Creating Effective Lessons and Tasks

     In my mathematics education class I was once again enriched with knowledge about how to develop my abilities in teaching mathematics to students. Although the topic for this week was about measurement, particularly determining the area and perimeter of various shapes, the main topic I grabbed from this lesson was how to conduct an effective lesson.

     We began the class by performing a minds on activity in the form of a game called I Have, Who Has? This activity showed me the importance of beginning a lesson with a minds on activity because it helps students get focused on learning while stimulating their thinking on topics that have already been covered. In my experience as a student I felt that too many of my teachers rushed into the lesson without giving some time to get students to dial into the subject before the lesson began. We then moved into the main activity where we completed a worksheet that gets you to answer questions about how to determine the area of a circle, rectangle, and cylinder. I found this helpful because the worksheet had clear learning goals for the lesson with the expectations that need to be met. This is important for teachers to do when planning a lesson because it gets you to think about what you want your students to learn and achieve by the end of the lesson. Finally, we then began to take up some of the questions as a class and discussed what we learned as a method of consolidation. Consolidation is important because it makes sure that every student has arrived at the same conclusion. Without it, I think that students will be confused because the lesson was not wrapped up.

     After this we participated in the learning activity presentations which involved activities which could help teach students about measurement. The activities were not only fun for students, but also displayed how the knowledge of measurement can apply in real life situations. I believe this is important because I think that students become more interested in math when they know how they can apply what they are learning to situations outside the classroom.

     As I completed the readings for the week and attended class I began to reflect on what I had learned, but also began to think about how I can create lessons for a class of unique students. This I believe is one of the most difficult parts of teaching because it is hard to create lessons to suit each student. In the article Differentiating Mathematics Instruction I found a number of interesting ideas to create lessons to suit each student. For example, it is important that I understand and welcome different ways of thinking and solving a problem. Too many times I think math teachers try to force one particular algorithm on students rather than letting them come up with one. Another strategy it mentioned that I found interesting was creating open tasks where students can decide what variables to use. With this students can make it easier for themselves if they need to so they can get started or challenge themselves if they found the work too boring. 

Here is an interesting video about how math can be differentiated to help students with different needs.