Dance: Flocking

Flocking is a type of dance technique which makes use of the elements of body, space, time, and relationships. Flocking is something that can be improvised or rehearsed in groups. The point of flocking is to make a diamond formation and to mirror movements of the leader. It is an extension of mirroring that adds two more people and doesn't require everyone to look at each other.

Students should be divided into groups of four for flocking and make a diamond formation like the image below.

 

One student (in this case A) will be the leader and face away from everyone else. Everyone else should be facing the same direction as the leader and trying to mirror or follow their actions. The leader can do one or two kinds of movement that the group has to follow. The tricky part comes when you switch the leader. In our case the leader turns to the left and so does everyone else, thus making the person to the left of the leader the new leader. The golden rule to use to know if you're the leader is if you don't see anyone else, you're the leader. Students can do this improvisationally to music or can spend time rehearsing it to a chosen song or one pre-selected. 

https://www.facebook.com/ally.mcwhirter/videos/10160165308980004/

Think that this is an excellent group activity the whole class can participate in. I think that it promotes good teamwork skills and cooperation. Like mirroring it requires a lot of focus and body awareness to see what the leader is doing and to mirror them. Like mirroring flocking allows students to take on a more shared leadership and responsibility for their flocking routines.

Accommodations I would suggest for flocking include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, extra time, modifying the kinds of movements to be done in a group with a student who has a physical disability, set a time limit on the routine.

Dance: Yes, Let's

Yes, Let's is another kind of ice breaker activity for dance class rather than drama. Yes, Let's is a kind of Simon Says game, where a leader suggests something to do and everyone does it. Everyone else then gets a chance to suggest something for the class to do. In terms of elements of dance this activity best uses body, space, and energy.

This activity is best done in a standing circle. Music can be played in the background for the students to help them get moving. A student starts by suggesting something like "Let's all spin" and the students reply "Yes, let's all spin" and then do the action the student modeled. This should continue around the circle giving every student a chance to say and do an action. Students should attempt the action but it can be modified or changed by them based on need or ability.

This activity is great for dance as it gets students up and moving. Since everyone takes a turn doing it I think it helps students feel safer and more comfortable during dance classes. I think it is a great way to encourage students who might be reluctant or shy in class. Teachers need to keep a positive atmosphere about the activity with themselves and with other students. Overall a simple but effective way for engaging students in dance.

Accommodations for this lesson could include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, allowing different kinds of movement based on physical needs, and allow students to perform an action to the best of their physical ability or comfort level.

Dance: Finger Kaleidoscope

This activity called Finger Kaleidoscope is designed to show students that dance does not have to involve your whole body moving. I challenges students in groups to come up with a performance using just their hands and fingers. The elements of dance that best suit this activity are body and relationships.

This activity is best begun by showing students a video example. XTRAP's finger kaleidoscope dance video can be seen below and is an excellent example. It shows how their fingers and wiggle and move in intricate patterns. This activity should be done in groups of 4 and students should arrange themselves so they can all place their hands on a flat surface like a desk. Then ask students to choreograph a dance routine using their fingers. The key is that everyone needs to mirror the hand movements of the other person. This will require students to focus and explain their movements so that everyone can do them. You can also have students select a piece of music to go along with their routine, this also helps to integrate the dance element of time to their work. The teacher can walk around and assist any groups. Give them time to rehearse their routines before presenting.

I like this activity because it helps prove to students that dance does not require the whole body. Although body is an element of this lesson it is focused on the hands and shows that small intricate movements with a specific part of your body is still an important part of dance. I think students would have a lot of fun making complex finger movements, working together, and presenting their routines.

Accommodations for this activity would include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, allowing extra time, allow some students to work in partners rather than groups to make simpler routines, limit how long the routine can go, pre-selected groups, encourage small subtle movements.

