A Reflection on my Learning Nov. 7

Welcome Back Everyone... 

As we are reaching the end of the semester, I have been really spending some time reflecting back on all the useful strategies we have learned thus far. The many strategies that we have been learning continue to be not only engaging but exciting! I still am finding the math presentations to be extremely helpful and useful. My fellow teacher associates continue to bring creative math lesson ideas to class that I will definitely use to inspire my lesson plans in the future. My math activity presentation is approaching and I hope I am able to follow by example!

Westway Junior School. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://schoolweb.tdsb.on.ca/westway/Great-Math-Websites-for-Kids.

 When reflecting on the activities that we have done as a class over the past couple of weeks, I begin to think of the 21 Loop Cards Math activity that we did at the start of our week 6 class.

At the beginning of our class each of us was handed a card that read "I have ___. who has ____?" Loop Card activities have students work on their mental math skills and can be modified based on the curriculum and grade level, or where the class appears to need more practice. The goal is for the students to work in a chain formation. The first student will read their 'who has' question, and the rest of the class has to be paying attention in order to mentally solve the other persons problem in their head to determine if their number is the answer to that equation and if they are next in line. 

I found this activity to be tricky as my mental math skills are not the best. However, I was extremely engaged during it as I was constantly solving my peers math questions in my head to see if I was up! Hence why this is such a great activity to work on multiplication skills as students are not just solving the equation on their loop card, but also each one of their peers equations. However, one thing I reflect on is how this activity could provoke anxiety in our students that are not the strongest in multiplication or that do not like speaking in front of the class. When I am using this activity in my class I will ensure that the loop cards are at a difficulty level appropriate enough for all the students or how I may selectively hand out the cards to ensure that students who struggle with multiplication receive a card that is at a lower difficulty level.

Our week 7 class just so happened to fall right on October 31st. What day is October 31st may you ask? Its HALLOWEEN!

... and what makes me think of halloween? candy.

My classmate Victoria utilized candy and created a great lesson plan activity that can be used for an equality and inequality lesson. She presented an activity in which students were required to balance out a scale using jelly beans as a manipulative! Yum! 

Not only do students love any lesson that involves candy, but using the jelly beans really added a hands on approach to learning and allows students to really visualize the problem. A modification I would make to this lesson, if I have the proper supplies, would be to use a real scale for this activity. The scale can start with 13 candies on one side and students can use more candies to balance the scale. Doing this would really show students that the equal sign does not always mean solve the problem and find the answer but rather that it signifies balance.

English Language Learners (ELL)

Finally, in week 6 we spent the later part of our class discussing English Language Learners and key things that we must keep in mind when teaching them. This is something that I always fail to consider, as my internship experience so far has been in schools and classrooms with a lack of English language learners. However in this class, we discussed having English Language learners in our classroom and how we can identify the level of English Language that they are at.  These include Early stage Learners of English, Foundation Learners of English, Confident users of English, and Fluent users of English. For each Level of English language learner, we looked at the key identifying characteristics, key needs, and key strategies that can help us when working with English language learners in our classroom. 

Lets take a closer look at early stage learners of English...

Key Characteristics include:

recent arrival to country, very limited vocabulary, may have limited knowledge of Roman alphabetical and numerical characters and writing system, limited cultural context and knowledge etc.

Some key needs of Early Language learners include...

feeling welcomed and secure in school and classroom, guidance as to the expectations of behaviour and learning, differentiated learning and objectives, cultural cues and context, and activities based around the knowledge of key words, with images to support. 

Key strategies for teachers working with ELL's include:

sitting early stage learners at the front of the classroom where you can help them easily,  use of home language buddy, clear examples of expectations for tasks- a modelled example, and planning opportunities for the students to answer questions privately to you or in a class discussion.

This lesson really reminded me to not assume that all of my students will have the English language as their first language. Week 7's class introduced me to new techniques that I can use when I have ELL's in my classroom. I want to ensure that I am accommodating and can help them succeed by providing them with all the assistance I can to ensure they succeed and have equal opportunity for success as any other student in my class.

Thanks for reading!

sincerely,

Nicole 

References