The other day I was asking my 9th graders to write in complete sentences a discription of the long division process. I wanted to make sure that they could follow this process with polynomials. When I walked around most all papers were blank. I asked several students why they hadn't written anything and all said that they didn't know what to write. So I switched it up a little and told them to look at the person next to them and just tell them the process used is solving long division. You could have heard a pin drop. All my students can solve a long division problem but when it comes to discussing math they feel very uncomfortable. They are scared that they will not communicate the consepts correctly.
As I worked through the voice thread project I began to see how valuable this tool is in creating discussion and communication about math. I read once that when you can communicate to another a skill that you will retain about 95% of that skill. We need our students to communicate openly about math. It is difficult to get students to do this. I found that the voice thread is an innovative way to encourage them to do so. The fact that they can try as many times as they like until they get their message the way they like it before posting it means that more will be willing to try. Another bonus is that in order to discuss the topic they get to use methods that they are comfortable with like texting, e-mail, or video messages. I would love to get permission to allow my students to answer question and problems during class using their cell phones. My eyes have been opened to this wonderful technology. The best part is that it is free and I don't have to beg my administration to get it for me.
1 comment:
So true--they can do it on paper, but when they have to explain or talk about it they can't. They do not realize how powerful it is to be able to communicate mathematically.
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