Dance: Mirroring

Mirroring is a technique of dance that could be improvised or rehearsed. I consists of body movements involving two people. The elements of dance it most focuses on are relationship, body, and energy. It involves to people standing facing each other, one of them acts as the mirror and tries to copy what the other person is doing. Students should maintain eye contact and refrain from talking during the activity. This activity requires good concentration and imagination but also requires understanding of your body movements, the relation with your movements with the other person's, and the energy that the other person is putting into the movements you are mirroring.

 

 I think that mirroring is an excellent activity for either drama or dance. In either context it is a great way to get the class moving and working with a partner. Students need to be focused and respectful of each other in order for this activity to work. I think that students who are excited to get moving can get carried away and begin moving too fast or erratically so much so that their partner cannot keep up and it ceases to be fun for the partner. As a teacher if I knew a student might be too rowdy I would pair them with a calmer student and have them follow their movements. It would be a great opportunity to allow students to demonstrate leadership and responsibility skills in the classroom.

Accommodations for this activity can include things such as: verbal and non-verbal instructions, allow for different movements if a student has a physical disability such as sitting in a chair for a student who is in a wheelchair, pre-selected pairs or groups, time their mirroring, and encourage subtler movements.

Dance: Show Me The Shapes

The Show Me the Shapes activity that focuses on the elements of body, space, and relationships in dance. The students are encouraged to collaborate with classmates to create shapes with their bodies. This is a great team building exercise and one that connects really well with geometry expectations.

For our activity we did this in groups of three. We were asked to think of three different ways to create shapes using different body parts. The teacher should go around and ask students to identify what shapes they are creating, they could also ask follow up questions such as how many sides does it have. We were then given green tape to put on the floor to act as a line of symmetry and asked to make a shape with the line of symmetry in it. Students can then show off how many lines of symmetry can exits within their one shape.

This activity was a great way of getting students up and active. It was a really interesting way of getting student physically involved with geometry. It allowed students to build on fundamental knowledge for geometry while having a lot of creative fun.

Accommodations for this activity would include: verbal and non-verbal instructions, extra time, changing of group sizes to encourage various shapes, and pre-selecting groups.

Drama: The Wind Blows

The Wind Blows is similar to Zip Zap Bop in that they are both great icebreaker and introduction activities. The game is pretty easy to run, all you need are some chairs. Like Zip Zap Bop the element that this game involves is focus.

Have the students sit in a circle, once person starts in the middle of the circle and says the line "The wind blows for everyone who is..." then says a characteristic that is true for that person speaking. Everyone else who is sitting who finds that statement to also be true has to stand in find a new seat. If the person is not able to find a new seat they must be the new person in the middle and say a new statement. You can find an example of the game in a video below.

This is a great activity that can really involve kids of any grade or age. It also becomes really fun suggesting different types of movements for students when switching seats. This also helps with safety as students aren't trying to run as fast as they can. Overall this activity requires little preparation and really helps build a sense of community in the classroom.

Some accommodations I'd include: using verbal and written instructions, give all students a turn in the middle, expand or decrease the circle size based on movement of students, and provide some statement prompts to help students come up with a true statement.

Drama: Roleplay

Role playing is a common drama activity which of course falls under the element of role/character. Role plays can be both rehearsed and improvised. Improvised role play involves very little preparation where students are given only a few basic facts about the setting or the characters. A rehearsed role-play involves careful planning where they rehearse a scene in role but is created without a script. This is likely the most commonly used in schools.

Improvised role-play should be centered around a conflict and resolving that conflict. This gives the role-play a focus so the students don't get too off track. The characters in this scene should want something but can't achieve it without engaging in a conflict usually with another character. One of the golden rules of improvisation is to always go along with whatever new information the other actor is offer you and your character. Avoid saying no to a character or changing an already established fact. If you do say no never just say no instead try using "no, but."

