Feedback that Fits and Strategies Reactions

Reaction to "Feedback that Fits"

I must admit of a couple of things that jumped out at me while reading the article. In particular, had I assigned the Dog/Cat paragraph assignment to the 4th grade student named Anna, it is most likely that I would have corrected her paper in the exact manner as the example showed. Also, it would most likely be the only personalized feedback she received from me for that work.

Another thing I noticed was, the author stated several times to try to put yourself into your students position. When and how would you like to receive feedback and so forth. I do try to put myself in their shoes. I try to remember what was going on in my world when I was at the age my students are and what was important to me.

Before reading this article, I finished correcting the 1st Trig test I gave for this academic year. I have 26 in my 6th hour and 30 in my 7th. The average score in 6th hour was a 74% and a whopping 65% in my 7th. I thought I had them prepared. I need some feedback! And I need to give some group feedback to both classes. I may be posting an addendum tomorrow night - post feedback.

Cues, Questions and Advance Organizers

From a few years back when I taught Geometry...

I can think of a time that I asked my students to explain the number, Pi (3.1415926535...), to me. I began my lesson by quoting one of my college textbooks of the values for Pi that ancient civilizations believed. The oldest approximation being 3, of course, and getting more and more accurate as the centuries passed. I recall them laughing at the approximations (which was somewhat unexpected the 1st year I used the lesson, but played into my favor). After the laughter subsided, I asked "What gives you the right to laugh, have you ever proven what Pi is? And how do you know what you believe about its value is correct?" I proceeded to show them a Powerpoint presentation (that took me an incredible amount of time to create, but reaped benefits for the several years that followed, as I said, when I taught Geometry). The presentation was created using the classic example of finding the perimeter of regular polygons starting with an equilateral triangle and dividing it by 2 times a "psuedo" radius, then increasing the number of sides. The result for Pi converges to its accepted value as the number of sides approaches infinity. The students loved it. I believe its success came from using their knowledge of beginning trigonometric functions, but also from the visuals I provided to finally see why Pi is Pi. Also they enjoyed something out of the "norm", as I said I used a presentation in Powerpoint which isn't my normal "Modus Operandi".

Non-linguistic Representation

The first idea that came to mind while reading the chapter dealing with non-linguistic representation was an idea I try to work into my classes each year. It is the idea that mathematics is a language full of symbols, syntax rules and order that represents bigger concepts. In fact, I inform my students that the physical sciences are basically the study of using mathematics to describe the world around them. And the last point I make is to ask my students, "If aliens from another world landed on earth tomorrow, how do you think we would communicate with them?" It would not be with any language from earth; the only language that is universal is mathematics. So if mathematics is a language then it is a linguistic representation and I must come up with some more non-linguistic representations, such as, "stomping my foot" at 4:4 time, then stomping whole note beats to represent the idea that 4 quarter notes comprise one full note just as 4 quarters equal 1 and so forth. This representation would address kinesthetic, audio and visual learners (very crudely yet effectively).

Summarizing and Note Taking

Being a math teacher, I have to say I am already in tune with summarizing the topics introduced to students. I think the best information that I learned from this chapter is the different tools and features that I did not know existed within Microsoft Word. The summarizing tool and configuring templates among others will be learned by this user.