One of the resources I found out about this week was called a “Settler” a short quiz that features multiple “simple” math questions to see where students are in the curriculum. For example, the settler I completed had a series of subtraction questions that led to a variety of answers that added up to give one total answer. We had a short amount of time, maybe two minutes, to complete the settler and move on. It seemed like a good way to start students off in thinking about subtraction, which we could have built on in the lesson and done division or something similar. It also contributed to getting our brains working in a mathematical way. The only thing that worries me about such an activity is the added stress when students feel they have to complete a large amount of work (from their perspective) in a small amount of time. I know when we used to do activities like this when I was young, it caused me to compare how fast I could do math to others, and when I couldn't keep up, instead of pushing through, I shut down completely and didn't even want to try. This was especially true because the quick math students were always praised and rewarded for finishing their math quizzes first. That now encourages me to seek different means of finding active learners who can persevere. I would maybe try and do these with an older group and see how they reacted first. I would also take away the blatant reward for the person who finishes first. Perhaps even get students who struggle to first work in pairs, then over time, ask them to slowly start to try the settlers on their own. I definitely think this could be a useful tool, and am still hopeful that the reaction to it afterwards is what discouraged me when I was young, so now I will try and find a way to effectively encourage and engage all students with an activity like this. Below is an example of a settler...
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| Math Settler. (2013, February 10). "Settlers"[digital image]. Retrieved From http://www.scoop.it/t/mathematics-starters/p/3996398803/2013/02/10/settlers |
I would like to continue to learn better post-lesson reactions. The main thing I am still trying to grasp is how to react to students who are bad at math without singling them out as “slower” or not able to keep up with the brightest students in the class. I think there has to be a way to alter the lessons in order to encourage learning in all students, regardless of where they start off or their basis of knowledge. With math, if students lack the basis of knowledge, for example how to add quickly, multiplication becomes extremely difficult, then if they continue to struggle with the basic multiplication, they will never be able to move on and do algebra, or statistics, or any other stream of math that they need that basis of knowledge for. The idea that students are being left behind because they are not speaking up when they do not understand something, or need more help, is something I would like to be able to spot out, and then help them learn the necessary skills to move forward. I think a good student is someone who says they need help when they do need it, but an excellent educator can spot that student out without being told.
After reviewing the “Ontario Grade 1-8 Mathematics Curriculum” document, I was surprised to see the accountability the curriculum places on not only students but teachers, principals and parents. It was nice to see that they hold students accountable for their learning, but also encourage secondary learning sources such as parents and the principal responsible. If a variety of students are not keeping up with the mathematics curriculum, then perhaps there is a pedagogical reason. While this document contains an overwhelming amount of expectations, it seems to be an excellent guideline for teachers to follow, and I enjoyed becoming more familiar with it.
I also found some pretty cool resources while researching "settlers" a bit more, one of them from Statistics Canada. This would definitely be a good resource for Junior/ Intermediate mathematics.
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