During my time in our drama class I was able to present a lesson on role-playing as a cross curricular activity. You can find the slides to it below. One thing that I want to emphasize from the presentation is the difference between role-play games and simulation games. Both are often used in classes but simulation games are more commonly used outside of drama classes. For this reason many teachers would be more comfortable running simulation games as there are more resources across curriculum for it. In this though I argue that there are common traits in role-playing games and simulation games and that both types have things the other does not do. I therefore think that for cross curricular approaches combining aspects of both role-play and simulation works best.

Drama: Tableaux

Tableaux is a theatrical technique where the actors arrange themselves and freeze in place to create a still image. A tableaux and the participants can create a representation of a scene, an event, a theme, or an idea. Some important elements of a tableaux include: character, space, and relationships.

To do a tableaux students will be asked to get into a pose or create an image with their bodies in a group. The teacher can do this by providing prompts to describe a scene such as "you're investigators at a scene of a crime." Give the students some time to think and then give them a 3 count to get into their tableaux. The teacher and students can walk around the tableaux to see everything. This is the time where the teacher can take pictures or assess it as it is being held. You can find a video example of a tableaux in a classroom down below.

 I really like how flexible this activity can be for tackling any kind of subject or idea. For that reason using tableauxs is a great way of making cross-curricular connections with drama. This activity also helps to remove any anxiety students might have over speaking in front of the class as it is non-verbal. It is a great way of getting students of any grade up and moving and collaborating with each other.

Some accommodations to consider when doing a tableaux: provide written and oral instructions, change the time that students have to hold the tableaux, and use seated poses in tableaux.

Drama: Hot Seating

Hot Seating is a drama activity focusing on the element of role/character and improvisation. In this activity a student takes the role of a character and is questioned by other students about their background, experiences, behavior, and opinions. This activity can be used to help develop characters and students' ability to role-play and perform. The main focus of this is to find out what the characters knows or thinks and and to engage with that character's viewpoint.

What is required to do a hot seat is just some chairs. Designate one of those chairs as the hot seat that sits in front of the students asking questions also seated. Set up before hand what roles the people in the hot seat will be taking and what scenario they are in. You can also provide questions or directions for the students not in the hot seat for how to interact with the person in role. Some interesting story book roles we have done in class include: The Wolf from the Three Little Pigs, an evil step sister from Cinderella, and the baker from The Gingerbread Man. 

I have also used hot seating in my own lesson about combining history and drama. In my group's use of hot seating the person in the hot seat was actually a teacher taking the role of a person from province before Canadian Confederation. People were encouraged to ask questions about what we as ordinary people thought of Confederation.

 

I think this activity is most successful when the teacher takes an active role in it or facilitates it closely, as students can often get off topic or run out of ideas. Ultimately students are in control of how much or how little detail they want to use. This activity can be done improvisational or planned. I feel planned would be better for most classes.

Some accommodations to keep in mind if running this activity include: providing information wirtten and orally, model expectations, provide examples, and adjust groups based on readiness or ability.

Drama: Zip Zap Bop

The first activity we will be talking about is Zip Zap Bop. The activity is all about the elements of focus and energy as students pass on their energy to each other in a circle. The main objective is focusing on what the student says and gives you, whether it is a Zip, Zap, or Bop and passing something else on to another student. You can begin the game by getting your students in a circle and having them imagine that you have a bolt of energy in your hands and that you are going to pass that energy to someone else using a strong movement, being sure to make eye contact so they know they are passing it to you. Start by using Zip which can only pass the energy to someone beside you. After your students are used to using Zip you can introduce Zap. Zap can pass the energy to someone across from you, then give them a chance to use Zip and Zap to pass the energy around as fast as they can. If you think your students are up for it you can introduce Bop. Bop negates or blocks any Zip or Zap so they have to pass it to someone else. A good rule we used for Bop is that a student can only be Bopped twice and then the energy has to be passed. You can view a video example of us playing Zip Zap Bop below.

