Math Bridging Activities

 Math Bridging Activities

  Summer Break 


                                                                  
   Our students work hard over the school year to learn the information we present. It is estimated that over summer break students can lose up to 2 months of previously acquired math knowledge.  As teachers we can prevent this from happening by sending home suggested summer math activities.

   The following are some suggestions. They are categorized by age for your convenience.

Young Learners

• ·         Review numbers while running errands
• ·         Count apples or boxes of cereal at the grocery store
• ·         Estimate how many red, green, or yellow cars are in a parking lot
• ·         Start a collection of rocks or sea shells and keep a running tally of how many you’ve collected
• ·         Identify numbers on sports jerseys and count goals scored or runs batted in

Elementary School Students

• ·         Play card games like Solitaire, Uno, Crazy Eights, and Four Kings
• ·         Pick 1 day a week to review multiplication flash cards
• ·         Take them to the DQ, give them $3.25 and have them figure out what treat they can afford
• ·         Measure the height of their shadow at different times such as, 10 am, 12pm, 1 pm

Middle School Students

• ·         Measure the amount of water the plants need
• ·         Measure the plants growth each week
• ·         Bake
• ·         Predict how much gas it will take to get to the cabin
• ·         Play cribbage or rummy

High School Students

• ·         Math camp
• ·         Tutor younger students
• ·         Review past tests
• ·         Help plan and budget the family vacation

Math Manipulatives

This blog is going to focus on the use of manipulatives to aid students with their math skills. I hope you have had an opportunity to view some of my other blogs related to Universal Design, RTI, and the Common Core Curriculum because they are all directly related to this blog.

When one walks into the standard math classroom they will likely witness students sitting at their desks working independently on math worksheets or from their math books. The problem with this is that likely only the students who have a very solid grasp on math are benefiting from this "hands off" type of instruction. The ones who struggle with math such as RTI tier 1 and tier 2 students need the support of UDL which would offer them the concept development skills needed to understand math. The following are a list of manipulatives that might benefit your students.

1. Unifex Cubes make math a hands on activity.

1.                
2. base 10 blocks help students understand place values.                                                                                                                               
3. Money lines help students learn to identify coins and their values.  
4. Real Money is also a valuable tool because struggling students often don't have the concept of paper money or plastic coins.  

     5. Counter Chips are especially helpful when teaching positive and negative numbers.


         




                                                                                                         
Please refer to the following video to see an example of students benefiting from math manipulatives.

Response to Intervention (RTI)

As an educator, it is my belief that one of the most positive changes to education that has taken place lately is Response to Intervention (RTI). RTI is a school-wide, multi-level instructional and behavioral system meant to prevent school failure. It is most frequently used in a 3 tier model that looks like this:

                                                                              

• Tier 1, or the bottom tier, is whole class instruction. In this tier 80-90% of students will make benchmark
• Tier 2, or the center tier, offers more intense instruction which might include small group instruction or increased time in the needed subject area. In this area another 10-15% of students are able to meet benchmark. 
• Tier 3, or the top tier, offers even more intense instruction for the approximately 5% of students that have yet to meet benchmark. Instruction in this area will likely include one on one instruction from an RTI trained staff member. 

In order for RTI to be successful schools must require high quality instruction, progress monitoring, screening, and data based decision making. They should also have a designated RTI team in each school.

Universal Design For Learning

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an architectural philosophy that has been adopted by education. In architecture the philosophy of Universal Design is basically making all buildings    accessible to the widest population of people as possible. By doing this from the start it prevents         stereotypes or biases from being created but it also has its economic benefits because the building will not have to be modified in the future. Educators have started adopting this philosophy by considering the needs of all learners when developing their curricula, methods, and materials. This approach eliminates the need to redesign the materials developed for the “typical” to fit the needs of the “atypical” student. 

Teachers who approach education using UDL must carefully consider their goals of instruction. For example, if teachers want to quiz a student on what they have learned on a history unit, rather than assigning the students to write a paragraph about an event in history, they should ask them to demonstrate a knowledge of the event by writing about it, creating a play, setting up a time to discuss it orally, or creating a power point. By offering this flexible, varied, and diverse approach the students who struggle with writing have other ways of displaying their understanding of the subject.

