Active Learning
I hate to admit this but before doing the reading for this week, I had not heard of the term active learning. However, after taking a deeper look into it, I realized that I already do this in my classes I just don't refer to it as active learning.
Image Source: Arizona State University
Active learning has students engaging as participants in the learning process. They are not just sitting and listening to a teacher lecture, but they are getting involved and thinking critically about the material. In doing so, this helps to build their understanding of the topic and gets them to increase their confidence.
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I had the opportunity to take a closer look at an elementary example of active learning. In this activity, the students from John C. Coonley school are working on visualizing what it means to be respectful, responsible, and safe in their building. After their class discussion, the students worked in groups to create a storyboard. At the end, students created a PicCollage to demonstrate these three traits to their peers.
This activity is great for active learning because it is relevant to the student's lives. It gets them to think critically about what it means to be respectful, responsible, and safe in relation to them and the school building. Another positive thing, is that the teacher is not facilitating the discussion. The students are leading it with what they already perceive these traits to look like. Then, they get the opportunity to work with their peers to create a final product of these traits using technology. I think this is a fantastic project for elementary students!
Check out my Padlet to learn more about this project!
Image Source: Personal Screenshot of a Padlet
My Experience:
I think it is important for teachers to keep active learning in mind when creating lessons for their classrooms. It helps to keep the students engaged and motivated in what they are learning. I also think it helps build a more solid understanding of the class material.
As a math teacher, I always try to get my students engaged in what we are learning. At times it is hard because I do need to instruct new skills. However, once my students have a good understanding of the skill, I incorporate fun activities that are not just paper pencil.
The other day my students played Ghosts in the Graveyard to review solving multi-step equations. Students worked in groups of three for this activity. Each group had choice over which problem cards they solved and when. If a group was not ready to challenge themselves, they did not have to. When a group finished solving their card, they brought their work up to me and, as the crypt keeper, I checked it to see if they were correct. If they were, they were able to head up to our SmartBoard and place one of their ghosts into a graveyard of their choice. Each graveyard had a different point value associated to it that the students did not know until the end. Once class was over, we were able to tally up their points.
Students worked hard at solving these problems because they knew they had a goal of getting as many ghost as they could. I don't think it felt like solving math problems to them, just a competition between their peers. I totally plan to use this again later in the year, but with a different skill.
Hi Katie!
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've been to your blog yet, so nice to "meet" you! I also checked out your About Me post, and really loved your dog!
I enjoyed 'reading about your Ghost in the Graveyard game involving math problems you did the other day with your students. I think it really speaks to the fact that sometimes, the actual task we are giving students can't really be an active learning task alone because the content/standard that needs to get covered might not automatically lend itself to that, BUT we as teachers can *make it become* active learning, just like you did! You added in something that created more peer interaction, engagement, movement and more with your students, while still covering the material that needed to be covered. Amazing job!
ReplyDeleteHi Katie!
I enjoyed reading about your Ghost in the Graveyard review game. Isn't it funny how adding one new component, like a game or the ghost or points, helps engage students? I bet they learned more during this type of review game than if you were to put up review problems and make them solve them. It sounds like your students worked well together, and they didn't feel like they were doing Math.
Do your students all have to work together on the problem and agree upon the answer before it is checked?
What a super fun way to engage students in math! I enjoyed reading about the activity. Thanks, too, for the great suggestion on your Padlet to take the lesson school-wide and have students in different grade levels show their learning in various ways.
ReplyDeleteKatie,
ReplyDeleteI also enjoyed reading about an active learning activity in your class! It might indeed be challenging to incorporate these methods in math class, but it probably just takes a creative educator as you are to implement engaging technics.
P.S. I used the same picture for active learning in my blog from the same source )))