Over the next few weeks, my fellow teacher candidates and I will be leading a mathematics learning activity. I will be reflecting on some of these activities.
Steve the Stick Figure
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| http://clipartix.com/stick-figure-clip-art/ |
The learning activity from week one that I would like to discuss is the Steve the Stick Figure activity. In this activity, students follow a path around the room using transformations. At each station, students are given two coordinates that represent where Steve the Stick Figure's head and bottom are on the grid. There is a problem involving transformations at each station that students need to solve in order to determine where they need to go next. Students follow the path around the room until they have visited all the stations, at which point the students have to send Steve home (i.e. a specific point on the grid) using any transformations they choose. Students then can create a story for Steve's adventure based on where he went on their grid.
I would definitely use this activity in my classroom for multiple reasons. First of all, I believe that it is beneficial for a large variety of different learners. Students who are tactile/kinesthetic learners are benefitted through walking around the classroom, as opposed to sitting at their desks. Students are given the opportunity to choose whether they want to work alone or with others. This helps different types of learners because some students work more effectively by themselves, whereas other students like discussing and problem-solving with a partner. Another aspect of this activity that tailors to different types of student learning is the fact that students are able to use both the graphs and the coordinates. Actually plotting the stick figure on the Cartesian grid, as opposed to just determining the coordinates, will likely help students who are more visual learners. Students are able to use the graphs to understand the different transformations visually. In addition, students are able to use the coordinates to assist them in understanding the different transformations. A final way that I believe this activity incorporated different types of learning is the final part of the activity. Students are asked to make a story that describes Steve's journey throughout the day. This is beneficial for students who are good at creative writing. In addition, it increases the students' interest during the activity because students can create any story they want. It also allows students to review the different transformations that took place. I strongly believe that this learning activity was an excellent example of differentiation and tailoring to the many different types of learners that will be in a mathematics classroom.
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| https://www.tes.com/lessons/l-IGpdZk72gmSg /transformations |
The only aspect of this
learning activity that I may have done differently is to possibly have some
directions in writing. When the presenter was first explaining the
activity, I was slightly confused as to what we were supposed to do.
However, once we actually started the activity, it began to make sense.
If I were to use this activity in my future classroom, I would make some
written instructions that I could hand out to the students. However, I
would still go over the instructions as a class for clarity. I believe
having a written form of the instructions would make the activity clearer in
regards to what is expected of the students. This would help students who
understand better from written instruction rather than verbal instruction.
This would also give students something to refer back to.
Overall, this was a very unique activity that I would definitely use in my classroom.
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