I think that this game is a great introduction to drama, an amazing warm up game, and a good way to get students to start thinking about energy and focus. The activity becomes more complicated as you add Zap and Bop to it, so the difficulty of the focus required is changeable. To make it easier you could just focus on Zip, or to make it harder you have to use all three, or you cant use the last one that was just used. It would be a great activity for a new class to let unfamiliar students get to know each other and have fun with each other.

When it comes to accommodations for this activity I have already mentioned one which would be to remove some of the elements of the game to make it easier to follow. That being said there are other ones such as making clear verbal and non-verbal signals during the game, providing instructions in oral and written forms, and just allow the game to keep flowing despite errors.

Drama and Dance Portfolio Introduction and Theories

Hello everyone and welcome to my drama and dance multi-media portfolio. Within this section of my blog I will be posting various activities from my experiences with drama and dance (five for each). Before I get too into sharing and commenting on all these wonderful activities though I wanted to take some time to discuss the guiding theories behind a lot of these activities.

One of the theories I want to mention is Leban's Movement Analysis Theory. This theory states that movement is a two way process of sending and receiving messages with their body movements. Leban's movement theory focuses on the independence of the body and how it can relate to and interact with the world around it. For educational purposes Leban's Movement Analysis Theory emphasizes observation of movement, describing movement, and analyzing movement. Some activities that really benefit from using Leban's theory include tableauxs, flocking, and mirroring.

Focusing on the theories within the Ontario Arts Curriculum we can see the importance of the Creative Process. This process is designed to help students create and interact with art. This is meant to be applied across all strands of art including drama and dance. The stages of the creative process include: challenging and inspiring, imagining and generating, planning and focusing, exploring and experimenting, producing preliminary work, revising and refining, presenting, performing, and sharing, reflecting and evaluating. All of the steps in the creative process have a curriculum expectation that corresponds to it to make it something easier to plan for in a lesson plan format.

Finally from the Ontario Arts Curriculum again we have the Fundamental Concepts of drama and dance. All of these fundamental concepts are listed under the overall expectations for that grade. As students progress their knowledge of these concepts will deepen and through the expectations will be challenged to develop them more. The Elements of Drama include: role, relationship, time and place, tension, focus and emphasis. The Elements of Dance include: body, space, time, energy, and relationship. As we look at drama and dance activities I will be relating which Fundamental Concepts best apply from drama and dance to the activity.

I hope that you will enjoy reading through my explanations, reflections, analysis, and extensions to the upcoming drama and dance activities.

Math Reflection Week 6: Technology and Real Life

For class this week we focused on the use of technology in the classroom and how it can facilitate blended learning and differentiated instruction. My table group focused on the SAMR Model of using technology in the classroom. The SAMR Model divides technology use into four parts: substitution, augmentation, modification, and redefinition. Substitution involves using technology as a substitution with no functional change, while augmentation is a substitution with a functional improvement. Modification allows for technology that significantly redesigns the task, while redefinition allows for the creation of new tasks previously impossible. As teachers for 21st century learners we must strive to design tasks that best use modifications and redefinition of technology for learning.

Michael Feagan. (Oct.19 2017). SAMR Model [photo].

  The online activity that I did for this week involved watching a video about math in real life. I thought this topic would be the most interesting as children learning math often say things along the lines of "There's no real life application for learning math" or any other specific math topic. I like this video because at its core it highlights that the real world skill we want students to walk away with by learning math is pattern recognition. One of the most famous mathematical patterns that this video uses as an example is the Fibonacci spiral. The video highlights all the real world uses of the spiral both in nature and man-made things. This helps show students that mathematical patterns are present in all natural and unnatural creations in their everyday lives. In the end making student curious about mathematical concepts is key but giving them the big ideas (as discussed in last week's blog post) like pattern recognition helps them be curious math investigators.

Math Reflection Week 5: Big Ideas or Memorization

Although we didn't have an in person class this week we still had plenty of online activities to do. The one idea that stuck out to me, and the one that I will be spending the majority of my post focusing on, is the concept of big math ideas versus memorization of math formulas and procedures. For me this debate was sparked by a short video you can watch below.