I believe that UDL is an important philosophy for schools to adopt. By incorporating UDL schools can service a more diverse group of students and decrease barriers that might limit their access to materials and learning. All student have the right to feel safe, comfortable, and included in their schools. UDL can help us accomplish this.

            

STEM

STEM

 

 Following last week’s blog regarding the “The Common Core” curriculum and the United States need to improve our state of education, I decided to do this week’s blog on how we as parents and teachers can help our children get excited about STEM. For those of you who might not know, STEM, stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math and is one of the areas in which the United States ranks lower than competing countries.

The following is a list I have compiled of ways we can help our children in this area:

1  1.    Understand your children’s/student’s interests, strengths and weakness. By doing this you will be able to find activities they will enjoy and prevent them from becoming frustrated.

    2.   Make sure your children/students are physically and emotionally healthy before expecting them to participate or learn from your lesson. If they are hungry, hurt, or irritated they won’t be giving you their full attention.

3  3. Teach your children/students how science and technology provide value. Emphasize their interests like the internet, cell phones, video games, and cures for diseases.

    4.  Create a STEM environment. Watch science related television programs or movies and have discussions about them. Do fun experiments that meet their age and interest levels, such as: making bubbles, “rain in a bag”, float or sink, mentos geysers, composting, weather stations, and “walking water”.

5.       Explore nature and answer your children’s/student’s questions; if you don’t know the answer offer them extra credit to research it. Suggested activities may include: making rainbows, nature color hunts, and/or stopping and exploring nature with magnifying glasses.

6.       Encourage children/students to be creative and invent things. Explain that science can lead to fame and money. Introduce them to Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Jane Goodall, and Temple Grandin.

I used the following webpages to provide information on this blog:

www.lovemyscience.com

www.wikihow.com                        

www.fun.familyeducation.com

  

Pros and Cons of "The Common Core"

As a current and future educator, as well as a mother of 4 young children, the state of the United States education system and our steady decline in student achievement rankings greatly concerns me. As we explore possible solutions to this problem the idea of “The Common Core” often comes up.

“The CommonCore” consists of cohesive expectations for what students in Kindergarten through 12^th grade should be taught and be able to achieve in each grade. The goal of “The Common Core” is that it will better prepare students for college and the workforce.

In order to make an educated decision on your position in regards to “The Common Core” it is important to be aware of some of the pros and cons of this unified strategy. This is a list of some of the positive and negative 
aspects of “The Common Core”.

Pros

·         Allows states to compare standardized tests more accurately and shows how students are achieving from state to state

·         Common core standards are internationally bench-marked and countries that currently have a single set of national norms have high performing students, therefore the U.S. should be successful in improving their academic ranking which has steadily been dropping

·         Classes can be more rigorous and high quality

·         Common core offers relief to highly mobile students such as students who often move from state to state for parent employment or military involvement

·         Common Core will improve students ability to use higher level of thinking

·         In the long run it will lower monies spent by states for test development, scoring, and reporting

·         Will enhance teacher collaboration and professional development

Cons

·         Common Core standardized tests will not have an adapted or modified version for special education students

·         States that currently have high standards may have to lower their standards to meet those of other states

·         Younger students will have a more rigid learning experience than their older peers experienced

·         Initial adjustment for teachers and students may prove difficult because it will introduce a different teaching  and learning style

·         May result in high teacher turn over because some teachers will choose to resign or retire rater than learn the new teaching techniques or curricula

·         Initial cost for states may be high due to changes in inefficient textbooks and technology

After reflecting on the benefits and downfalls of “The Common Core” I still haven’t decided if I am an advocate or not. Although I see the benefits of common standards, I am concerned that some organizations are confusing common standards with unified instruction. Furthermore, our focus is so standard driven that we are neglecting individual developmental differences. In this regard, both high and low achieving students are affected. For example, gifted students may not be allowed to express their learning by displaying their multiple intelligences and special education students are assessed and reported using the same guidelines. Where do you stand?