Quick fixes and silver bullets… – Thinking Mathematically I find myself reflecting on what I believe is best for my students and best for my students’ beliefs about what mathematics is often. When I get the opportunity to take a look at my students’ work and time to determine next steps, I can’t help but reflect on how my beliefs inform what next steps I would take. However, I wonder, given the same students and the same results, if we would all give the same next steps? Let’s take a look at a few common beliefs about what our students need to be successful and discuss each. My kids need to know their facts: Often we see students who make careless mistakes and wonder why they could have gone wrong with something so simple. Instead of spending more time worrying about memorizing facts, I wonder if other strategies have been thought of to help our students as well? My kid aren’t reading the questions: I wonder what answer students might get to the above question? What do you notice here? What might our students see? My students need more stamina:
How Giving Students Feedback Through Video Instead of Text Can Foster Better Understanding Narter is not alone. In the past few years, a handful of educators, working in different disciplines and various education levels, have made similar observations. Michael Phillips and Michael Henderson, education faculty at Monash University in Australia, have been experimenting with video feedback for years. They’ve created a website with recommendations for teachers who want to try it out themselves. Technology has limitations, of course. Overall, Phillips and Henderson, who previously taught in high schools, have been blown away by their pupils’ rave reviews. Cognitive scientists may be less surprised by the enthusiasm for video grading. Emotion, for example, is largely conveyed through nonverbal cues, as psychologist Albert Mehrabian (now an emeritus professor at the University of California, Los Angeles) revealed in studies in the 1960s. Indeed, in the videos, teachers typically use a casual, conversational style, which students see as authentic and accessible.
Five Classroom Dimensions That Show Deep Math Learning Is Happening | MindShift | KQED News Mia Buljan remembers the specific moment eight years ago when she realized she had to give kids more space to grapple with a problem on their own. She was filming a student working on a math problem with her iPhone (something she does regularly so she can review her strategies and plan next steps). “At that time I thought my job was to be super helpful,” she said, “like ask some pointed questions, or give some suggestions of where he might go next.” But before she could help the student, her attention was called away by a disturbance on the other side of the room among her 34 students. “The whole time I was distracted and not talking to him at all, he was thinking and redesigning his problem,” Buljan said. “I have watched so much wrong counting it hurts,” Buljan said. Buljan no longer rushes to cover everything in the pacing guide. She applies the Teaching For Robust Understanding of Mathematics (TRU) framework in her classroom. Subtraction is a good example.
Teaching & Assessing Soft Skills The career landscape is changing dramatically. The Bureau of Labor Statistics states that the average worker currently holds ten different jobs before the age of forty. This requires a high degree of flexibility and adaptability. Students who leave high school with strong soft skills will work more harmoniously with others and be more successful tackling unfamiliar tasks. However, teachers must explicitly teach these soft skills in school. This year I am focusing on both teaching and assessing these critical soft skills. Now my teacher team uses these rubrics to give each student feedback on where he/she is in relation to mastering these crucial skills. Below are a few of the rubrics I designed. If you have strategies or resources you use to support students in developing their soft skills, please post a comment and share them!
Ask the NCTM Community :: Suzanne at the Math Forum During the fall season of conferences Annie, Max, and I took the opportunity to find out what types of questions folks would ask if prompted to Ask the NCTM Community. We set up a bulletin board in the NCTM Central Networking Lounge at the Regional conferences in Phoenix (October 26-28) and Philadelphia (October 31-November 2). We also asked visitors to our booth in the CMC-South Exhibit Hall in Palm Springs (November 4-5) to offer questions. Before reading through the questions that we gathered, imagine what you might ask if given the chance to Ask the NCTM Community. Would it be a question about a particular math topic that you find difficult to present to students? click image to view larger version Regional Conferences Networking Lounge – bulletin board Below are the specific questions we gathered at the three conferences. Regionals – Phoenix and Philadelphia: Bulletin Board Notes How do we convince our school not to use timed tests in math? Any ideas on teaching proofs in Geometry???
Comment donner une rétroaction efficace aux étudiants Cet article constitue une synthèse et une traduction libre de l’article How to Give Feedback to Students [PDF], paru dans The Australian Society for Evidence Based Teaching. Si vous souhaitez que vos étudiants soient encore davantage engagés dans votre cours et dans leurs apprentissages, cet article est pour vous. Certains d’entre vous ont déjà de l’expérience en matière de rétroaction; si c’est votre cas, ce guide1 vous permettra d’aller encore plus loin et, peut-être, d’améliorer vos pratiques. Et si, en tant qu’enseignant, vous estimez ne pas rétroagir suffisamment ou si vous vous sentez mal outillé, ce guide vous amènera à réfléchir sur vos pratiques. 1 Cette synthèse a servi à l'élaboration d'un guide de référence destiné au personnel enseignant du Collège Sainte-Anne. La rétroaction 101 Pourquoi apprendre à donner de la rétroaction efficacement? Nous savons que la rétroaction fonctionne. En outre, certains types de rétroaction sont plus efficaces, pertinents que d’autres. 1. 2. 3. 4.
Food for Thought - Robert Kaplinsky If you think others need to see this, share it on one of the sites below by clicking on the button. My article on the interesting similarities shared by healthy eating and math education was published in Education Week (Vol. 31, Issue 33, Page 29) on June 6, 2012: The philosophies behind healthy eating and math instruction share interesting similarities that provide useful insight into the direction educational policymakers should take. Healthy eating means consuming the right amount from each of the food groups. It is systemically more beneficial when the food is as close to its natural state as possible, as opposed to having been heavily processed in a factory and removed from its original source. Eating unprocessed food gives us important dietary components, such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein, that are essential for staying healthy. While we know we need these dietary components to stay healthy, it isn’t the same to take them separately as supplements.
Cédric Robardet : Corriger ses copies à l'oral La correction des copies est sans doute un des gestes professionnels les plus identifiés au métier d'enseignant. Une étude de la Depp nous dit que les enseignants du second degré y consacrent 5h48 par semaine. Et l'expérience apprend que ces heures ne sont pas toujours efficaces tant le risque de malentendu est grand. Un procédé simple mais chronophage Professeur au lycée de Saint Maixent l'Ecole (Deux Sèvres), Cédric Robardet enseigne les SES e première et en terminale. Le procédé est simple : C Robardet enregistre sur son téléphone son commentaire pour chaque élève puis il envoie le fichier son sur l'espace numérique de travail (ENT) régional et partage le fichier avec l'élève. Est-ce chronophage ? Personnaliser la correction "J'y pensais depuis 3 ans", nous dit-il, "la remarque écrite me donnait un sentiment d'impuissance". Quelles améliorations apporte la correction orale ? Mais C Robardet estime que la correction est aussi plus développée. Un effet coach Est-ce efficace ?
14 Resources on Crafting Learning Objectives Knowing what students are expected to understand and accomplish by the end of any lesson, unit, or course is an important part of curriculum design. Without these guiding objectives, it’s difficult to know if students are learning what they need to succeed. Learn how to craft, communicate, and evaluate learning objectives with this selection of resources just released on ASCD myTeachSource®. For more resources on learning objectives, go to ASCD myTeachSource and sign up for a free two-week trial. Free Resources Knowing Your Learning Target (Educational Leadership) The first thing students need to learn is what they’re supposed to be learning. Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback (Book Chapter) The authors provide classroom practices for setting objectives and giving feedback that reassures students that their teacher is focused on helping them succeed. Lesson Plans and Unit Plans: The Basis for Instruction (Book Chapter) Know Where Your Students Are Going (Book Chapter) ASCD Resources