Dr. Boaler argues that there are few general math principles that students need to understand. Students often struggle with math because they get caught up in memorizing details and procedures. With this kind of approach math is less about how many questions you can get right, and more about the knowledge and understanding that go behind the mathematical solutions you arrive at. Principles such as student intuition, making sense, and finding ways to represent problems can all contribute to a student's understanding of the big ideas.

Although I do agree with all of the basic concepts represented in this video there are some structural problems with how I feel this is implemented in an education system. Firstly I feel like this outlook, that knowing big ideas about math, is less testable. At least in the old fashion sense of math tests filling in multiple choice responses. As that method does not allow the student to show their thought process and their knowledge and understanding of wider math ideas.

It should not come to any student teacher's surprise that Ontario students are struggling in math, according to EQAO testing. With only half of grade 6 students meeting the provincial standard in math. This is very worrying, and it does not surprise me that Ontario boards are starting to emphasize math competencies more in students and educators. However, I wonder if teaching students big math ideas are really assisting them in math, according to EQAO it might not be.This is not to say that it is a bad idea, but that EQAO might be ill equipped to assess this kind of knowledge from students.

Math Reflection Week 4: Rich Tasks and Number Flexibility

This week in our math class we focused on participating in and assessing rich learning tasks in math. A rich tasks boils down to one that is: essential, authentic, engaging, and active. One such task that we performed in class was a problem involving counting the fingers on a hand. The basic problem was that if you started counting your fingers starting with your thumb, index, middle, ring, pinky, ring, middle, index, thumb, index, etc. what finger will you land on when you count your 10,000 finger? Everyone came up with different ways of solving this question but the one that I found most interesting was the one Mina shared with the class. It was a video of how someone else solved the problem by thinking of it as an eight fingered hand rather than just one five fingered hand.

Michael Feagan. (Sept.29 2017). Hand Problem [photo].

I think that all of the different ways students had to express this problem help support that this is a rich learning activity.

The final thing I did this week was watch the math mindset video on number flexibility. The exercise the video wanted us to do was to do 18x5 in our heads. I did this by knowing that if 10x10 was 100 then 5x10 would be 50 and 5x8 is 40, so 50+40 is 90. Perhaps a longer way of doing it, but I would not be surprised if I had many students in my math classes who would mentally answer this question this way. This exercise is pretty similar to doing math strings, which I think are an excellent way of bettering number flexibility.

Math strings I think are an excellent way to better a student's mental math flexibility. Recently I presented a webinar with my classmate Paula that highlights the benefits of doing math strings, you can see it in the video below.

Math Reflection Week 3: Learning Styles and Mistakes

Class began this week with a small math game. We played a version of I Have/Who Has? which involves everyone getting a card with a math problem, the sum of that number is the number you have. The card also gives you a number that someone else has to have who goes next. It's a really simple game but I think it would work really well in a math classroom. There are just a few modifications I would do to it to help better scaffold math learning. For example I would make sure every card had to do with the same type of math problems (multiplication, division, exponents, etc.). I would then make sure that this activity functions like a math string, having each question build on the skills, patterns, and knowledges of the previous questions. As a teacher I would also try and write down the moth problems on the board for every student to see and work out. I think with these small modifications the game can be more accessible and enjoyable for more students.

After that we had a long talk about learning styles in math. Learning styles meaning people being auditory, visual, or kinesthetic learners. I know I was definitely not the only one in class who was kind of rolling their eyes at the idea of taking another learning styles quiz or just hearing about learning styles again. As many of you may or may not know learning styles has (at least in academic pedagogical circles) fallen out of favour. Why? Well for starters the study that argued for learning styles had weak evidence to begin with and made very large claims about how catering to them could affect learning. There are a lot of studies critiquing learning styles so I won't belabor the point. A quick look online will give you some places to start for further reading. 

