Strategy+18+-+Visuals

Strategy 18 - Visuals

Lynn- Working problems for your class is a good beginning. But they also need to work them. Take it a step further and have them discuss it, maybe by teaching another student. This truly instills the knowledge. I can remember in high school and college, teachers working the algebra problems for us on the board then giving us the assignment. We'd sit there and think, "how did they do that again???" Watching didn't cut it for me, I needed to work it with the teacher while they were modeling it, however many teachers would tell us to put our pencils down and watch :) Did you have those teachers? And then when I helped someone else work I problem (teaching or explaining it) I really remembered the process best.

The other point I want to make, since visuals is a duh category (we all know how important it is), when testing students, I feel it is important to keep them in their comfort territory (aka classroom) while testing. Where did they learn the math skills, refer to posters or art work they created dealing with math concepts? In their classroom. Even though we have to remove the posters during test times, I have seen students look around the room for the (missing) poster and then answer questions on tests. Maybe they've planted the poster in their memory and by looking at that familiar wall they're able to visualize in their memory the association needed to answer the math question. Whatever dendrite they're tugging on, it works, and I feel students should remain in their classrooms to test, not visit a lab that isn't familiar to them, unless they learned math in that room :) Just my two cents...