S.T.E.M. Highlights
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." -John Quincy Adams
Resources: For hard-copy Unit 2 resources, please see last week's Highlights. This week resources address the question, "What should *this* part of my block look like?" See below for some answers!
Also, see two amazing learning activities at the bottom that will really push students' thinking!
This week...
(Below) Not sure what it looks like to lead students through guided notes? Watch this video of Danielle Borja from RSCP deliver "knowledge" key points, followed by a CFU / processing question. Note: we're not just giving students words to copy down; we're teaching them a new term, then immediately having them apply that term by asking them processing questions!
(Below) Janna McIntyre of RSCP debriefs the word problem of the day. Format used: 1. Class reads the problem whole-group; 2. Teacher leads discussion around understanding what's happening in the story (focus on comprehension, not computation here); 3. Students had four minutes to solve; 4. Teacher has one student show her work and asks the class processing questions i.e. "Why did Elizabeth make 4 of the counters light and the other ones dark?" Idea: Leading students to understand that there are two parts, and the parts are being added together.
No! Sort of. The point is to hit on common misconceptions and close those gaps, while giving as many students as many at-bats as possible! Watch the following scene from a math board review of Mr. Perez at Rocketship Rising Stars. Notice this flow of his types of talk: 1. Slow call (teacher asks a question, all students think, think, think, but no hands yet) 2. Turn and talk (all students getting an at-bat here) 3. Cold call- teacher calls on a student who may have a misconception, so that he can ask them prompting questions and help them conquer that misconception.
Two awesome resources:
For lower grades, Kakooma is a fantastic manipulating numbers-type game. Take 5 - 10 mins. to teacher this one day, and BAM! Your students are set and can use this whenever it best fits into your block!
For upper grades, Game 24 pushes students to use all four operations to create an equation that equals 24. Example on the first card: 6, 1, 9, and 2 are given. Students need to think: "how could I make the number 24 using an equation with these numbers?" They'll then begin trying different ways to multiply, add, divide, and subtract in order to get the result 24!
Solution to this one: (9 x 2) + 6, multiplied by 1.
Helpful Links:
Mission Control - find out about your teacher benefits, perks, staff directory, summer PD resources, etc.
Box.com - where to find you "shared resources" folders, charts and chants, etc.; also where common plans are housed