Collaboration

Collaborative Working

A key concept from this week’s math class was collaborative working. The concept taught me and the other teacher candidates a great resource to use in the classroom. The idea of allowing the students to group themselves together in a way they wanted was a different experience to me. While we as students were given popsicles sticks with colors and numbers on them we were then allowed to divide up in a way in which we wanted to. We could have got into groups based on the color of our popsicle stick or the number we had – all the number 1s together or all different numbers from 1-6. The concept of choice allows the students to feel involved and does not make it seem like they were forced to work with particular peers.

Collaborative work also ensured that everyone was able to take part in the math lesson. Each member of the group was given a clue that they were to read to the rest of the group. That clue was only for that person and they had to read it to the others causing them to be involved. The interaction made sure that all members of the group participated and that the group was not dominated by a student that excels in math. An example of what can come from the collaboration is shown below as my group was able to solve the clues to complete the task given to us.

Assessment

Assessment is an influential part of a student’s learning experience. In the past assessment has been focused on what the student is able to produce on paper. Recently the narrative of assessment has begun to change to better reflect the knowledge and understanding of the student. According to “Teaching and Learning Mathematics,” the use of more informal assessment methods such as discussion or observation allow teachers to provide a mark that better reflects the students understanding. A students understanding should not be based on one test of performance task but should be based on their overall understanding of the math concepts. This week’s class along with the readings taught me that as a teacher we should be making notes about the success of the students. These notes will allow teachers to understand what they need to teach but will also allow them to document the success and understanding of the students.

Technology in the classroom

This week my classmates learning activity presentations examined the use of technology in mathematics. Two of the presentations used the website https://www.explorelearning.com/, which has multiple math activities for students of all ability levels. The ‘Gizmos’ as the activities are called allow the students to interact with the information that they are learning. By being able to interact with the content the students are learning they will be able to better understand and be more interested in the math topics. The Gizmos can be extremely helpful as a reinforcement activity or introduction into new topics. The Gizmos are just another example of the concept of ensuring that students are engaged in mathematics. Just in the past classes, the use of a student’s interest to teach math was reinforced as important and influential tool.