The last thing that I looked into this week was the idea of mistakes helping us grow in math. Scientifically you experience more neural growth in the brain when you get a math question wrong than when you get it right. This seems to make sense, as there really isn't any new information received in getting a question right, but there certainly is in getting one wrong. I think a lot of people, particularly young students, are afraid of failure. I think as educators we have a responsibility to create an environment where mistakes are good and seen as stepping stones to success. There's a phrase that I really like called "failing forward". I've heard this phrase a lot in the context of table-top games, where a failed dice roll usually means nothing happens, in a fail forward game it means that something interesting still happens. The idea is that the game still goes forward even if a dice roll is failed. I like the idea of applying this to learning. Just because you failed to give a correct answer should not mean you failed to progress, to learn, or to enjoy yourself.

Michael Feagan. (Sept.21 2017). Math Quote [photo].

Math Reflection Week 2: Math Mindsets

Our class this week largely focused on how we as students and teachers conceptualize math. The way we started this conversation was with another card trick. The card trick involved us picking a number from 10 to 20 and then adding the two place values together (for example 15 would be 1+5=6). Our instructor would draw 15 cards and then subtract 6 from the pile and draw a queen. The trick was basically one involving particular placement of the cards based on a mathematical rule that if you choose a double digit number and subtract the total of the two place value you will get the same number within certain ranges as shown in the photo below (i.e. 10-19, 20-29. 30-39 etc.).

Michael Feagan. (Sept. 15 2017). Card Trick Math [photo].

For the online portion of our class I watched a video about growth mindsets in math. The idea of growth mindsets originated from Carol Dweck and argues for students and educators to have a mindset that anything can be learned by anyone with enough effort put into it. Dweck's ideas have become very popular in the world of education, with the term growth mindset becoming entrenched in educators' vernacular. Overall I agree with the fundamental concept of a growth mindset, as opposed to a fixed mindset which Dweck asserts is the belief that an individual can only learn so much and is incapable of learning more advanced concepts. I still have some issues with Dweck's concept of the growth mindset. A cursory glance at criticisms involving Dweck's theories should leave any educator questioning how they integrate this approach in their classroom. One of the things I always thought of when hearing about growth mindsets is "what if the student is already trying their hardest?" As someone who has struggled with math I would not feel more motivated if I was told to try harder if I had already tried my hardest. Likewise if a student is already trying their hardest and can't get it, and is told that anyone can do it if they try hard, I as a student would be left wondering what's wrong with me. I feel like a growth mindset might be encouraging students to unfairly push students who are trying and still struggling with any academic concept. I therefore think that teachers need to be reflective about how they're integrating the ideas of a growth mindset into their classes and make sure that they are applying it fairly to all students.

Math Reflection Week1: Assumptions About Math

Beginning this week of our math class we were asked a lot of questions to help us think about our own experiences and thoughts about learning math. For this week I watched two videos about public perceptions on mathematics. The first one was a Discovery Education video where children and adults were asked their honest feeling about math, you can watch it here. I felt like this video did a good job of highlighting the very mixed feelings both children and adults have about doing math. From my own personal experiences I never really like math a lot. As I got older I got better at doing math, but I wouldn't say I enjoyed doing it. This might have something to do with how math in schools was presented, I never felt like it was something that felt relevant to me. I still think that not everyone has to love math, but that people need to be comfortable with it and know that there are certain problem solving skills that can be developed by doing math.

The other video that I watched this week for class was titled Hollywood Hates Math. I found this video to be really interesting though I came out of it with more questions than answers. One of those questions was this; are movie's and television's attitudes towards math reflective of larger societal opinions, or are people's opinions about math influenced by how the media presents math? I posted this question in our class forum and the responses I got were very well thought out. One response I got was wondering what the historical trends were like about mathematics to try and find when the dislike for math as a subject of study began. As someone whose field of study was history this interested me greatly. I did a little bit of research into this and found a few interesting ideas. One of which is that the feelings of nervousness or inadequacy about math is such a common thing that it is called Mathematical Anxiety. The historical roots of this anxiety might date all the way back to 19th century schools. According to teachers such as John Taylor Gatto who argues that Western industrialized schooling beginning in the 19th century was designed to create an environment of confusion and intellectual dependence on an expert. I think it's possible that a lot of people's mathematical anxieties can come from the culture of memorization in math classes.

