I have struggled these first 70 days of school trying to find a routine that works for me – planning a lesson, developing the lesson, implementing the lesson and reflecting on the lesson. Now, to do that for three different classes was at times overwhelming. I have come to find a routine that works for me – I hope that you have as well. Remember, no one can tell you that you are doing it wrong because no one has been in this situation before – so find a routine that works for you and your personal life.
After finding a routine, I then was able to try and refine
my lessons so that I could engage my students in a better way. Some days are better than others, of course. As I develop ideas for engagement I do try
and keep myself grounded to a few common agreements. One, is the idea meaningful and relevant to
my students? Two, is it tied to the state
standards? Three, can I use the idea
next year when we return to in class instruction?
One engagement tool I have found useful is called
Desmos. It is a tool for 7th
and 8th grade Math. Desmos
allows the teacher to view in real time student responses and accuracy. Desmos has activities that are aligned
directly with Eureka Math in certain modules.
There is also a large bank of teacher created Desmos Activities that can
be used or you can create your own.
The one activity I want to mention today is called ‘Polygraph.’ It is a low stress activity that every
student in the class can do and give teachers data on each student. I use this activity at the beginning of a
unit and at the end of a unit – to gather data on students’ academic vocabulary
use. It is great to see the growth
students exhibit at the beginning of the unit with no formal academic vocabulary
given to the end of the unit where students have been exposed to the proper vocabulary.
In ‘Polygraph’, students are randomly paired with another
student in the class. One student
selects one slide from a group of different slides. The other student asks yes or no questions to
properly identify the slide that was chosen.
The first student can only click ‘yes’ or ‘no’ after the question is
posed. While this question and answer
time is happening, the teacher can in real time monitor what each student is asking. This can be useful because the teacher can pause
the activity at any time and give praise to good questions and the words
being used. At the end of the activity,
the teacher can review what each pair of students asked to informally assess
the use of academic vocabulary. And at
the end of the unit, the teacher could revisit the activity to see the growth in
academic vocabulary use.
Students find this activity to be low risk and challenge
themselves to complete as many ‘games’ as possible in the allotted time
frame. By the end of the unit, students
use more precise language in their questions and usually when they rate themselves
find that they are better at the use of mathematical academic language.
Below are some screenshots of the Desmos activity I used in
7th grade last week to start the unit on Unit Rates and Proportional
Reasoning:
Students choose one of these cards:
Again, there is no right or wrong way you are conducting your class – find a routine that works for you and then start to try some small new engagement activities in your lessons. I do wish each of you much success and peace of mind during these difficult times. Please reach out if you have questions about Math 7/8 – I will do my best to offer my thoughts as I too struggle with finding all the right answers during this time.
Finally, give yourself 'grace' during these difficult times and if you are giving yourself 'grace', then give yourself more,
Kevin Stott
De Anza Middle School
Math 7, Math 8, Integrated Math I
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