Saturday, September 30, 2017

Mini White boards for math?

I am the type of teacher that can’t move on to a new topic unless I know for sure everyone understands what I am teaching. During my first year teaching, I would use the method of raise your hand if you agree and use some tricks to make students doubt their answers. I taught at an elementary level, but I will use an example of what I would have done if I was in grade 7-10 math class.
For example, Solve:  20-10(5-3) = ?
     a)      0
     b)      2
     c)      4
     d)   6
     e)      None of the above
During this period, as educators, we know which students are doing well in class and which students are struggling. Using my strategy of raise your hand if you think (a) is the right answer, students that have no idea will raise their hands with the majority of the class. That doesn’t help me as a teacher know who actually understands. To doubt that students I would say “but 20-10= 10 and 5-3=2. 10(2)=20. I think the answer is none of the above, would anybody agree with me.” Then we would start a classroom discussion.

The following year, I used the strategy of the mini white board and had students write down their answer on it and raise it up for me to take a look. I noticed a big difference in answers and I had a better idea of who understands the lessons and who needs help. I would fix the problem right there by reviewing the lesson and using different strategies.