In this activity, you will post a practical classroom activity that implements Universal Design for Learning. Based on your assigned principle (found in the course activity directions), post a comment in the appropriate blog post by Friday. Be sure to sign your blog entry.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Principle #2 - Student Engagement
Each member of Team B will post at least one way that a teacher uses flexible options for engaging students in learning content, by providing students with choices that will engage their interest.
When I read about UDL, I realized that I do this! I do it in math. One of the biggest areas that must be covered in math is memorization of basic facts. In order to get that done without making it painful and boring, I have a number of ways of teaching it. These are some of my methods of engaging students in learning. 1- Multiplication songs- The children on the CD sing each fact list. Next, they sing all but the answer play the music without the answer to each fact. Students can sing the whole number sentence for practice. Some of them sing them on tests, too! 2- I research and offer to my students the use of tons of multiplication online games (see my list under reneepeoples.org at math games) and students can race each other, build a bug, travel to outer space or whatever strikes their fancy to practice the facts. 3- We do quick drill type probes and students learn to chart their own progress at intervention central http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/chartdog_2_0/chartdog.php in order to see how they are doing. This self assessment creates some interaction and desire to do better. 4- We have stories, actions and tricks for many of the higher facts. For example: 7 year olds give people a headache (touch forehead), at 14 kids are a pain in the neck (tap neck), then they are 21 and 28, at 35 the weight begins to settle (pat belly) and it goes to the hips (pat) at 42 and 49. At 56, the knees begin to go(touch them) and at 63 people can't even touch their toes (try), then come 10 and 77 but at 84 (put hands in praying position) people just thank God to be alive! 4- We have quizdom (a personal response system) and have races with it. We can take quick assessments and get immediate results, also. 5- I have "twist and shouts" bu Leap Frog for students to use individually. 6- We write word problems and quiz each other, using real life. "9 students are going to buy 7 extra rolls at lunch, how many extras will the lunchroom sell to us today?" "We got 5 inches of snow 6 times this winter, how much snow did we have to shovel?" 7- We draw, color and cut arrays (and turn them around to show that multiplication is commutative!).
All of these are just some of the ways to engage students in learning content is not very exciting but is very important.
There are lots of other ways I did not mention- United Streaming video clips for one. My students love ones called Math Mansions. Students pick and choose what they do, stations that they come and go from at their own pace. There is constantly a multiplication station for at least the first three months of school. We do some of the things as a whole group, the rest they choose do based on personal preference.
What a great list of activities to keep students interested and engaged in math! I especially liked the stories associated with multiples of 7 - that is a great way for students to remember those facts. When I taught fourth grade I noticed that many students had a hard time with multiples of 7. I wish I had know about this activity then!
Fantasic list for helping kids learn thier math facts. Like I told you once I googled for some math ideas and your website popped up. Recently I went to a Singapore Math workshop and one idea the presenter had was to use different photographs and have the students find the math facts. One picture showed two sisters in button down sweaters standing in front of a garage. The kids noticed the garage made an array and stated the math fact. The sisters buttons were another. In about 5 minutes we had gone through a ton of math fact families. I also found a website called Road Sign Math. You take pictures of road signs and the kids need to use the numbers to make up math problems.
I think one way to start is with the hardware. This is not a promo, but I sat through a demonstration of the Mac OS and the accessibility features were phenomenal. Here is some of what the OS can do. http://images.apple.com/accessibility/pdf/Mac_OS_X_10.5_Leopard.vpat.pdf Now you have the ability to allow students to research on the web without restrictions on their physical abilities. A group project for gathering information for social studies or science to address a particular standard can now be more accessible using the Mac OS and a Web 2.0 application such as Zoho Notebook. Once the materials are gathered, the students can take turns presenting their portion of the project regardless of their ability to speak well or walk to the front of the room.
Inga- I am so excited because I am just leaving for a Singapore math conference myself! I hope to find to new ways to engage and teach my students during my days there.I am checking out the road sign math. That sounds fun!
Travis, I just checked out the website on the voice over. What I love is the variable speed for reading text. This is so important for people with disabilities. Before most text to speech or books on tape didn't let you vary the speed or the distortion was horrible. I would love to see that in action.
