Week 7 Reflection
This week we examined the ways to teach pattering and algebra to our students. A unit that I personally excelled in during my times in elementary school. As such, I never had a personal connection to any sorts of modified teaching methods that I was exposed to during this unit in school. Of course, the one piece I did always remember was the excitement that came out of me when the teacher would bring out the polygon tiles.
In class, we used these tiles to show how t present an interactive way for students to develop patterning skills. Importantly, it also allowed students to better understand how patterns involving more than one element could look/be formed. The use of number machines also came up in class as a way of helping to students to physically "see" a number transform. I found this method very helpful as it can help organize student's thoughts around the possible functions being performed. This works especially well if multiple functions are being performed on a number at each step, it can get confusing very quickly for students.
As shown in the picture below, function/number machines are a very effective way of organizing student thought processes when determining patterns. This out competes simply writing the numbers in a row, as it gets students thinking form the perspective of an assembly line, a concrete, real-world concept they can relate to as opposed to an abstract idea of patterning.
I can easily see myself using these approaches in my practice, as I have always been under the philosophy of providing students with multiple ways of understanding the concepts I am verbally explaining. This ties in great with our discussion surrounding differentiated instruction in math, as math has traditionally been a very auditory and written subject, leaving many students struggling as a result.
This has been the largest take away for me so far in this course, is the variety of ways that math can be taught to meet student needs. I rarely had math teachers who taught outside of the traditional formula, so it was very hard for me to imagine as my teaching block got closer how I could create engaging lessons for my students. After been through this learning, it becomes very sad when I reflect to realize how many opportunities my old teachers had to provide this sort of program planning. The methods I have obtained so far have been very simplistic in nature and flexible enough that they can be applied to almost any math strand or lesson. How many more students in my math classes could have grown up to appreciate or like math if they had been taught in an alternative, relateable way?
In class, we used these tiles to show how t present an interactive way for students to develop patterning skills. Importantly, it also allowed students to better understand how patterns involving more than one element could look/be formed. The use of number machines also came up in class as a way of helping to students to physically "see" a number transform. I found this method very helpful as it can help organize student's thoughts around the possible functions being performed. This works especially well if multiple functions are being performed on a number at each step, it can get confusing very quickly for students.
As shown in the picture below, function/number machines are a very effective way of organizing student thought processes when determining patterns. This out competes simply writing the numbers in a row, as it gets students thinking form the perspective of an assembly line, a concrete, real-world concept they can relate to as opposed to an abstract idea of patterning.
 |
| 11 Plus for Parents. Function Machines [Digital Image]. Retrieved from http://www.11plusforparents.co.uk/Maths/functionmachine.html |
I can easily see myself using these approaches in my practice, as I have always been under the philosophy of providing students with multiple ways of understanding the concepts I am verbally explaining. This ties in great with our discussion surrounding differentiated instruction in math, as math has traditionally been a very auditory and written subject, leaving many students struggling as a result.
This has been the largest take away for me so far in this course, is the variety of ways that math can be taught to meet student needs. I rarely had math teachers who taught outside of the traditional formula, so it was very hard for me to imagine as my teaching block got closer how I could create engaging lessons for my students. After been through this learning, it becomes very sad when I reflect to realize how many opportunities my old teachers had to provide this sort of program planning. The methods I have obtained so far have been very simplistic in nature and flexible enough that they can be applied to almost any math strand or lesson. How many more students in my math classes could have grown up to appreciate or like math if they had been taught in an alternative, relateable way?
Comments
Post a Comment