Monday, March 23, 2009
Sharing an experience with you all....
I was teaching a lesson today on orthographical views of cubes (some teachers just teach this using logic) I decided to use manipulatives to teach this lesson. These manipulatives were actually my sons building blocks, since my school does not have proper geometric resources/manipulatives. I asked my students to get into groups of three (letting them have the choice of who their group members would be), the quote "smart" students (definition of "smart" is what the students use) grouped themselves together immediately, "average" students grouped themselves together etc. Theses students are great geometry students and are very talanted at various algebraic manipulations. I placed the first set of orthogonal views and had them create the originating figure that it came from, to my surprise the "smart" students had the most difficulty recreating this structure and the rest of the class did well. I provided another problem on the board for them to reconstruct the structure, there was some progress but the "smart" students took a little longer. It then hit me.... although we have been working with shapes all year the students were never responsible for creating. It seemed ironic, to the students, that this happened; but it made me feel even more responsible for contributing to these students R-brained ability... Did any of you notice this in your classroom? It is one thing to read about it and it is another to witness it.
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I think this is a great example of students' abilities to construct learning experiences. How easy is it to overlook an opportunity like this? Yet a simple strategy of using building blocks to recreate a complex diagram fosters higher order thinking, while leveling the playing field for the "average" students. I wonder how many borderline students experienced the "ah-hah!" moment when it all clicked and they finally "got it".
ReplyDeleteOur challenge as educators is to somehow provide more constructive experiences such as these to foster R-brained thinking. How do we leverage the power of technology to create these constructive learning environments? Obviously children's building blocks can do the trick as well...
Thanks for sharing!
In my district we do not have honors math for our 6th graders. Instead we give pre assessments for each unit letting students test into an enrichment group for each different unit. Most of the time it is the same "smart" students, but sometimes the lower level student will test into the enrichment group. This will usually happen with a unit like geometry which is more visual/spatial. I thought this was very similar to what you saw in your classroom. The lower level student loves getting the chance to be in the enrichment group even if it is only for one unit.
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