Reflection 2

Reflection

Grant Collier

Reflecting on 9-28’s first period visit, a huge take away that I wanted to focus on throughout the week was student movement and student discussion. The decision that I decided fit my classroom best was to transition into group work and small group discussion based instruction. Throughout the week I used small group instruction once in each class and also a second time in each class for review.

The reason that I wanted students to be able to work together in groups is that I believe that “math-talk” can be a huge means of success for struggling math students. Speaking about math and explaining your answer can allow students to reevaluate solving procedures, become self-aware of strategies, and get the opportunity to play the role of a tutor.

Another reason that I thought this technique would incorporate well into my classroom is that I have a very heterogeneous group of students. Mixing students together in group work can allow students to get experience working with students with different strategies or methods than them.

As a result of this change I saw several improvements. As a whole, students embraced the opportunity to work together and discuss the material. I saw lots of good conversation and discussion throughout the day. In one group in fifth bell, a student remarked “Ohhhhhhhhhh that’s it?” and although I wasn’t standing over the group when it happened, I checked in and found that a peer had been able to clear up a misconception that had been troubling a student. In another case, this time in 7th bell, a student was working very hard to explain to her peers her unique way to approach variation problems. Her peers just weren’t following her, and I was able to step in and clear it up a little and finish with “each person may have their own way to go about a problem. Regardless if you think Eve’s way is too complicated, it is still important to experience things in different avenues.”

I think that group work went well this week and can see myself implementing it in the future. I particularly liked my discovery based session in Algebra III, and am working to see where I can work a lesson like this into Algebra II instruction.

#resume