This week I started teaching math. I really like math, but had never taught a math lesson before. I started with a division unit and so far things are going well. I used a pretest question to gauge how much students knew about division and what strategies they had. From reading the test, Jane and I were able to make a list of students who may need some extra help. I have taught 3 lessons now and after each one I am assessing how students are doing. They always have a "Thinking Deeply" question on their homework and from reading their responses I have been able to tell what and how I need to teach division to reach certain students. I am enjoying teaching math so far, but still learning. The class is 1.5 hours so I am trying to get the pacing correct. That has been hard for me. I have felt rushed at the end of the lessons for the past two days. I am hoping with time I will get better. I am also trying to incorporate some more technology into math class to math it more interesting. I found a Promethean board Jeopardy template online and I am going to use it Monday in math to play a review game before they take a quiz. We are also using it tomorrow in science.
Along with starting to teach math, I also started my action research data collection. On Monday students got their math journals and have been writing in them each day this week. It has been interesting seeing the various reactions to the journals. Students have done a nice job of journaling on their own, but they had trouble when they had to switch journals and respond to a partner. I am curious to see how things will go over the next two weeks as we continue to work on our writing skills in math.
Answer to Anticipatory Set Question:
I think of an anticipatory set as sort of a launch into my lesson. I want to assess what students know, I want to get them thinking about concepts that are in the lesson and give them an idea of what they will be learning. I know with the video it really didn't activate any background knowledge, but it set the stage to then discuss what students knew about social scientists.
It's interesting to me that you'd never taught a math lesson before student teaching. We have to do something about that at St. Kate's! Anyway, I'm glad this was a subject you've been looking forward to tackling. The best part about your post, in my opinion, is seeing how assessment is guiding so much of your instruction. I'm curious: as you looked at kids' existing skills/strategies (with the pretest), and identified groups that may need more or less instruction, did you organize instructional groups to use instead of, or along with, whole group instruction?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I wonder if you think assessment-informed instruction is easier to do with math--easier than writing, for example, or social studies.
Thanks for clarifying your thinking about anticipatory sets. I think they can take many forms, including a video that piques students' curiosity!