Technology, Games and Manipulatives
Putting Instruction into Practice in Math Centers (Virtual Tour)
Stage of Literacy Development:
Stage 3: Literacy for GrowthAges:
7-12
Grade Range:
3rd 4th 5th 6thFood Groups:
Primary: Classroom Organization & Time Management, Reading Comprehension Strategies
Transcript
To reinforce the math concepts that we learned during carpet instruction, I have my students participate in centers. Centers offer a variety of activities that will meet the needs of different students. As all students learn differently, it is important to make sure that they all have the opportunity to participate in the way that would make sense to them. The centers are 'Practice Centers' where they practice just a skill. They have the opportunity to work with different technologies and play games that have the concept that we have been learning about. There is problem solving in groups as well as individually where they are talking about the different strategies that they may need to use, solving these using the problem-solving models and steps that we have put in place. As well, there is a hands-on center, which will involve some kind of game where students get to actively practice the concept in a fun way. For the 'All About Technology Center', students participate in different activities that have to do with either the computer or the iPad. For example, the activity that they are working on right now for multiplication and division is they have to create their own problem solving questions, illustrate it for their classmates and then create a QR code for their classmates. Those problems will be displayed and students will have the opportunity to answer each other's questions and then check their answers independently by using the QR codes. During the 'Think it Through Center', students have the opportunity to practice using the pencil strategy that we worked on together in class. I offer different problem solving questions where they can work either individually, in partners or in small groups to read over questions and determine what the question is asking. For instance, the activity that the students are working on right now is a variety of questions that they dont actually have to solve but they have to find those key words in the question to determine what math it is that they have to do. Is this a division question? Is it a multiplication question? Is it an addition question? Is it a subtraction question? And how do we know? Students are discussing this with each other to be able to help each other learn and grow in math. For math practice, students work on activities that will help them understand the skill that is required for that concept or the computation. For instance, in multiplication and division, the students are using mats and tiles to show what different types of multiplication sentences and division sentences look like. This allows them to relate multiplication and division together and then they show their understanding using a fact family. For the 'Hands-on Learning Center', the bin always has some kind of fun game that the students can play together to practice their skills. The bin right now has dice and grid paper where students are playing a multiplication game. They have to start in the corner and draw arrays and compare which student had more grid spaces filled in that the other helping them to understand their multiplication facts. When learning about different concepts we might have different materials in there such as play clocks or different manipulatives where students have the opportunity to play and work with those materials that will help them to understand the concept better.
Related References
Additional Links:
Qrafter: www.qrafter.com/get/
Activity Objective
The goal of Technology, Games and Manipulatives: Putting Instruction into Practice in Math Centers (Virtual Tour) is to create a student-focused math program based on centers that allows for choice and a variety of targeted activities. Students create problem-solving questions for one another using technology, generate QR codes and work with their classmates. Reading comprehension skills are reinforced through individual and group work.
Quick Tips
Additional Comments:
- A simple and free application to create QR codes is Qrafter. This application creates and reads QR codes. - Create a detective style game where QR codes are strategically placed around the classroom. Students scan the QR codes to reveal a problem-solving riddle that they have to solve with their group. The solution will lead to the location of the next QR code.
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