Skip to main content

A review of Class #6

In week six we cooked up some mathematical fun when being introduced to activities that help to teach Rate, Ratio and Proportion. One presenter made recipe cards for the class, and then instructed us to double and triple the recipe. The recipes she introduced were fun, and something that students could realistically make at home. I also liked how this doubled as a practical example of how ratio and proportion are used in our everyday lives.


Robert Brazile. Food is Love? Feb. 15, 2014. [Online Image]
Sourced from: http://bit.ly/2eMSpUK 


This is definitely an example that I would use in my class. As a teacher, I could ask my students to find a recipe at home and double, triple or quadruple the recipe. Another fun spin on this activity would be to actually cook a recipe. This could be cold baking (no cooking required) or cooked if desired. This doubles as a fun and yummy reward that highlights the everyday uses of mathematics. 

This then leads me to the question asked at the end of class How can I ensure that my students develop a conceptual understanding of ratio, rate and proportion? 

First, I must teach my students to attend two quantities at the same time. Next I must teach them how to form a multiplicative comparison of two quantities (ie. comparing a 15 inch rope to a 10 inch rope, understanding that the 15 inch rope is 1.5 times as long as the second). Third, students must learn to form a composed unit (ie. 3:2 to describe a class that has 3 girls for every 2 boys). Also, teaching students to repeat (multiply) or break into equal parts (divide) ratios to create equivalent ratios will help ensure that students have a strong conceptual understanding of ratio, rate and proportion.  


Another fun yet practical activity that the professor presented to us was based on identifying curriculum expectations for various grade levels. She made this into a matching game, where we had to match a math problem to the grade level expectation. Working in pairs, we made a few mismatches, however, once I completed and corrected my answers, I found this very rewarding and insightful.  



Until next week!

Ashley

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rich Tasks for Week Four

This week in math we discussed the importance of providing students with rich tasks rooted in mathematics. A rich task encourages students to think creatively, work logically, communicate ideas, synthesize their results, analyze different viewpoints, look for commonalities and evaluate findings. San Jose Library. Group Work on Cards. July.1,2009. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2woSSlZ  For a task to be rich it must be engaging in the sense that it has the potential to engage students in mathematical thinking. It must also have a meaningful mathematical focus that connects to the mathematics curriculum, process and content expectations.  It is important to challenge students meaningfully through problem solving. A rich task will be grounded in problem solving and will encourage students to reason his/her way to new understanding. The student would accomplish this by using multiple math processes while the instructor would allow ample time for explanation, justi...
4 comments
Read more

Representing Math in Week Five

My focus this week has been on representing mathematics in various ways. Allowing for a variety of  of representations of mathematical understanding (ie. pictoral, concrete, numerical, and algebraic) is essential when designing lessons to allow for differentiated instruction. Information presented through symbols of pictures is called pictoral representations of data. The pictures of objects are used to represent different information. An example of this would be the use of pictographs to represent data in a visual way. Strategies for Teaching Elementary Mathematics. Concrete and Abstract Representations. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2yuFtNq  A great tech tool that uses pictoral representations of mathematical data can be found at the website  Math Playground . Many games require the use of pictoral representations to solve problems. This is a method to integrate technology into mathematics while creating fun and engaging learning opportuniti...
Post a Comment
Read more

Learning Styles in the Classroom for Week Three

This week in mathematics we focused on the gratification of mathematics as well as understanding how to approach various types of learners in the classroom. JoanDragonfly. Venn Diagram of 3 Learning Styles. June.8,2017. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/2y2gQrz  I had fun trying various tests that helped me to identify what type of learner that I am and surprisingly I have discovered that I am equally an audio and visual learner. I think it is imperative that instructors design their lessons, delivery, and classroom environment to enrich and engage various types of learners (ie. kinesthetic, visual, and audio).  I think it is important that we encourage students to understand how they learn best whether it be auditorally, visually, or kinestheically. With this being said, I also think that educators shouldn't encourage students to label themselves. When someone labels themselves as a certain type of learner, I believe that students may internalize that definition ...
1 comment
Read more