I have a Mac at home and I have it set up so that it tells me what time it is because I can get caught up in these JHU assignments and not notice the time until my computer tells me, "It's 11:00 o'clock!"
I work in a mostly PC district but my son works at Apple and uses these tools on a regular basis for customers that come in with special needs.
When I consider ways to ensure that all of our students have access to the content and skills and the understandings of the learning experience, technology comes directly to mind. It is one of the great equalizers. Students who don't feel that they fit within the box of school suddenly find themselves in the midst. Good teachers are very aware of the importance of making sure that the students are engaged in learning.
I was a German teacher at the Warsaw school before coming into my current position. During each first year course, we taught the skills of telling time in German. This is not a large unit and in the past has not been incredibly engaging. The teacher has a large clock and the students have smaller clocks so that they can manipulate the hands better to change the time as they discuss.
Last week, I observed a second grade lesson working on many of the same skills as my telling time unit. This particular lesson, though, utilized an interactive whiteboard with the voter wiring included. The teacher was able to do flexible grouping, and was also able to find flipcharts that were already established for lessons on telling time. These kids were so engaged in the process. I watched them get more and more excited as they voted on the correct time, used the pen to make changes to the documents, and literally interacted with the board in a way that one normally would not see in a classroom. It provided the kids with a variety of sensory experiences and truly pulled them into the lesson.
Renee, you make me think of mnemonic devices when you talk about using music to learn basic math facts. The tricks such as touching the neck and so on is a great idea. When I taught band and general music classes, I had to help the students learn their key signatures and scales. We used mnemonic devices to help the students. Another way to differentiate is to allow the student to create their own mnemonic device. This way it is personal, and they really have to reflect in order to come up with their own device. One other thing I realized about music. Music actually allows for differentiation more naturally. At the beginning of the year of beginning band, we help the students find the right instrument for them. What they enjoy playing, they play much better. Also, there were times I did not know I had a student who was in special education until I had to be part of a special meeting for their behavior in another class. In music, their issue was not readily evident.
Travis- I have some sites online that have songs for math and I have written some songs. This year when I gave students projects some of them asked if they could write a song to the tune of "Median, Median, Middle Number." You might know it as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star! I laughed and said, yes, they could add that to the choices of projects. The music piece is huge! I have been working with our music teacher to get our students doing more playing of their recorders to see if it helps them learn math. There is some interesting connection between the two. Rennee
Travis and Renee, The whole music piece reaches so many kids. In foreign language we use the same idea of mnemonic devices... and musical ditties to help the kids remember prepositions and grammatical rules among other things.
On another musical note :-), our band teacher has recently purchased some software that she is using as a pilot in our 1:1 program for musical notation. I can't think of the name of it at the moment, but I'll get it. It has been working really well for her middle school students.
Renee, Thinking of math... one of our IB math teachers recently shared with me how our new tablet program is helping him to differentiate in ways that have never been available to him before. His classroom is wired so that he can project any student's tablet screen onto the whiteboard and discuss with the class what they see. He can privately access each computer from his own and watch what they are doing and give immediate feedback. He can also easily and immediately send them other equations to work through, without having to give the same problem to the whole class. One of his students has some pretty serious motor skill issues and having the ability to upload assignments instead of doing them on paper has improved thing for him immensely (in all of his classes).
Michelle- That is SO cool! I love the Elmo for projecting work, too. I challenge students to "find a different way" to get their answer. Each person displays their way under the Elmo and we try to find as many ways as we can. I remember the old days of one student working on one board for 25 students to watch. Technology has amazing ramifications for this that even we are not totally understanding. Maybe only the students get it. I feel like my brain is on overload of learning but I still don't know enough. My students get more engaged when I turn to them to help ME learn how to use technology to get them engaged. The power of students telling me ways to get them to learn more, better and enjoy it more knocks me over. They want to learn when they have that control over how they learn. Sorry, I got out of control!
What program is he using to sync up his Tablets? We have about one-third of our faculty working with Tablets and we are looking for something like this to maybe push a few more over to that technology.
I've bookmarked your collection of math games and am going to share your vocabulary songs with my 4th grade teachers. You need to add your 7 story to your webpage! :) It's great.
Kris, We use Micronet Wireless Media Projector Server. The kids can easily connect to the wireless projector by typing in the password. Whichever tablet in the room types in the password is the one that is projected. They take turns that way. Pretty cool.
