As I was sitting in the back of a geometry classroom listening and watching instruction, I noticed that there were tons and tons of vocabulary words. He was teaching a unit on circles and lines and angles associated with circles. Students had constructed a book called "My Circle Book", which was actually in the shape of a circle. Clever! He would go from slide to slide and have students write down definitions and draw the associated picture. I thought that approach was effective and would work well for the students so that they could refer back to it.
However, when it was our turn to teach the class, it was clearly apparent that most of the students hadn't internalized the vocabulary words and therefore had a hard time understanding the theorems. To overcome this gap with most of the students, we were able to rely on visual representation to get our point across and give them the tools that they needed to complete the day's tasks. This fix was very temporary though.
I am a firm believer that knowing vocabulary and using it precisely allows students to understand the foundation and progress to higher orders of thinking. In my perfect classroom where I was able to accomplish all of my dreams, I would take time to go over vocabulary and drill it if necessary. Students would be expected to use their vocabulary precisely and frequently. The precision in the language of mathematics is what makes learning it possible. Without precision, mathematics becomes convoluted and frustrating.
In this particular situation, I think he just went over it too fast and students weren't able to get any meaning out of the words because they were focusing on writing it down. It would save time in the long run to give them some time to get to know the vocabulary before moving on to the theorems.
I can see that you are a critical observer of your environment. This will do much for you as you work to find the teaching style and tools that work best for you. It’s nice to observe others and learn from them what we will or won’t do in our practice to create more inclusive and student friendly classrooms and I can see from this post that you will be a learner in regard to observing and critiquing your own environment and your own instruction in regard to how it fits your environment.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting and a little bit unsettling to see how even some of the most clever and fun ideas (like a circle book) are still insufficient in establishing a firm foundation of knowledge. It's experiences like this that make me somewhat nervous to teach, because although the teacher is doing their best, there may just not be time to go as in depth as is necessary. Well, good luck to us, right?
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