http://www.agracemartin.com/apps/blog/categories/show/1946984-teaching-blog-
Whole-Brain Math Teaching
While some educators believe that worksheets do not contribute to authentic student learning, I would argue that they have a place as a tool for classroom instruction when combined with other forms of instruction as well. I think that in a math class, worksheets can help students follow along and practice what they have been taught. To make a student’s learning authentic, however, we need to approach instruction from multiple directions.
The grade six Mathematics teacher associate at my school referred me to the classroom management strategy of whole-brain teaching. I looked this up on Google, Pinterest, and YouTube. I even found a YouTube video of a grade eight classroom using the whole-brain teaching technique for order of operations, which was the best resource that I had for planning my lesson because I noticed how attentive the students were in the video
When teaching I used the cue of “class?” and waited for them all to respond in a chorus of “yes?” to show that they were paying attention. I then used subject-specific actions (in this case representing the order of operations) and asked the students to repeat them back to me. Then they turned around and “teach” their actions to a partner by showing what they have learned. I love this approach to instructing math because it keeps students engaged with the content and able to repeat the material several times. Math can be a very analytical subject, and many students can benefit from a holistic approach to it. The whole-brain method combines listening and repeating spoken language, along with viewing and repeating body movements to a student’s learning of quantitative numerical problems.
To introduce students to the order of operations, I opened the lesson by asking them what an operation is. After a student answered correctly, I repeated the definition in different words to ensure that all of the class could hear it. Familiarity with the vocabulary is very important to provide a context for students. Introductory questions such as this assess the language of students’ background knowledge, making it relatable. At the beginning of the lesson I asked students what a product, quotient, sum, and difference were. Since this was the first math class that I taught, it was important to establish that the students understood the language that I was using. If they did not, I would either have to use the terminology that they do, or explain the terminology that I want the students to know.
I used a variety of approaches to get the same message across. To explain that there is an order in which math operations are performed I used the whiteboard, verbal instruction, and whole-brain instruction. First I wrote BEDMAS on the board and asked students to come up with an acronym to remember it. The answers that I received were fun and creative, which engaged the students and made the exercise meaningful through personal connections. I asked students to write BEDMAS on the top of their page because writing something down helps students to mentally process it better. Then I told them what operation each letter stood for and taught them actions to go with them. The students were very engaged with the actions! This kinesthetic activity helped a lot of students stay focused and helped them to remember the order. When I asked the students to teach these actions to a partner they stayed on task. The grade six students in my classroom love interacting with their peers, and this teaching technique played to their interests. I then began to use the worksheet. Fill-in-the-blank notes can be effective to make sure that students are paying attention, but I am glad that I kept them short; otherwise students might have started to zone out. As it was, each class had one or two students who asked three or five minutes later what they were supposed to write in the blanks. I feel that this is to be expected, but the positive learning environment that I established by answering questions openly encouraged these students to at least clarify what they had missed. I am glad that I used so many approaches to convey mnemonics and notes for the order of operations, because the students all remembered seemed to remember these when asked to repeat them to partners.
After this introduction, I moved into the application of BEDMAS using the problems on the worksheet. I did a few examples on the board. For each step I asked the class questions like “do we add first or multiply first?” or “what’s 5 times 4?” and did not continue unless I had a loud response. If only a few voices responded, I repeated the question until all of the class was participating in chorus answers. This keeps the students accountable for participation. My teacher associate pointed out that when I ask those questions, to not stand with my hand raised and ready to write on the white board. Instead, face the classroom so that I can make eye contact and observe if students are nodding, or if they have confused facial expressions. This also helps gain more participants in chorus responses because I can make eye contact with those students who are not speaking.
As I continued working through problems on the board, I realized that I could slow down and make sure that all students are keeping up with and understanding what we have already done. I was unable to get a good feel of how many students understood what was going on, and when talking with the teacher associate, we decided that the following class I should give an assignment to be collected for marks. This assessment would be far more individualized than circulating through the classroom and having students volunteer to solve questions on the board. My teacher associate and I also discussed the future use of individual white boards. Every student could have a small whiteboard, marker, and eraser. I could ask them to write their answers largely on the whiteboard and hold it up for me to see. This would give instant formative assessment of the student performance.
For closure, I referred the class back to their BEDMAS mnemonics and we repeated the order of operations with actions. I realize now that I could have fleshed out my closure. I could have done an exit slip asking students to do a final question on a small piece of paper to be passed in to me for formative assessment. Instead, I will collect assignments from students in the next lesson.
I feel that this lesson was strong in the whole-brain teaching technique for student participation, but that I could have worked on individual help through more circulation. My students told me that they really enjoyed my Math class because it finally made sense to them.
I look forward to future lessons so that I can integrate personal whiteboards for timely formative assessment of student learning.
As always, you can find me at:
Twitter @agracemartin
LinkedIn Public Profile ca.linkedin.com/pub/a-grace-martin/94/268/834/
Facebook Spirit Rider https://www.facebook.com/Spirit.Rider.AGraceMartin
Facebook Author and Teacher https://www.facebook.com/agracemartin
Website http://www.agracemartin.com
Website Blog http://www.agracemartin.com/apps/blog/
No comments:
Post a Comment