of Corvallis. I went through rules of my classroom and my syllabus.
Then I did a think, pair, share about what math is. I had them write
first, then share with their partner, and then with the class. I hope
to do more writing like this, but I am struggling to come up with
ideas for calculus. I have asked them to write what they think limit
means in English and what they thought it meant in math before we
started talking about limits though. I got some great answers about
what they thought math consists of and some great words used in the
class (most likely SAT words). Through all of the classes they had
some similarities and yet there were some differences. I think I will
make a wordle of the the three class responses. Then we played Set. I
explained the game to them. Then in small groups I had students find
as many sets as possible in a group of twelve cards. A lot of them
reverted to speaking Chinese. I tried to get them to speak in English
as much as possible. This will be something that I and the other
teachers will have to continually enforce. It took sometime for
students to understand the game. I don't blame them because I even had
trouble at being quick at it. I was told they like puzzles, games, and
challenges so that is why I had them play set. I am thinking of using
the set cards to split them into groups. I get sick of telling them to
turn to their partner. I think I am going to hand out the set cards
then tell them find someone with the same shape/color/shading/number
as you to be your partner. I think that will change the groups up and
get different types of students talking to each other.
I did a couple days of review and then we jumped into limits. I found
a great set of videos about limits. So I showed them in class and then
had students talk about them with their partner afterwards. Each video
was about 5 minutes long. I borrowed them from a website using
screener(screenr.com). I am hoping to do more of this as the year goes
on. I just gotta find those resources, but that is what the internet
and the prepping time is for.
I usually do a warmup that reviews the previous days materials and
sets them up for the days objectives. Then we go over the warmup as a
class. While they are working on the warmup I go around to each
student and ask which homework problems they had trouble with. Then we
go over the warmup. Then we go over the problems from the homework the
students requested. Then we move onto the lesson for the day. I make
sure to post the day's objective on the board as well as the homework.
Chinese students really want to see this and my bosses expect me to do
it as well.
I love warmup's and I love having plenty of time to do them in a 90
minute period. I include questions that they know the answers to and
others they don't. Sometimes the question requires them to write.
However I want to get them writing more. That is my big thing with my
math journals and AP wants Calculus with words so I need to get them
writing. It is tough though. I don't really have the journals set up
with the classes yet because I am waiting to get some separator so
that they can separate the notes and homework in their binder. This
time I am going to have them use loose leaf paper and a two ring
binder. As well as subject separators for their notes, their homework,
tests/quizzes, and of course glossary. I will still have them keep a
table of contents and they can just add loose leaf pages as needed.
Often Chinese students are not used to taking notes in a binder. They
are used to taking notes in their textbooks. So my journals will help
them get used to taking notes and keeping an organized binder. I think
I just thought of another idea right now. I think I will have them
look back over their notes and write a one page summary of what they
learned that week and what they still don't understand. That is
Calculus with words. Anyways if anyone can think of anything about
writing in Calculus I would love them help. I have looked on National
Council for Math Teachers (NCTM) and they didn't have much. However I
am looking forward to trying journals with the classes. I will
hopefully sit down with the class next week to organize their
journals.
Basically all the good teaching practices that we discussed in
Graduate school and that are done in America are expected here. You
are supposed to not do tons of direct instruction and try to vary
activities and teaching styles. This is mainly because direct
instruction is boring. However in China it should not be done because
that is how all of their Chinese teachers teach. I know ask is there
any questions is a bad teaching technique. Students have been
conditioned to make this mean that you are ready to move on to a new
subject. However in China they often don't ask questions because they
are too shy or because they are too worried about asking it in poor
English. You also need to differentiate your lesson just like you do
in America. However in the States we differentiate for TAG, 504's,
IEP's, or other special needs. In a Chinese classroom you will have
lower level students and some really high achieving students. However
I think that the lower student is similar to an average high school
student. Also a lot of times they understand the math of what they are
teaching, but not the English of it all. Like the students didn't know
how to do the review problems only because they couldn't figure out
what the question was asking not because they didn't know the math. So
I think in American classrooms when you differentiate you can a very
big gap between your lowest level students and your high level
students. The difference in students is not as dramatic in my
classroom.
I am thinking of separating the class into different groups during the
warmup. So my high achieving students can work on more challenging
questions while the lower level students work on some different
questions. This was suggested after my observation on Friday. I have
never thought about this. However this will get them talking. Then
each group can present a problem to the class. I am thinking of trying
this out as a differentiation technique. I have to do some cause a
student pointed out we were just finding derivatives when we were
working on limits. I told him limits are the foundation so we have to
work on them first and we will get to derivatives soon. This was a new
student to the program so he may have had derivatives at his other
school.
Chinese students also expect homework, but don't want too much. They
have high expectations for their teachers. They will say you are doing
great to your face, but will often talk to the center principal if
they have problems.
So that is what I have done so far with the classes, how my class is
set up, how I want to set up my class, and some educational
differences between Chinese students and American students. I hope you
enjoy this insight into my classroom.
I am really enjoying the classes and the students so far.
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