Drama in math??
Perhaps, you do not associate drama with math? In the past, I have had students pretending to be in a restaurant where they read a menu, pick out items and figure out the change. When were seeing how many girls there are than boys, for example, they'll stand up across from each other in a line so that we can see the difference. Movement and concrete objects aide in understanding. Here, we took it a step further. Students frequently have difficulty in deciding what math operation to perform and often just add numbers together. We created a scenario where a student brought his math problem to the hospital to find a specialist who could perform the appropriate "operation" to solve his problem.
I was looking for a group of students who could demonstrate this without having to go into great detail about how the operations worked. (Time crunch). I have a group who are intermediate to advanced English learners and they were less than enthusiastic about coming to my class. Their homeroom teacher had requested that I go over practice test questions with them and they were tired of it. I had a relationship of mutual annoyance with a couple of them. This can be a no-win situation and I needed to find a way to win. I proposed the idea to them and their response was nothing short of transformational. Suddenly, they were inspired and offered ways of extending the lesson - Can we write a song? Can we do a dance? This project provided engagement and helped to build relationships.
We did some brainstorming about what type of math terms they should use to communicate the function of each operation. We had one class period to do this, twenty minutes of another period to run through it, and the next day we recorded. On that day, sadly, Dr. Addition was absent, but luckily two students, who hadn't been in the class, volunteered. I brought in a few props from a nurse friend of mine - they really liked that, and I have a box with a few more items. It's not perfect, but I think this idea could be used to take students through the process of selecting the right operation (without all the recording and props). If I were to do this again I would have the students in the "audience" draw the conclusions about the appropriateness of each operation, rather than me. This process could be done with multiple problems in a classroom.
It was interesting and pleasing to me that one of the students who was being the most difficult before we did this, performed brilliantly and with enthusiasm. One week I was calling her parents about her lack of cooperation and the next week she was integral to our project. I'm sure it was a relief to both of us. Sometimes, you have to do things that carry a bit of drudgery, but perhaps they can be interspersed with other activities that allow for more creativity. When I see other students around the school who are giving their teachers a hard time I wonder how they would respond to opportunities like this. I think some of the students who are "acting-up" would benefit from a more legitimate opportunity to perform before an audience. We showed our video to a 4th grade math class and a 5th and 3rd grade class and received a warm response. The math teacher said that this was in line with the new Core Standards because the students are demonstrating and explaining their processes. See the video below.
I was looking for a group of students who could demonstrate this without having to go into great detail about how the operations worked. (Time crunch). I have a group who are intermediate to advanced English learners and they were less than enthusiastic about coming to my class. Their homeroom teacher had requested that I go over practice test questions with them and they were tired of it. I had a relationship of mutual annoyance with a couple of them. This can be a no-win situation and I needed to find a way to win. I proposed the idea to them and their response was nothing short of transformational. Suddenly, they were inspired and offered ways of extending the lesson - Can we write a song? Can we do a dance? This project provided engagement and helped to build relationships.
We did some brainstorming about what type of math terms they should use to communicate the function of each operation. We had one class period to do this, twenty minutes of another period to run through it, and the next day we recorded. On that day, sadly, Dr. Addition was absent, but luckily two students, who hadn't been in the class, volunteered. I brought in a few props from a nurse friend of mine - they really liked that, and I have a box with a few more items. It's not perfect, but I think this idea could be used to take students through the process of selecting the right operation (without all the recording and props). If I were to do this again I would have the students in the "audience" draw the conclusions about the appropriateness of each operation, rather than me. This process could be done with multiple problems in a classroom.
It was interesting and pleasing to me that one of the students who was being the most difficult before we did this, performed brilliantly and with enthusiasm. One week I was calling her parents about her lack of cooperation and the next week she was integral to our project. I'm sure it was a relief to both of us. Sometimes, you have to do things that carry a bit of drudgery, but perhaps they can be interspersed with other activities that allow for more creativity. When I see other students around the school who are giving their teachers a hard time I wonder how they would respond to opportunities like this. I think some of the students who are "acting-up" would benefit from a more legitimate opportunity to perform before an audience. We showed our video to a 4th grade math class and a 5th and 3rd grade class and received a warm response. The math teacher said that this was in line with the new Core Standards because the students are demonstrating and explaining their processes. See the video below.