M3: Blog Post 3 - Leveraging Tools, Texts, and Talk in My Teaching Context

 

This is more then just one lesson, I did this over like 3 weeks so more of a unit. I wanted to talk about my project/activity first and then get into the other part of the prompt as it ties it all in at the end.

 

When working in my 3^rd and 4^th grade Special Education class, I wanted to help them understand and be able to skip count by numbers 2- 12. Unsure how I was going to tackle this, I started small with skip counting by 2s and 5s, as a class we practiced this for two days, each number had its own 20-minute lesson and then I would do the same thing with the second number. Before I formally introduced what we were counting by I would show a Schoolhouse Rock Video on the skip counting (about the number they would be learning to skip count by). My class and I would practice counting together and then they would do an independent activity like a skip counting maze (which was a big hit), connect the dots to reveal a picture or something with coloring. I continued this until we covered all numbers from 2-12. I would integrate skip counting into morning work, having them fill in the missing number or during centers having them use IXL. I also would play some whole group games of “I have, who has” skip counting where kids would earn PBIS tickets. This allowed them to work collaboratively and work on speaking with each other.

Here is the link for counting by 4’s- this video is one of my favorites https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhG9U4S1gbY

 

After all numbers were learned, we switched gears into multiplication. The kids would complete some paper work but then I introduced Pixel Art on Google Sheets. TMy students had to learn how to independently get into Google Classroom, open the assignment and learn how to work in sheets. They had to be able to type the correct answer in the box. These activities are self-correcting, if the answer is wrong it does not fill in part of the picture so they would have to go back and fix it. Once they got the hang of this it was all they wanted to do and would often want them printed out to bring home. If they activity was not finished during the given time most of the kids would continue to work on it during free time. This was their choice!! Not mine!

I decided to do the Schoolhouse Rock Videos because when I was teaching conjunctions, I showed the Conjunction Function Schoolhouse Rock Video and would review it each day. After the first two times showing it, when I asked “What is a conjunction?”, my class would start singing the conjunction function song.  I have linked the Conjunction Junction below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjdCFat9rjI Conjunction Function

My class thought these videos were so weird because they were so old but I told them that I watched the same things in school and they stuck because its catchy and silly.

 

It is also a pain to get into Google Classroom on our computers because the log in information does not save so each time they had to type in their very long email and password. It was pretty impressive as most of them struggle with writing and reading but after the first few times they were able to catch on to log in quickly.

 

By using these practices in a math lesson, students are better able to interact and really learn to memorize the material vs just learning it because they have to. My student especially don’t know their true potential and think because they can’t read or that they don’t know how identify numbers past 20, they are not able to learn multiplication or how to log into a website. This quote from “On Science Genius and Cultural Agnosia: Reality Pedagogy and/as Hip-Hop Rooted Cultural Teaching in STEM Education” says it best “At its best, STEM is about using what we previously knew to uncover, discover or create what we do not know or what did not exist before. Whether in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, innovation and creativity are at the heart of STEM. It is also what is needed to recruit young people to these disciplines and move them to see possibilities for their own lives that they either have never seen or that have been abandoned after the world convinces them that it is impossible.” (Emdin, 2021). Having my student learn how to submit work online and work in a spreadsheet helps to prepare them for middle and high school and hopefully college or a trade. This is also a good life skill to be able to use one day at a job. As they engage in these other types of media, they also have a better understanding of this math concepts, “To invite students to engage more deeply with these behind-the-screen conversations, we can focus on the different digital literacy practices that involve, for example, navigating purposefully online" (Aguilera, 2017). On the flipside getting students to focus on their computer and not be tempted to log into Prodigy or go onto PBS Kids is tough. Some of my students are easily upset by getting a question wrong and have at times threw their computer on the ground or destroyed it. I have to keep these in mind because if a student is not able to appropriately use the computer, they need other ways to be able to interact with concepts.

 

Aguilera, E. (2017). MORE THAN BITS AND BYTES. Literacy Today, 35(3), 12-13. https://sunyempire.idm.oclc.org/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Ftrade-journals%2Fmore-than-bits-bytes%2Fdocview%2F1966006470%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D8067

Emdin, C., Adjapong, E., & Levy, I. P. (2021). On Science Genius and Cultural Agnosia: Reality Pedagogy and/as Hip-Hop Rooted Cultural Teaching in STEM Education. The Educational Forum (West Lafayette, Ind.), 85(4), 391–405. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2021.1957636