It was with great excitement that I looked toward the #elemchat tonight on Differentiated Instruction. This past year has been a real journey in DI, as I taught a class with the widest ability range I had seen before. Looking back, I think my one success was Reading and Writing (especially Reading) as I implemented Daily Five and CAFE. It was a fun way to differentiate for each individual student, and it was easy!
So I was eager to share my excitement, but I was also looking at ways to make my Math work. Several people suggested Math Workshop, something which I tried for a while, but I just couldn't get it right. This year, I'm determined to give it another try and look at why it didn't work. I've got a month and a half to spend, how's that for a project? I have a few resources available to me on my District's portal, but I'm also interested to hear how anyone else made their Math workshop work. I know I want to incorporate some Math journal writing, as well as some problem solving. I would love to hear how your Math workshop works!
Showing posts with label Math. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Math. Show all posts
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Reflections on Project Based Learning
I had the pleasure of taking part in the first ever #elemchat on Twitter. I did say at one point that I simply couldn't fit my thoughts into 140 characters, so I decided to start a blog.
I came into the #elemchat with questions and anxiety, as I knew the topic would be PBL, or project based learning. I just wasn't sure what the term meant, and was a little worried that I would need to add one more thing onto my LONG list of things I want to do with my grade two class next year! As the chat started to pick up, I discovered that I have already decided my Math time will spend a lot of time in this PBL setup... I was just going to call it "Investigations".
In fact, I was so excited with this, because I attended a PD workshop yesterday with Cathy Fosnot from www.contextsforlearning.com. We recently received kits that are fully based on what she calls "Investigations." She started off the day by having all 150 attendees participate in an investigation involving counting in a brand new number system she calls X-mania (based on a base-6 system using letters.) As the hour went on, we discovered the place value system that was there... we figured out what number would follow AAC, and what number would follow A--. Then we discovered that A-- was A- groups of A-... That our snap cubes formed a square... we progressed through by making discoveries, all guided by our workshop leader, but they were OUR discoveries. We owned them. What a great way to demonstrate Project Based Learning!
I'm determined to add some of her Math investigations into my instruction over the coming year, and I'll let you know how it all works! I'm so pumped about this, it's almost a shame I have to wait until September!
I came into the #elemchat with questions and anxiety, as I knew the topic would be PBL, or project based learning. I just wasn't sure what the term meant, and was a little worried that I would need to add one more thing onto my LONG list of things I want to do with my grade two class next year! As the chat started to pick up, I discovered that I have already decided my Math time will spend a lot of time in this PBL setup... I was just going to call it "Investigations".
In fact, I was so excited with this, because I attended a PD workshop yesterday with Cathy Fosnot from www.contextsforlearning.com. We recently received kits that are fully based on what she calls "Investigations." She started off the day by having all 150 attendees participate in an investigation involving counting in a brand new number system she calls X-mania (based on a base-6 system using letters.) As the hour went on, we discovered the place value system that was there... we figured out what number would follow AAC, and what number would follow A--. Then we discovered that A-- was A- groups of A-... That our snap cubes formed a square... we progressed through by making discoveries, all guided by our workshop leader, but they were OUR discoveries. We owned them. What a great way to demonstrate Project Based Learning!
I'm determined to add some of her Math investigations into my instruction over the coming year, and I'll let you know how it all works! I'm so pumped about this, it's almost a shame I have to wait until September!
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