Monday 13 June 2011

Freeze Frame

So today I was teaching a particularly difficult lesson on the 10 more than rule - you add 10 to any number by adding 10 to the 10's place.  This was the first time I had taught the rule using the 5 step lesson recommended by whole brain teaching.  The lesson was rolling along, until we got to the part where I was showing examples of equations that followed the rule.  All of the sudden there were no actions, no gestures, no movement from my students, just silence.  I found myself encouraging gestures and asking for more action.  Slowly, I realized that I didn't need to do that and that it was OK for them not to do gestures because they were concentrating on the examples, intensely.

In fact, upon reflecting on previous observations and the events of today my visual learners concentrate on the Power Pix even while they were teaching their neighbour, often turning their heads to look back a the SmartBoard.

 It was even more interesting when it came time for each student to add 10 to 5 different numbers, individually.  Almost immediately, I had a few ask for help.  I had one student say, "I didn't get it before (this lesson) but now I do!"  Furthermore, I found that I was able to better explain the concept (e.g. 36 + 10 Question: What number is in the 10's place?  Answer: 30 rather than 3.  Now count by tens - what number comes after 30?  Answer: 40  Now, using this information, as well as the number in the 1's place what is 36 + 10?)  Answer: 46)

I'm already planning to do the same lesson again tomorrow, maybe with a few different examples - going for 100% student mastery of the concept - oh yeah!!  Thanks WBT for catering to all different learning styles!

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