Last week, my class began volunteering at the Capital Area Food Bank. We go (starting last week) every Tuesday to volunteer there. This is part of the OJT curriculum; going to a job site and learning vocational skills such as team work and collaboration.
The job that the Food Bank gave us last week was to build boxes so that later other volunteers could fill them with food for families to come to pick up and take home. By the end of the day, there where hundreds of boxes completely put together. Right before we left, one of the students asked me, how many boxes did we put together? Although it was very tempting to just tell him the answer, I encouraged him to discuss it with his peers. Here is how the conversation went:
R: How many boxes do you think we put together Ms.?
Me: Well, what resources do you have here to answer that question yourself? Count them individually? Ask your peers?
R: I could ask B. B do you know how many boxes we put together?
B: No...I didn't count them one by one how should I know?
Me: Well let's think about this (I scan the room) how many palates do we have full of boxes?
R: 5
Me: How many boxes are on each palate? I know we aren't going to count them one by one so what strategy can we use to figure out how many boxes there are?
B: I know that there are 3 boxes down and 3 boxes across and they are 8 boxes high. But what do I do with that?
Me: I don't know, what DO you do with that?
R: Multiply....?
Me: EXACTLY!! If you need to, get your phone out and use the calculator function to see how much it ends up being...
B: 360 boxes!
**Pictures from the Food Bank**
Looking back on this conversation, I used several Talk Moves: asking students to apply their own reasoning to someone else's reasoning, prompting students for further participation and wait time. I was constantly trying not enable them but to encourage them to use the resources they have in front of them to solve everyday math problems. They should use their calculators, talk to their peers, look up words etc.
If I could re-do this lesson, I would expand this lesson to the entire class. Everyone should know how hard they worked and everyone should get the opportunity to apply the math skills they acquire in the classroom in the real world. I also think it would have been neat to hear the students bounce ideas off of each other and solve the problem together.
Upon reflection and based on feedback from previous coordinating teachers, I feel the talk move I need to utilize more is using wait time. I always feel the urge to answer questions for the students instead of letting them try to figure it out themselves. It's not that I don't want them to think for themselves, it's just that it's habit! Especially if we are doing an assignment and I ask them a question and it takes them more than 3 seconds to respond. I will quickly interject and move on. I have got to get to a point where I am comfortable and patient enough to let the students figure things out on their own. Everything doesn't have to be so perfect and fast paced!!!!
Although unrelated to math, I just wanted to share a picture from my classroom. This past week we celebrated one of my student's birthday. Here is a picture of the class celebrating it!
I love how you incorperated math into this lesson even though it was not necessarily about Math in general. The fact that you forced them to think of their "jobs" from a mathematical perspective is going to instill great ideas in them. They will be able to solve problems on the job as well as be innovative. Sometimes it is hard to see that math is everywhere but you did a great job of effortlessly incorporating in into everyday life for your students.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say that I love this. Seriously, amazing. You are going to be fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Hattie and Elizabeth. I really enjoyed reading this, along with your enthusiasm in how you were able to incorporate a mathematics lesson into a pretty fun day, Jillean.
ReplyDeleteI like that in analysis of your own use of the Math Talk Moves shows that you see you can improve. I like the fact that you were able to recall exactly how the conversation unfolded. You really scaffolded the thinking, but I noticed that your excitement in hearing the word "Multiply" could have been potentially usurped your students ownership to create their own strategy.
In this case, it might have been fun to see if students could have continued on this train of thought and create strategies for finding out the total number of boxed that do not fall into simple "multiplication". Often, students can form very intricate and beautiful ways of thinking through numbers, especially with the physical manipulatives right there, that with increased wait time and guiding, I wonder where this lesson would have gone?
I really liked this post, Jillean. And I like that you are being critical of your own teaching techniques and seeing how you can improve. And most of all, I love the fact that we all get to really see what's going on in your teaching world.
This is great Jillean!! You did such a good job incorporating math talk moves into something that is typically seen as a math situation. Like you, I want my students to get to the answer, so I struggle with wait time, but you did such a good job of letting the students figure it out themselves. I am so impressed with you and where you are with your teaching. Great job!!
ReplyDeleteYou created your own math lesson within a functional and authentic setting for your students! That was a really good example of a few talk moves that you yourself contributed to your students' discussion. This not only turned in to a math lesson in itself, but it also helped the students realize that we use and do math more often than we realize! The work place is a great example of a context in which math is used all the time. You can build on this lesson, and look for more teachable moments within the work setting where you can incorporate more math moves to facilitate deep mathematical conversations. You are going to be a great high school or transition SPED teacher! But really it is clear that you will be successful no matter where or who will be teaching. I also love that you included practical pictures of your students' hard work. You are a proud teacher and that is very evident!
ReplyDeleteit looks like you are LOVING your placement! That is such a great conversation you facilitated with your student. He must have felt such pride and ownership of his answer when he was empowered to solve it himself! You go girl!
ReplyDeleteI think its awesome that you are able to incorporate math into your On-the-job placement!! This is showing the students that math really does exist in real life and it is needed! It seems that the math talk moves also benefited the students to think deeper about the problem at hand.
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