When it concerns being a problem solver I found that one thing that proves to get students to always think is working through corrections. When students finish a formative assignment, or a summative or even a test being able to work through their corrections afterwards is invaluable. How can we expect students to become problem solvers if we allow them to make mistakes, and then never allow them the opportunity in class to go through, and learn from their mistakes. There have been classes were i dedicate maybe 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or even whole class to perform corrections. Giving students the opportunity to work through a problem a second time allows them to learn what mistakes they are making, or discover what they don't know or perhaps could know better. If we want students to become problem solvers then we have to give them the opportunity to show us that they can correct their own mistakes.
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During one of my math classes i noticed particularly that students had been struggling with a concept. We had spent a few days working through the concepts which i was trying to get across, and a few students had grasped it while others still didn't grasp the whole concept. What we were working through was being able to estimate percents when given part of a number. What i decided to do with the students was to simply give them an assignment and instead of having them work individually place them into groups in which they could work through the problems together, and teach one another. I found this was a great opportunity for students to receive the information from another source, but also for the students to be problem solvers. Often when overhearing discussions i could see and hear that different students were approaching and solving the problem differently, and by sharing with one another their individual solutions they could distinguish when they were taking different directions, and how this was affecting the outcome to the question. When students find that their input is helpful to other students it empowers them, and gives them an opportunity to be a leader, and use their resources.
With my grade 7 math class I found myself at the end of the unit, and trying to figure out how can i consolidate all of the students learnings, in a fun way which will make students think, and task them with creating a product to in order to solve a problem. The problem posed is "How can we make a great review before our unit 1 & 2 Test." The answer to this ended up being the creation of a board game. To start off the project all students are told is that they will need 25 questions a minimum of 10 from each unit appropriate to grade level, and that they need to be creative. After this they are left to solve answer this question, and make a good review. At the end of this project not one assignment was the same, and barely any of the questions were replicated between projects, and students were able to not only create a tool for themselves, but discover what goes behind reviewing for a test, and how to create review tools. By learning how to review, and creating a product with the purpose of being a review tool students learn how to review for a test. It isn't so much the final product which represents this process, but it is the process by which the final product is made. Going through and picking out, and creating questions that will be good for review, and organizing them as such that having that knowledge results in success in the form of a board game allows students to review without without even needing to play everyones board games, for they have reviewed in creating one. ![]()
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Kahoot
It's often the case with math that there is a lack of technology in the classroom, and students spend most classes pen to paper. In such a technologically driven era the incorporation of technology into the classroom is vital for students, for throughout their learning career technology is only going to play a bigger and bigger role. Kahoot is a website which takes your standard math questions, and makes a game out of them. The teacher creates the questions, and then the students are tasked with solving the problems, and entering the answer into an electronic device. After the answers have been decided the correct answer is reveals, and the amount of people that chose each answer is also shown. This is a very confidential form of assessment as students can choose any nickname, and as a teacher it gives you instant feedback to what your students know, and don't know how to do. As a teacher these questions open up a discussion point in which you can go through difficult questions, and solve them together as a class so that next time the students will know how to solve that question. As a student you take your learning, and put it to use with a little bit of friendly competition. By integrating this technology into the classroom, and having students and having students play a game with their knowledge they are internally motivated to show exactly what they have learned. Kahoot Website |
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