I really enjoyed looking into this topic and hope to challenge my ideas of what teaching mathematics is about .

wecometolearn. (Sept. 11 2017) Overcoming Math Anxiety [image]

AER Reflection

1.      Assessment Page During First Teaching Block

  As I am going into my first teaching block I am looking for resources that can help me along the way.  For assessment I will be using my digital portfolio on assessment to help guide me.  The first thing that I would use to help guide me would be the AER Strategy Form.  This form will be a constant reference for how I will use assessment to tackle a variety of challenges such as ELL learners, special needs learners, or report cards.  I have included two resources for every section from the Ministry document Growing Success to help guide me in future uses of assessment.  

  I would also like to use my assessment page from my digital portfolio to continue to blog about my continuing experiences and challenges with assessment.  I believe I have already started off quite well with my first two posts on my past experiences with assessment and my recent experiences with assessment.  I would like to continue this blog by detailing how I am dealing with assessment during my first teaching block and how I am adjusting to assess my placement class.  I believe that this will help with my self-reflection as a teacher and allow me to refine my assessment strategies.  

3. Professional Learning Goal for Job Interview

  If I were to highlight one of my professional learning goals from my AER Strategy Form I would want to highlight my goal to better facilitate support learning for students who are form an Aboriginal, Metis, or Inuit background.  In my AER Strategy Form I have highlighted the need to research the need to study the social and economic conditions these students come from as well as talking to experts and advisors from these communities.  This will be done to help better understand the context that these students learn in and what challenges they might have to learning.  I have highlighted two Ministry of Education documents to help me develop this learning goal.  These resources can be found here and here.  Both of these documents help inform teachers about the learning styles these students might have based on the communities they are from while also providing practical strategies and tools for the successful instruction of Aboriginal, Metis, and Inuit students.  I believe that teachers in Ontario are under-equipped and to help with the effective education of these students.  I therefore believe that highlighting my knowledge and willingness to learn and develop this knowledge would be a desirable asset during a job interview.   

AER Strategy Form

 

 

 

 

Math Reflection Week 11: Formative Assessment

  This was an interesting week for math.  We got the chance to play an "eggcelent" game called, you guessed it, Egg Hunt.  The game requires students to plan out a route through Ontario cities where in each city you get a certain amount of eggs for only one visit.  The catch is that you only have 4,000 kilometers that you can travel.  The objective is to get as many eggs as possible while remaining within the allotted four thousand kilometers.  For this activity we worked in pairs and it was nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and plan with.  Obviously this activity involved a lot of problem solving to find the optimal solution, but it also involved a lot of number sense keeping track of how many kilometers you have traveled.  For the activity we were provided the distances between cities, but students could perhaps measure it themselves and use a scale to convert it into kilometers.  I also like how this activity does a great job of incorporating Ontario geography into it.   Overall the activity was a lot of fun and I think it really got people thinking and planning which is great.  This activity or something similar to it is certainly something I would like to implement for a math or even geography class.

  Before this game though I class took the time to brainstorm about some ideas for formative assessment for math.  A lot of really good suggestions were given by my colleagues such as math problems of the day, gallery walks, KWL charts, exit cards, self-assessments, and just regular conversations and questions.  I have posted a photo of all the strategies we wrote on the white board below.  I would certainly be interested in implementing some of these forms of assessment in my own classroom or during my placements. 

 

 Michael Feagan. (Nov. 24, 2016). Strategies for Assessment [photo].