Modified, But Marvelous!

Mary attended the FOS PLC's for Grade 2.  She is currently teaching a SERT program with students who are at different grade levels and different learning styles.  She took one of the measurement lessons that we did together and modified it to meet the needs of her classroom.

She had done some previous lessons with her students on what distance is.  They co-created an anchor chart that is hung up in the classroom.  You can see how the chart is written in simple language, uses colours and also uses pictures to help students.  It is a really good example of how you can use the students in the chart (and to help you make the chart) to make them more engaged in the learning.

For the minds-on of the lesson the students created paper airplanes.  For the action, the students predicted how far they thought their airplane would fly.  Mary used the tiles in the hallway as the non-standard unit of measure as there were many of them, and the students could count them easily. After each flight, the students then wrote down the actual distance that their airplane went.  They then repeated this two more times.  As each student was having a turn, they came up with different ways that they could count the tiles.  Some counted by 1s, some by 2s, and some by 5s.  Regardless of how they chose to count, they all came up with the same answer.  Here is the recording sheet that they used to record their information:

For the consolidation the students came together on the carpet to share their results and answer questions about the data that they had in front of them. What is great about this lesson is that although the students were measuring using non-standard units, they also got the chance to use skills from other strands like Number Sense and Numeration (for skip counting) and also a bit of Data Management as they talked about the data they had collected, and made inferences about what they saw.  Their learning was recorded on a chart:

The students also talked more about the unit that they used to measure with by justifying why they thought the tiles were a good unit to measure with and also listed other things they could use to measure distance.

It was a great lesson that Mary modified to meet the needs of her students, but could easily be done in any given classroom.

Differentiated Instruction In Math

In the math classroom, Differentiating Instruction is a key component of ensuring student success. We know that teaching through problem solving and using a three part lesson are ways to incorporate DI into our classroom, but what else can we use?

One of our FOS books clubs is studying the book "Good Questions: Great Ways to Differentiate Mathematics Instruction" by Marian Small (It is available from Nelson Education). The book breaks down the math into specific areas of: Number and Operation; Geometry; Measurement; Algebra; and Data Analysis and Probability. At the start of each chapter, there is a discussion on the "Big Ideas" for the strand, and then divides up the strand into the Grade Bands of K-Grade 2; Grades 3-5; and Grades 6-8.

At our last session, Melissa shared with us the problem that she did in her Grade 1/2 class, and the samples of student work. The question she gave them was "Here is one Tangram animal. Make your own tangram animal." How is this question differentiated? For weaker students, they could simply copy the animal that was provided. For students who needed more of a challenge, they now could create their own animals.

Some other good open questions from the book are:

K-2: Choose a type of shape. Tell as many things about it as you can.

3-5: Make a square on a geoboard. Move the elastic so that one corner is no longer a corner. What different shapes can you make?

6-8: A shape has a triangle for a cross-section. What could the shape be?