Sunday, November 16, 2008
Teaching Math as a Social Activity
We all remember math class in school. Simply sitting in a seat, listening to a teacher with the lights off, as she scribbles non - sense on a projector. At least that is how I remember it. I was never engaged in learning when it came to math. As a social person, I become very bored while learning math. Alas, a new way to teach math. Allowing students to converse with others while working on math problems which are often word problems. This allows those students who do not do well while sitting a seat for an hour, to get up, move about the room, and work out problems. Allowing students to work together creates new connections to the material instead of pure notes on a page. Furthermore, allowing students to work together helps students manage their emotions, improve conflict resolution, resolve conflicts nonviolently, and to make good choices. This was a great movie for upper - elementary teachers to view.
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9 comments:
I think it is great for students to be active in math class. It is hard for a lot of students and often hard for them to focus just by learning from the over head. Every subject needs to be engaging not just math, and this is a good start.
I am terrrrrible at math. I am also ADD. For those students who are not good at math and who are ADD, do you think this social math would be beneficial or harmful?
I do think math might be easier to learn if it was understood by the student better. If there is a student in class who "gets it" this would be a great peer mentoring idea.
I like this idea, I think it's great. Maybe if my math teachers had let me move around the room and have friends help me out with learning things, I may have like math a WHOLE LOT MORE. Plus I think that kids feel pressured when they have to learn things by themselves.
I have witnessed this style of teaching math first hand and I will say that is very successful. We have a math workshop in which the teacher introduces a problem, then lets the students work on it independently, and then they get to talk with their tables. I found that this method really helps them comprehend and understand what they are learning better. By the way, I remember the overhead projector in elementary school math and I hated it too, very boring!
My math classes were the same—BORING!
Sounds like a great way to learn math while integrating social skills. I will have to remember this technique when I become a teacher!
I completely agree with this. I experienced the same kind of math that you did and i hated it. i think it is very important for kids to work with others as well as move around. I think it is important for others to work together because some students can help each other and not everyone arrives at the same answer the same way.
I believe society had been brain washed to believe math is a very serious subject and cause for students to be confined to their desks and engrossed in their own work. It’s great to see that the mentality on learning is finally morphing into a more social effort. Having students interact and discuss their findings will benefit them so much more in all the ways that you stated in your blog. I agree 100% with everything that you said. It's time for a change.
I would have to say that all students in all subjects should be active. I completely agree with your comment " Furthermore, allowing students to work together helps students manage their emotions, improve conflict resolution, resolve conflicts nonviolently, and to make good choices." I have personally seen in my field experience that students do well when working together if you give them the chance, and I feel as though they benefit from it as well!
When i was in elementary school i was awful at math. Even if it was basic addition I could find away to screw it up. But in the gifted program we would do math in groups. We would get an awfully worded word problem and we would have to find the sentences that needed to be ommitted, re-word some other sentence, and change stuff around just so we could figure out the problem and then we had to find a way to solve it.I rarely ever messed these assignments up because I was working in a group. I always learned best if my peers could explain it to me. Teachers need to try to make math a more social activity to help those who struggle like I did in the subject.
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