Teaching Strategies
The strategies I plan to incorporate into my unit are: art making, close observation, collaborative learning, deliberate practice, differentiation, drawing, exit tickets, formative assessment, gamification, summative assessment, and think-pair-share.
Art making is just what it sounds like, using art to experiment with and reinforce concepts in the geometry classroom. Students will use actual tiles to determine shapes and angles, and investigate tessellations. Art can engage students who aren’t naturally drawn in by math, and can draw their attention into the learning in a way that just looking at art cannot.
Close observation involves students really looking at the art that we’re studying. They will look for set amounts of time, first without writing and then with taking notes. Students will be encouraged to find any and all details they can up close, and also step back and see the larger picture and how the components interact with one another. This encourages students to stop and hone their attention, which is a major issue in today’s texting and TikTok world, and just use their eyes to see what’s in front of them.
Collaborative learning has students working together to investigate a problem or complete a task together. All students should have a role in this type of learning, and groups should be intentional. All students need to be held accountable for their work within groups, otherwise there are one or two students who carry the load of the work which can build resentment among students.
Deliberate practice is more than just worksheets and workbooks. Deliberate practice is work designed to meet a need in the classroom, to hit on concepts and needed review in whatever students are struggling with. Repeated practice has been shown to improve mastery over content, and if we’re deliberate with what we choose to have students practice, then the practice is less perfunctory and more meaningful to students.
Differentiation is the key to any classroom, and is almost always part of every classroom without the teacher noticing. No classroom is truly homogenous unless you only teach one student, in which case you are both very lucky and very unfortunate at the same time. Lessons and activities need to be brought to students where they are, otherwise they will give up very quickly. As a special education teacher, my lessons are often written to be taught at three or more levels for any given class to account for the needs and strengths of all of my students.
Drawing math problems often makes students exclaim “this is for babies,” but once they get into the habit it can be quite useful. Especially when it comes to geometry word problems, being able to interpret the words and draw the shape(s) being described can make the problem easier to understand and subsequently solve. Encouraging students to draw, but not forcing them to do so, has proved useful and helped students progress in every math class I’ve ever taught.
Exit tickets offer a quick way to assess student understanding at the end of class, or to solicit questions or confusion about the lesson. Students hand these in on their way out the door, and the idea is that teachers use that input to inform the next day’s lesson. This allows for the students to show what they know and ask questions, and for the teacher to note what may not have been clear during the lesson and might need reinforcement. In math, this is critical because many students will not speak up about questions and misconceptions and can easily fall behind without these frequent and short check-ins.
Formative assessment can be a quick and easy way to see what students are understanding and retaining without quizzes and tests. In my classroom, formative assessment looks like observing students, conferences with students, and observing group work in the classroom. This allows me to ascertain what my students know, what they can do, and what they still need to work on without them knowing they’re being assessed.
Gamification is a favorite among my students because they get to learn, practice, and review through games. High school students love competitive aspects of games, so they get really into playing games in the classroom and sometimes forget that they’re learning at the same time. Sometimes this looks like bringing in a deck of cards, and sometimes it’s an online competitive quiz game. Even bringing dice into the classroom lesson as a randomizer can make the students feel like they’re playing, and is a game-changer (pun intended) in the math classroom.
Summative assessments are often seen as a necessary evil in the classroom; administrators and parents both want to see progress and mastery of tests and quizzes in academic classes. Teachers aren’t usually a big fan of these types of assessments, but we use them anyway and make them as painless as possible for our students. Tests and quizzes in my class give students multiple ways to show what they know when it comes to whatever we’re assessing.
Think-pair-share is my favorite and most often used teaching strategy. Students take a moment to think on their own, then turn to a neighbor in the room (pre-planned is best, to avoid confusion,) and discuss their ideas with one another. Students are then invited to share their partner’s idea with the class, which encourages students to be social, thinking critically, and expressing their ideas all at the same time.
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