17 comments:
When I read about UDL, I realized that I do this! I do it in math. One of the biggest areas that must be covered in math is memorization of basic facts. In order to get that done without making it painful and boring, I have a number of ways of teaching it. These are some of my methods of engaging students in learning.
1- Multiplication songs- The children on the CD sing each fact list. Next, they sing all but the answer play the music without the answer to each fact. Students can sing the whole number sentence for practice. Some of them sing them on tests, too!
2- I research and offer to my students the use of tons of multiplication online games (see my list under reneepeoples.org at math games) and students can race each other, build a bug, travel to outer space or whatever strikes their fancy to practice the facts.
3- We do quick drill type probes and students learn to chart their own progress at intervention central http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/chartdog_2_0/chartdog.php in order to see how they are doing. This self assessment creates some interaction and desire to do better.
4- We have stories, actions and tricks for many of the higher facts. For example: 7 year olds give people a headache (touch forehead), at 14 kids are a pain in the neck (tap neck), then they are 21 and 28, at 35 the weight begins to settle (pat belly) and it goes to the hips (pat) at 42 and 49. At 56, the knees begin to go(touch them) and at 63 people can't even touch their toes (try), then come 10 and 77 but at 84 (put hands in praying position) people just thank God to be alive!
4- We have quizdom (a personal response system) and have races with it. We can take quick assessments and get immediate results, also.
5- I have "twist and shouts" bu Leap Frog for students to use individually.
6- We write word problems and quiz each other, using real life. "9 students are going to buy 7 extra rolls at lunch, how many extras will the lunchroom sell to us today?" "We got 5 inches of snow 6 times this winter, how much snow did we have to shovel?"
7- We draw, color and cut arrays (and turn them around to show that multiplication is commutative!).
All of these are just some of the ways to engage students in learning content is not very exciting but is very important.
There are lots of other ways I did not mention- United Streaming video clips for one. My students love ones called Math Mansions.
Students pick and choose what they do, stations that they come and go from at their own pace. There is constantly a multiplication station for at least the first three months of school. We do some of the things as a whole group, the rest they choose do based on personal preference.
Renee,
What a great list of activities to keep students interested and engaged in math! I especially liked the stories associated with multiples of 7 - that is a great way for students to remember those facts. When I taught fourth grade I noticed that many students had a hard time with multiples of 7. I wish I had know about this activity then!
Renee,
Fantasic list for helping kids learn thier math facts. Like I told you once I googled for some math ideas and your website popped up. Recently I went to a Singapore Math workshop and one idea the presenter had was to use different photographs and have the students find the math facts. One picture showed two sisters in button down sweaters standing in front of a garage. The kids noticed the garage made an array and stated the math fact. The sisters buttons were another. In about 5 minutes we had gone through a ton of math fact families. I also found a website called Road Sign Math. You take pictures of road signs and the kids need to use the numbers to make up math problems.
I think one way to start is with the hardware. This is not a promo, but I sat through a demonstration of the Mac OS and the accessibility features were phenomenal. Here is some of what the OS can do. http://images.apple.com/accessibility/pdf/Mac_OS_X_10.5_Leopard.vpat.pdf
Now you have the ability to allow students to research on the web without restrictions on their physical abilities. A group project for gathering information for social studies or science to address a particular standard can now be more accessible using the Mac OS and a Web 2.0 application such as Zoho Notebook. Once the materials are gathered, the students can take turns presenting their portion of the project regardless of their ability to speak well or walk to the front of the room.
Inga-
I am so excited because I am just leaving for a Singapore math conference myself! I hope to find to new ways to engage and teach my students during my days there.I am checking out the road sign math. That sounds fun!
Travis-
Have you ever tried Voice Thread?
Renee
Travis, I just checked out the website on the voice over. What I love is the variable speed for reading text. This is so important for people with disabilities. Before most text to speech or books on tape didn't let you vary the speed or the distortion was horrible. I would love to see that in action.
Travis,
I have a Mac at home and I have it set up so that it tells me what time it is because I can get caught up in these JHU assignments and not notice the time until my computer tells me, "It's 11:00 o'clock!"
