I am determined to become confident in using rounds or circuits. In 391, I did math stations and felt overwhelmed as the students were interacting with the manipulatives. Through conversations with my 391 CT, she let me know that letting the students have autonomy over their discussions and using the materials as directed, helping and working together.
In 490, I decided to try again. This time, I had geoboards, written work, area battle, and Prodigy for the grade 5s, while the grade 6s worked on determining the area of complex shapes.
Geoboards
Students had never used geoboards for area or perimeter and it was a learning curve! I gave them the area and perimeter and asked them to determine the side lengths. They used the geoboards to show their thinking using a non-permanent place to think! The elastics allowed students to make mistakes without being a constant reminder as they could quickly change their thinking! This section made me realize that students needed repeated work on geoboards and working backwards – from area to find side lengths.
Written Work
Students worked on lined paper to respond to a set of questions. It was interesting to see how students got to conclusions, where they needed help and what the roadblocks were for students. While each of the stations allowed different pieces of formative assessment to take place, the written work was a concrete way to record their level of understanding of finding area and perimeter – this made me think critically about assessment and how to record findings when they are formative.
Area Battle
Area Battle was a super fun way to get the students involved in constantly practicing area without it being a worksheet or repetitive. Students got a pair of dice, where they would roll each die to determine length and width, 1 die would be length the other would be width. They would draw their rectangles on graph paper, the student with the most amount of area wins the game. The game ends when there is not enough room for a student to draw their rectangle. This game revolves around critical thinking – is there a strategy?
Prodigy
Prodigy is a math adventure game that tracks progress for students in a class – my CT had set this up for her class, where each student had an alias to remain anonymous online. Students were able to work on parts of math that they are struggling with or wanting to improve on.
Core Competency: Critical Thinking
Facet: Students engage with others in ways that build and sustain trusting relationships and contribute to collective approaches.
Profile: I express my ideas and help others feel comfortable to share theirs so that all voices are included.
First Peoples Principles of Learning: Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
Big Idea:
- Closed shapes have area and perimeter that can be described, measured, and compared (5)
Curricular Competency:
- Model mathematics in contextualized experiences (5)
Content:
- classification: investigating 2D shapes (5)
