tech minds - Merriam Oliver

1.  Suggest a minimum of 3 instructional methods which might motivate the learners to learn.  Use references to support your support.

As a high school math teacher, I constantly try new methods of instruction to motivate my learners.  Through trial and error, I have found that each year each class is completely different in respect to the range of learners and their abilities from years previous.  It is important as an effective teacher to take the following components into consideration for the delivery of instruction:

    1.  provide feedback

    2.  frequent student responses

    3.  appropriate pacing

    4.  adequate processing time

    5.  monitor responses
    (Merrill)

It is also important to take into account the style of learners your class entails.  From special educational needs to gifted and talented needs; learners fall into the following categories:

    1. visual

    2. auditory

    3. read-write

    4. kinesthetic

Finding the best method of instruction for your class is of utmost importance in order to reach all learner types while motivating and engaging them to learn (Oakes & Star).


The type of learning taking place is dependent of the proficiency aimed to achieve.  When planning lessons, a teacher must determine if the instruction is of conceptual understanding, procedural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, or productive disposition?  By asking this questions of the lesson, the teacher can determine if the style of delivery should be systematic and explicit, self-instruction, peer tutoring, or through visual representation.


I have found the following cycle to work in my classroom most effectively and proficiently.  At the beginning of a new lesson with new material, explicit and systematic instruction works the best.  Through this form of direct instruction, the repeated practice of skills can be mastered (Steadly, Dragoo, Arefeh, & Luke, 2011).  This form of instruction can aid learners of visual through the presentation, auditory if listening to instruction, and read-write for those who take notes.  This style helps students recall information when asked to preform tasks of the higher cognitive levels.


As the lesson progresses and formulas are being manipulated, I enjoy using visual representations through graphing and interactive programs.  As processes are evolving to a deeper understanding, it is very helpful for the students to see the differences, or “tweaking,” of such processes and what happens (Steadly, Dragoo, Arefeh, & Luke, 2011).  This methods again aids the visual, auditory, and read-write learners, but with IWB, kinesthetic learners can move about and do hands-on processing.


The last style of instruction I use in my classroom is peer tutoring as the lesson is wrapped up.  I am not a fan of self-instruction in my daily classroom, I feel it is more beneficial to G/T students.  Peer-instruction through mini-projects and assignments allows students to collaborate and be social (Steadly, Dragoo, Arefeh, & Luke, 2011).  Being the tutor enhances a students self-confidence while sometimes approaching a problem “out-of-the-box” makes a connection with the tutored student.


2.  From your personal experience, share an undesirable incident which the good methods (tools) had been applied to the inappropriate situations (no references required).  


Every year, during fall semester finals, my Geometry class has a two week gingerbread house project.  During these two weeks, students are expected to research designs, provide orthographic and scaled drawings of their design, and finally execute their designed gingerbread house.  This project incorporates previous knowledge of all skills using self-instruction, peer tutoring, and visual representation throughout the processes.  Since this project is an application and creation of previous knowledge, I assumed that the students would jump right into this opportunity.  However, they did not; they were completely confused on what was required and expected of them.  This was because of the lack of direct instruction for each level of the project.


In the past, calculators where they only form of technology the students used to convert original dimensions to their scaled orthographic views.  The Internet was used to research and examples displayed on the SmartBoard where also utilized, but were not interactive.  Using the calculator as a "servant" to simplify proportionals of scaling did not enhance any cognitive skills of the student.


What would you propose to do to redirect the specific situation you mentioned above to make learning easier, quicker, and more enjoyable? Please provide references to support your statement.


Over the years, I have “tweaked” the project to include systematic and explicit instruction along with self-instruction, peer tutoring, and visual representation.  Through the use of all four methods of teaching at certain points of this project, students accomplish amazing gingerbread house projects!


In the "real world," architects, engineers, and designers use AutoCad and/or SolidWorks to perform such tasks as orthographic views, blueprints, and scales.  My students were completing this the old fashioned way with pencil and paper.  Our district is too poor to purchase liscenses needed to complete this project and so I have turned to Google SketchUp.  This free program allows students to perform the same tasks as before, but with more interaction and conceptualization.  This program allows students to visualize their project all the way through aiding to their deeper understanding of this project.



References:

Merrill, M. (n.d.). 5 star instruction. Retrieved from http://www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com/Instructions/5Star.htm

Oakes, A., & Star, J. (n.d.). Helping mathematics students reach deep understanding. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Helping_Mathematics

Steedly , K., Dragoo, K., Arefeh, S., & Luke, S. (2011). Effective mathematics instruction. Evidence for Education, 3(1)