As I continue learning how to incorporate technology into my
classroom, I am learning about behaviorism in the classroom. The book Using Technology with Classroom
Instruction that Works, I read
about using technology for “reinforcing effort” and “practice and homework” in
the classroom.
Effort is something many students
in my school are lacking. They believe
they can’t, therefore they don’t. I have
even heard parents say they were never good at math so that is why their child
is not good at math. The book gives an
example of an effort rubric that a teacher has used. Students complete a table using Microsoft
Excel as they evaluate the effort in the class every week. The rubric covers how many questions they ask
in class to how often they study the material.
Afterwards, they complete a chart on their performance. They can graph the data to show that they more
effort they put in, the better they performed.
Practice and homework is also import for students.
In order for students to master a skill, they
need to spend some time practicing it. They
use an example of a physical education teacher using spreadsheet software in
his classroom. I would like to do this
in my math classroom with different graphs.
Using Microsoft Excel, students can manipulate and edit graphs easily.
These
methods model behaviorist theory of learning as they promote reinforcement. As students put in more effort, they are rewarded
with better grades. Practicing material
using technology allows students to do many problems with immediate feedback as
they see their graphs change. This also incorporates
repetition.
I also looked
through some websites to help students in various subjects. WebMATH (www.webmath.com) is an online tutorial that
allows students to enter problems and see detailed solutions. Students can use this website to do math
problems and receive immediate feedback by typing their problem on the
webpage. This also gives students an
opportunity for drilling of a skill. They can also go over problems that were not
assigned in class for added practice with answers.
References:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K.
(2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works.
Alexandria, VA: ASCD.
Another great online tutorial site is www.khanacademy.com. It includes lessons on various subjects other
that math!
Tanya,
ReplyDeleteWhile reading your blog post I made many connections to my own teaching experiences. As you had stated in your post, many students of today lack motivation and are not putting forth their best effort when completing assignments. Next year will mark my fifth year teaching and sadly, I have encountered several students who simply go through the motions, and put forth little effort when completing their work. When presented with these types of students, I always try to motivate and encourage them. Through this week’s learning resources, I now realize that I can utilize technology to show students the relationship between effort and achievement. As you mentioned, there are several technology outlets I can use to do this, such as Microsoft Excel.
With this in mind, I have already begun to think about how I will implement technology to reinforce effort with my fourth grade students. To begin, I am planning to start small. As a math teacher, I am sure you can empathize with students who are still struggling with their basic facts. As a fourth grade teacher, I am constantly encouraging my students to practice their facts. Although I assign math facts practice for homework each night, it is clear that some students neglect to do so. Many students do not want to put forth the effort, and end up struggling as we get into more complex math problems that require knowledge of the basic facts.
When thinking about this, I have devised a plan to allow students to see the correlation between effort and achievement when studying their math facts. To facilitate this, I will give each student a “record sheet” to record how many minutes they practiced their math facts each week. I will explain to the students that they can practice their math facts as little or as much as they want to. The only requirement is that they must be honest with the minutes that they record. At the bottom of the record sheet, I will include a place for a student and parent signature. Each Friday, I will collect the record sheets and one Friday a month I will give the students a timed pop math facts quiz. Utilizing Microsoft Excel I will have the students record the amount of time they practiced their math facts, and the grade they received on the timed pop quiz. I think I will give one to two timed tests a month. As a math teacher, I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this. Do you have any suggestions?
Also, thank you for the fantastic resource! I took a look at webmath.com and I have already linked it to my webpage. This is a great resource for students when they get stuck on a homework or study question. Often times when students come across a problem that is difficult, they simply do not do it. This is an excellent resource to help them overcome math challenges. Parents and students will love this!
Enjoy the rest of your week!
Warmly,
Amy L.
Amy
DeleteI like your idea of using a record sheet in your classroom. I also like how you are encouraging your students to be honest with the time they spent. If you wanted to get more in depth with it, you could ask them which facts they studied (2s, 3s, 4s...). This way they might even be able to see that even though they didn't do that well on the quiz, they did get the ones they studied correct. Thanks for sharing :)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Tanya,
DeleteI find many of my students don't have any idea why they should make an effort, nor do they really know what that means. We created effort rubrics to begin to precisely state the expectations. As a result I noticed some students beginning to make links between effort and grades that they just were not making before. I like the spreadsheet examples too, particularly the transformation of data into charts and graphs so students can easily visualize their performance. As you mentioned it is exciting to see the graphs and charts adjust to the modifications student make with effort.
As a math teacher it is essential to build foundations through repetitive exercises until students really grasp concepts. I remember the days of drill and kill with textbooks and much prefer teaching today with technology available. Not only does it save my clothes from all that chalk dust but students find online applications for elements of behaviorist learning theory such as practice and tutorials far more interesting.
Thanks so much for your post and have a great day, Petra
Petra
DeleteSo many students still do not know their multiplication facts by the time they are in my high school classroom. This creates a huge problem for them. I would like to find time to have these students do more practice with multiplication... better late than never! Technology would be a great way to have them do this. Thanks!