TetzMathPortfolio
“Games have grown up, and playing them is no longer reserved for children. In fact, the ability to play may be the single most important skill to develop for the 21st century.” (Thomas & Brown, 2011)
My Classroom
Equity Education
I believe that every student has the same access to classroom activities. That is why I have set up table bins that contain pencils, scissors, glue, rulers, pencil crayons and markers. Then all students can fully participate in all activities regardless of their families ability to provide these items. It also reduces the ability for students to opt out of learning opportunities because they do not have the necessary supplies.
Math is More than Computation
It is a sad truth that many of my students arrive in grade 7, with very limited ability to recall their basic facts. However, this is only one part of the math curriculum. While I do provide opportunities to work on basic facts skills, I allow my students to utilize a 20 by 20 multiplication chart and calculators so that everyone may fully participate in the math opportunities occuring in class.
Personalized Learning Opportunities
The students who enter your class have a diverse set of learning needs. That is why I try, for as many activities as I can, to provide two or three levels of difficulty for the task. The students then self select which level of difficulty to work on. The tasks are set up so that each level should take the students the same amount of time, providing all students are working on an appropriate level. Having a student progress to the next level if they are done early usually helps students to choose their best level after a few activities.
Student Experts
With the diverse learning needs of the classroom it is impossible to provide feedback to every student and help support those students who need it. That is why when we do concept or vocabulary checks where there is only one right answer, I will mark the checks until there are four students who have it all correct. Those students get a green pen to go around and check others work. I do not mark in green pen so when looking through work I can tell if I checked it or it was student checked. The great part is that each time we do student checking there is someone who hasn't checked before, as some students rush to get done first but are not as accurate as those who take their time. As a result, I have seen an increase in taking their time to produce quality work.
Teaching More Than Just The Curriculum
Many students arrive in junior high believing that they are incapable of doing math. This becomes my first obstacle in helping students to be successful. To this end, I created six competitors that embody six of the habits that I find stand in the way of a students success. I then try to infuse learning on Mindsets (2006) and Mathematical Habits of Mind (1996) into every lesson to help students to overcome the roadblocks of their own making. The students are asked to identify which competitor they need to work hardest to overcome and then I use that data to introduce circle graphs to the students. We then have a class discussions about which Competitors are strongest in our class. It is interesting that every class has a different composition of competitiors and this helps me to plan for each class slightly differently to match the obstacles common in the class.
Picture Above:
Students in my class playing Cross-Town Coordinates to practice plotting points and finding the coordinates.
Picture Below:
Students in my class playing a version of Integer Interstate that I adapted from the book Positive vs Negative: Investigations with Integers. I added the cars and the stores which the students love.
Game Based Learning
It is important that students get enough skill practice to help improve their automaticity. However, most students will balk at having to do the necessary amount of practice when presented with a worksheet. More importantly, students do their questions, but they also will complete the questions of other students to ensure that no one cheats.
Games are also a great way to differentiate learning. Students can play on the same game board if you design three sets of questions of increasing difficulty. Then students can self-select which level of difficulty is the right one for them which can fluidly move up or down over the course of the game.
Some of the games I have purchased from my class. Some I have adapted from a worksheet and some I create myself. I try to have at least 7-10 games for each unit in mathematics so that I can match the games I use to the skills the students in my class need to practice the most. Then the students rotate through the different games.
Interactive Notebooks
The 2015-2016 school year was the first year that I have used Interactive Notebooks with students. I decided to use them for both Math and Science . As this was my first year, I did purchase items from the Teachers Pay Teachers site if I felt that the price point was less than the time it would take me to produce something equally interesting for my students. I have included the links to some teachers that produce some very engaging work. Please note the grade levels on most of these products are American so you need to match the concepts to your own curriculum.
We used the left hand side of the page for any of the work and learning we did as a class. Then the right side of the page was used for the student's to use that knowledge in some way. Activites that may occur on the right side of the two page spread may be vocabulary or concept checks, notes from a video, an activity using the new concepts, or examples from a game to name a few.
Cuoco, A., Goldenberg, E., & Mark, J. (1996). Habits of Mind: Organizing Principles for Mathematics Curricula. Journal of Mathematical Behaviour, 15, 375-402.
Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Sucess. New York: Ballantine Books.
My Classes
This year, I am part of a grade 7 team in which I teach Math and Science to two classes and my partner teacher teaches Language Arts and Social Studies to the same two classes. There are a total of three pairs of teachers in the grade 7 team, and we share resources and do many of the same activities but adjusted to best support our students and our teaching style. Sometimes we have activities in which we have both of our classes working all together to complete the work together. 55 students in one place at one time working on an activity makes for a very busy area.