Individualizing Instruction with Video Explanations Level: Secondary --- Content: Mathematics |
The students in Ms. Angel’s secondary school algebra class are very diverse. She has very high achieving students who grasp new concepts quickly and others who are struggling to understand. In addition, she has new students who have just come to the school who do not speak the same language as her other students. She wants to be able to provide individual attention to all of them, but she has found it very difficult. Ms. Angel finds videos on the Internet that provide explanations for many algebra concepts and procedures. Each video is short and shows a teacher working a problem on a whiteboard while he/she explains it. Some topics have videos with captions translating the audio into second languages and others have different versions of the video created by teachers who speak different languages. She also finds a library of learning objects, that are short text lessons that also have opportunities for practice and feedback. Ms. Angel is introducing a new topic to the class this week. She explains the concept and then asks students to work in pairs to work a problem at their desks. After they finish, Ms. Angel has students respond to a survey she has created with Poll Everywhere. The survey shows the math problem that students have just worked and several different answers. She asks students to use their laptops to select the answer they believe is correct. She then works the problem at the front of the room and shows them the correct answer. She knows from the survey that many students are still confused so she gives them the web address of videos that explain the topic. Pairs of students watch the videos and try to solve similar problems. The videos help most students work independently while Ms. Angel helps other students individually. Ms. Angel also gives them the web address of learning objects on the topic to help students who are still confused. In order to keep students engaged in practicing this topic, Ms. Angel asks them to create their own video explanation. Using the cameras built into their laptops, each student records themselves solving and explaining a problem. The videos are then shown to the entire class, who provide feedback using Polleverywhere. The students also use this tool to select two or three of the best videos to display on their class math blog. Resources in this scenario: Tools in this scenario:
|