week, I am going to find a website with either activities or with stats to have the students look up stats for either basketball, NYO (native youth olympics), volleyball or wrestling. These are the major sports played in our school. If anyone has suggestions on websites for doing this I"d love to hear about it.
Maybe I can have them find certain stats, how the stats are calculated and have them write up a compare and contrast between at least two players so they can practice analyzing and writing. My students are not good at synthesizing information and this could be turned into a good activity to help with that.
Maybe I can have them find certain stats, how the stats are calculated and have them write up a compare and contrast between at least two players so they can practice analyzing and writing. My students are not good at synthesizing information and this could be turned into a good activity to help with that.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Prime numbers
I keep hearing that we need to relate math topics to real life so students can see where the concept is used. I had my 9th grade algebra I students go to Safari and research the answer to this question. "How is prime factorization used in real life. they found these answers.
1. Cryptography - developing and breaking codes
2. Internet security
3. Credit cards
4. Random number generators
5. breaking thing into parts
6. Magicians use them
I have a small class. Two of the students gave up on looking and one always takes her time.
This exercise gave them an opportunity to do research on a topic and find out more about real life. I think I am going to integrate more of this next year along with having them write more. My students score low on the writing and need to see you use it in other subjects.
I am hoping to do a bit of mind mapping on prime numbers on Monday. It will help them develop some thinking skills they are low on right now.
1. Cryptography - developing and breaking codes
2. Internet security
3. Credit cards
4. Random number generators
5. breaking thing into parts
6. Magicians use them
I have a small class. Two of the students gave up on looking and one always takes her time.
This exercise gave them an opportunity to do research on a topic and find out more about real life. I think I am going to integrate more of this next year along with having them write more. My students score low on the writing and need to see you use it in other subjects.
I am hoping to do a bit of mind mapping on prime numbers on Monday. It will help them develop some thinking skills they are low on right now.
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