I work in a mostly PC district but my son works at Apple and uses these tools on a regular basis for customers that come in with special needs.
When I consider ways to ensure that all of our students have access to the content and skills and the understandings of the learning experience, technology comes directly to mind. It is one of the great equalizers. Students who don't feel that they fit within the box of school suddenly find themselves in the midst. Good teachers are very aware of the importance of making sure that the students are engaged in learning.
I was a German teacher at the Warsaw school before coming into my current position. During each first year course, we taught the skills of telling time in German. This is not a large unit and in the past has not been incredibly engaging. The teacher has a large clock and the students have smaller clocks so that they can manipulate the hands better to change the time as they discuss.
Last week, I observed a second grade lesson working on many of the same skills as my telling time unit. This particular lesson, though, utilized an interactive whiteboard with the voter wiring included. The teacher was able to do flexible grouping, and was also able to find flipcharts that were already established for lessons on telling time. These kids were so engaged in the process. I watched them get more and more excited as they voted on the correct time, used the pen to make changes to the documents, and literally interacted with the board in a way that one normally would not see in a classroom. It provided the kids with a variety of sensory experiences and truly pulled them into the lesson.
Renee, you make me think of mnemonic devices when you talk about using music to learn basic math facts. The tricks such as touching the neck and so on is a great idea.
When I taught band and general music classes, I had to help the students learn their key signatures and scales. We used mnemonic devices to help the students. Another way to differentiate is to allow the student to create their own mnemonic device. This way it is personal, and they really have to reflect in order to come up with their own device.
One other thing I realized about music. Music actually allows for differentiation more naturally. At the beginning of the year of beginning band, we help the students find the right instrument for them. What they enjoy playing, they play much better. Also, there were times I did not know I had a student who was in special education until I had to be part of a special meeting for their behavior in another class. In music, their issue was not readily evident.
Travis-
I have some sites online that have songs for math and I have written some songs. This year when I gave students projects some of them asked if they could write a song to the tune of "Median, Median, Middle Number." You might know it as Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star! I laughed and said, yes, they could add that to the choices of projects.
The music piece is huge! I have been working with our music teacher to get our students doing more playing of their recorders to see if it helps them learn math. There is some interesting connection between the two.
Rennee
Travis and Renee,
The whole music piece reaches so many kids. In foreign language we use the same idea of mnemonic devices... and musical ditties to help the kids remember prepositions and grammatical rules among other things.
On another musical note :-), our band teacher has recently purchased some software that she is using as a pilot in our 1:1 program for musical notation. I can't think of the name of it at the moment, but I'll get it. It has been working really well for her middle school students.
Renee,
Thinking of math... one of our IB math teachers recently shared with me how our new tablet program is helping him to differentiate in ways that have never been available to him before. His classroom is wired so that he can project any student's tablet screen onto the whiteboard and discuss with the class what they see. He can privately access each computer from his own and watch what they are doing and give immediate feedback. He can also easily and immediately send them other equations to work through, without having to give the same problem to the whole class.
One of his students has some pretty serious motor skill issues and having the ability to upload assignments instead of doing them on paper has improved thing for him immensely (in all of his classes).
Michelle-
That is SO cool! I love the Elmo for projecting work, too. I challenge students to "find a different way" to get their answer. Each person displays their way under the Elmo and we try to find as many ways as we can.
I remember the old days of one student working on one board for 25 students to watch.
Technology has amazing ramifications for this that even we are not totally understanding. Maybe only the students get it. I feel like my brain is on overload of learning but I still don't know enough. My students get more engaged when I turn to them to help ME learn how to use technology to get them engaged. The power of students telling me ways to get them to learn more, better and enjoy it more knocks me over. They want to learn when they have that control over how they learn. Sorry, I got out of control!
Michelle,
What program is he using to sync up his Tablets? We have about one-third of our faculty working with Tablets and we are looking for something like this to maybe push a few more over to that technology.
Renee,
I've bookmarked your collection of math games and am going to share your vocabulary songs with my 4th grade teachers. You need to add your 7 story to your webpage! :) It's great.
Kris,
We use Micronet Wireless Media Projector Server. The kids can easily connect to the wireless projector by typing in the password. Whichever tablet in the room types in the password is the one that is projected. They take turns that way. Pretty cool.
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