Classroom Response Systems in Math Class Level: Intermediate --- Content: Math |
Ms. Garcia is a middle school algebra teacher. First year algebra is required for all middle school students and she has many students who are struggling to understand and some that do not even try. She knows that many students do not read their assignments or listen during class discussions. Now that the students have laptops, she has some ideas for how to keep them engaged and help them to reach the learning goals for the class. Every night students complete a homework assignment of algebra problems. Once they have finished they use their laptops to connect to the class blog that Ms. Garcia has set up using Wordpress. The blog contains open-ended questions about the homework assignment. For example, Ms. Garcia might ask them to discuss the common principle behind some of the problems. Students post answers to these questions using the blog’s semi-private comment feature. Students can’t see each other’s responses but Ms. Garcia can read all of them. Ms. Garcia reviews the students’ answers and is able to assess students’ understanding of the principles behind the homework. Since she began asking students’ to answer these questions, she finds that more of them do their homework assignments. She grades the students’ answers on effort because she is more interested in knowing what she needs to teach the next day than giving a grade. For the first class activity, Ms. Garcia chooses one of the blog questions and 3 or 4 representative answers submitted the previous night by her students. She creates a multiple choice question using Poll Everywhere tool, and asks the students to indicate which of the answers they believe is the best. The results are displayed as a bar graph and students are able to see how many of their classmates chose each answer. Ms. Garcia then leads a discussion by asking one or more students to explain why they think each of the answers is the best. She encourages students to challenge each others’ opinion. Then the class votes again using Poll Everywhere to see how many students have changed their minds. Ms. Garcia can gauge how well her students understand the concepts. When she feels that most of the students understand she moves on to another question from the blog. Throughout the class, students post questions using Google moderator. All the students and Ms. Garcia can see these questions. Ms. Garcia can choose a question and discuss it with the whole class. Students can vote for questions of their peers if they also need an answer or they can answer peers’ questions if they have an answer. Ms. Garcia has learned that when she counts the survey responses as part of students’ grades, there is a dramatic improvement in attendance and students make genuine attempts to stay engaged throughout the class. They are more likely to participate in class discussions and more students are able to successfully complete the class. Tools used in this scenario: Audience Response Systems: Data Collection Systems: |