Your Understanding-1st, Procedures 2nd Implementation Report (& Peer Reviews)
By the end of this PD, you should have implemented - at the very least - several lessons worth of new-to-you strategies that fall into the U-1, P-2 category.
Ideally, you'll visit here occasionally over many months and post short reports updating us on your various implementations.
Alternatively, write one summary report on those experiences at the end of the PD.
The two other Implementation Reports
Note that the next implementation report is for student-centred activities. Obviously, student-centred activities fall under the U-1, P-2 category. However, save your reports on activities where the intention is (also part of U-1, P-2); therefore, focus on a different type of strategy for this report.
The third report is for The Socratic Mathematics Seminar.
Examples of activities and strategies that fall into the U-1, P-2 category:
- An Assessment for Learning task (Card Matching).
- A structured Peer-Teaching task.
- The use of Diagnostic Interactions.
- The use of 'Fractional Doings' or similar.
- The use of the Brick Wall Strategy.
- The use of a Metacognition Assignment or similar.
- Implementing Formative Assessment and/or Feedback strategies.
- The use of Good Questioning Techniques
- The use of any task that prioritises conceptual understanding over the learning of routines and procedures.
- Etc...
Peer Reviews:
Respond to at least one implementation report from each of the implementation pages. Click 'Reply' to the post you want to peer-review and then post your reply.
Guidelines for peer reviews
- Write one or two things you liked.
- Write one suggestion for improvement if applicable.
Keep progressing to the last page of the last module ...
After writing your comment, navigate through all pages of this and the next (final) module. The last page is where you inform us you have finished!
Thanks,
Richard.
Some Past Reports ...
Angus Vos
I had a really good encounter using the Understanding first - Procedure second approach. I had a low Year 9 class and we were revising over the properties of different quadrilateral. Rather than giving them all the properties and moving on. I cut out all 8 shapes, split them into groups of 2-3 and I got them to write on the back any information that they knew about the shape. Once conversations started to retract I introduced some new ideas such as folding the shape in half or to focus on the angles within the shape. This was great because it gave them an opportunity to converse with others and gain some understanding about the shapes properties. Richard Fantastic. A bit like the card matching exercise re straight line graphing. This approach can be applied to a number of aspects of school maths. |
Heath Barlin
I ran a lesson looking at the surface area of shapes with the idea of working towards nets. Giving the students shapes and having them make predictions and then explain their answers to their peers. Predicting formula for calculating the SA proved a little much for some of the weaker students, but for the most part, were able ti use the formula to successfully calculate the SA after the fact. Richard That's awesome Heath. Do I assume the engagement was up compared to the usual? He It was definitely greater than usual, especially with the traditionally disengaged. Richard Awesome to hear. Keep following the thread, Heath. It keeps getting better! |
Thomas Allen
I had a nice experience with using a bit of a brick wall strategy with my year 11s recently. We were covering calculus from the year 12 curriculum and I wanted to look at finding the area under curves. They're a top set group and some had even read ahead and knew that integration would help them find areas. The task I gave them was a simple quadratic (y=5x-x^2) and asked them to find the area under the curve bound by the x-axis. The stipulation was that they were not allowed to use any method that they couldn't justify from first principles. I then put them into random groups of 3 and set them up at whiteboards and just gave them time to do whatever they wanted. It was really interesting to see the kinds of ideas that they came up with for estimating the area, using rectangles, triangles, semicircles, trapezia, and combinations of lots of different shapes. Through the work that they did and some highlighting of specific groups to help others along, once we started collecting our ideas together as a class, we came up with the trapezium rule really easily with my role only really being to provide some structure and notation to what they were suggesting. It also gave a nice foundation to link the idea of integration with area but in a way that gave them some reason as to why that was the case, rather than just following a pattern blindly. I think that brick walls are really nice to use and it's definitely a work-in-progress with students that are not used to being forced to think for themselves whilst being stuck. I've found that, especially with students that have struggled with maths or have negative attitudes towards it, they need a lot of encouragement and guidance (mainly just responding to their questions with "I don't know, try it!") as they're reluctant to believe that they can discover something by themselves and then even more reluctant to trust it. I often find myself just needing to give more nudges to some students to get them to continue and test their ideas more since they are quick to give up. However, when they do find things for themselves they are often much more excited. This gives a good opportunity to highlight and praise their perseverance in front of other students and show where the satisfaction comes from in problem solving.
Richard
Wow, this is a great story, Thomas. Especially: I often find myself just needing to give more nudges to some students to get them to continue and test their ideas more since they are quick to give up. However, when they do find things for themselves they are often much more excited. Well done.
I had a nice experience with using a bit of a brick wall strategy with my year 11s recently. We were covering calculus from the year 12 curriculum and I wanted to look at finding the area under curves. They're a top set group and some had even read ahead and knew that integration would help them find areas. The task I gave them was a simple quadratic (y=5x-x^2) and asked them to find the area under the curve bound by the x-axis. The stipulation was that they were not allowed to use any method that they couldn't justify from first principles. I then put them into random groups of 3 and set them up at whiteboards and just gave them time to do whatever they wanted. It was really interesting to see the kinds of ideas that they came up with for estimating the area, using rectangles, triangles, semicircles, trapezia, and combinations of lots of different shapes. Through the work that they did and some highlighting of specific groups to help others along, once we started collecting our ideas together as a class, we came up with the trapezium rule really easily with my role only really being to provide some structure and notation to what they were suggesting. It also gave a nice foundation to link the idea of integration with area but in a way that gave them some reason as to why that was the case, rather than just following a pattern blindly. I think that brick walls are really nice to use and it's definitely a work-in-progress with students that are not used to being forced to think for themselves whilst being stuck. I've found that, especially with students that have struggled with maths or have negative attitudes towards it, they need a lot of encouragement and guidance (mainly just responding to their questions with "I don't know, try it!") as they're reluctant to believe that they can discover something by themselves and then even more reluctant to trust it. I often find myself just needing to give more nudges to some students to get them to continue and test their ideas more since they are quick to give up. However, when they do find things for themselves they are often much more excited. This gives a good opportunity to highlight and praise their perseverance in front of other students and show where the satisfaction comes from in problem solving.
Richard
Wow, this is a great story, Thomas. Especially: I often find myself just needing to give more nudges to some students to get them to continue and test their ideas more since they are quick to give up. However, when they do find things for themselves they are often much more excited. Well done.