Teaching Strategies
Do Now
At the beginning of my math periods, to set the tone for the day, part of my daily routine is to have students complete an activity quickly and quietly that they must start immediately. Most times they are a review of previously taught material that takes no longer than 5-7 minutes to complete and an additional 5-7 minutes to review.
Number Talks
Sometimes at the beginning of my math lessons (at least 3 times/week) in lieu of a Do Now, we complete Number Talks. A Number Talk is a 10-15 minute whole group mental math activity where students find answers in their heads, then share the strategies they use to find that answer aloud while also explaining their thinking, justifying their reasoning, and making sense of each other’s strategies.
Graffiti Walls
This is a creative way that allows students to record their thoughts, ideas, comments and questions about a topic. It allows students to learn each other’s ideas. This will be used to introduce the topic of decimal place value, and to prepare for a class discussion.
Pre-Assessment
Because students come to class with such a wide variety of pre-existing knowledge, skills, beliefs, ideas, and attitudes about numbers, it is important for me to access their prior knowledge. I will give my students a pre-assessment to help me do this, and to determine what they know and what they need more instruction on. Once I know what knowledge and misconceptions they may have, I will be able to begin differentiating my instruction for each lesson within the unit which will help me form small groups.
Differentiated Instruction
My district prefers differentiated instruction to occur most days of the week. This refers to instruction that is tailored to meet my students’ needs in small group settings. Personalized computer instruction, remediation, reteaching, enrichment or review fall in this area, but it also can involve such matters as the types of numbers in the problems a given student is asked to solve.
Small Groups
I typically facilitate small group instruction after whole group instruction as a way to differentiate my instruction, but also to reduce the student-teacher ratio. Small groups allow me to give my students more focused attention and a chance to ask specific questions about they have learned or are currently learning. Depending on the number of students in my class and needs of the students, the sizes of the groups will vary, however I prefer to plan groups no larger than 5 students per group.
Read Aloud
Sometimes, I will read text aloud to my students to engage them with mathematical concepts. To connect this unit to the present, it be will “storified” by reading the book, “Little Numbers: And Pictures that Show Just How Little They Are!” by Edward Packard.13 This book shows how numbers get exponentially smaller than one by a factor of 10 for each place to the right of the decimal point! It is very important for my students to be visually stimulated, and stories are one way to do that.
Video
Showing students math in multiple ways and connecting it to the real world helps them build stronger connections. I will be sure to demonstrate this in lesson two to further illustrate the patterns in the number of zeros of the product when multiplying a number by powers of 10 and what it means to divide by a power of 10. I will show two video versions of the Powers of Ten around lesson 2.14 Powers of Ten was created in 1977 and takes the viewer on journey traveling into space beginning with a headshot of a couple lounging in Chicago. The camera “zooms out,” into outer space showing the distance being traveled in meters. These are big numbers and show the number written with exponents. The video also “zooms in” showing small numbers! The video is quite captivating. The 2nd version is more modern, and students may relate more to it.15 However, it does not show the exponents, and I think the exponents are important to show the pattern. Nevertheless, both videos are cool and connect to science!
In addition to these two videos, I will also show another that demonstrates the linear measurements of the metric system using the mnemonic device “King Henry Does Usually Drink Chocolate Milk.”16 This mnemonic device will help my students not only remember the units of the metric system, it is my hope that I can help them make a connection with decimal place value and the names of the places. While it is easy for students to look up or use a conversion chart, they are not always permitted in testing situations. Therefore, I also hope to help my students remember how to convert from one metric unit to another which will be taught later in the year.
Formative Assessments
Before during and after each lesson, I will quickly evaluate my students’ knowledge and progress using quizzes to determine their level of comprehension of math concepts, learning needs and academic progress throughout the unit. These will mostly consist of classroom observations while students complete the Do Nows, complete assignments during small groups, and exit slips. However, students will be given opportunities to self-assess by setting goals at the beginning of each unit, and by reflecting on what they know for each lesson throughout unit. Formative assessment should inform the teacher and student and be constant.
Exit Slips
I will use exit slips at the end of each lesson to determine each student’s level of proficiency. Exit slips are one of the easiest ways to gather information about my students’ current levels of understanding. My district prefers us to use exit slips as a way to create a running record of which standards students are understanding or need more support with.
Clock Buddies
To engage students, this fun activity will allow me to create readymade sets of partners for cooperative learning lessons.
Task Cards
I use task cards to keep students engaged a few times a year. They are a set of cards that have tasks, activities, or questions written on them which I will use to reinforce concepts in this unit. They are alternatives to worksheets.
Project Based Learning Activity
Throughout the unit, but mostly towards the end, this project will engage students in solving real-world problems or answering complex questions. This will be another way to gauge what students have learned in the unit in addition to their post assessment.
Post-Assessment
At then of the unit, I will give students a unit test to measure student achievement and the effectiveness of the unit.
Portfolios
Each student will have a personal folder that I will be stored in a crate in the classroom. The folder will show student’s work and growth over time. Students pre and post assessments, problem solving tasks, formative assessment data will be collected and placed inside.
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