As a Math teacher it is very important to plan for your lessons each day. This will help you remain organized and focused on the Big Ideas that need to be taught each term (Backwards design). The goal when organizing a lesson should be for your students to understand the math concepts being taught. By getting everything you need ready ahead of time, this will help the lessons flow, ease stress and help set up students for success. As well, from day 1, setting up a positive learning environment that enables students to feel safe and willing to contribute their ideas is of utmost importance. By using a 3 Part Math structure for your daily math lessons, students will be engaged and working to solve a variety of math problems. Its through the 3 part math lessons that students really learn to understand. According to The Report of the Expert Panel on Mathematics in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario (2004),
Today, there is extensive evidence that if students are engaged in mathematics communication in which they are expected to explain their ideas clearly and follow other students’ reasoning (rather than just the teacher’s instruction), they are much more likely to develop a deep understanding of the concept. (p.13)
Traditionally, math was taught by the teacher at the front of the room. Students were expected to listen and copy down the sample problem on the board. Students were expected to follow the instructions and use the sample problem to help them solve a bunch of similar problems. Understanding wasn't a big priority, neither was communication between peers on a math problem. Individuals were expected to solve the problem on their own. This was my experience in my grade 5 math classroom and let me tell you, it didn't teach me to love math by any means. My teacher would call us up individually up to the front of the room at random and expect us to show our work. She made us stand there until we could solve the problem. This just instilled a fear of math problem-solving in me and didn't help me understand math any better.
Today math is taught differently (thank god)! The 3 Part Math lesson structure works well for students and is better able to help students understand a math problem or concept than the traditional way of teaching math.
For those of you who do not know what a 3 Part Math lesson entails: Watch this 4 min video
Also: Sketch of a Three-Part Lesson:
Here is a comparison chart that shows the differences:
Traditional
Lesson
|
Three
Part Math Lesson
|
- Teacher
driven questions/computations
- Teacher
introduces key concepts/ideas
-Teacher models
problems on the board
-Teacher shows
how to answer problems
-Students copy a
few examples of problems and how the teacher answered them
-Students
practice similar problems on their own quietly, not encouraged to
discuss with partners
-Not a lot room
for differentiation as teacher is not able to walk around and
field questions as she/he is too busy modeling the answer to a
perfect problem
|
- Getting
started: organizing and setup of lesson, explain problem and
answer student questions as needed
-Working on
it: Students work on small
groups or in pairs, students can use manipulatives, chart paper
and different strategies to solve the problem, they learn from
each other
-Reflecting
and connecting: Teacher
begins a discussion, students share strategies used to help
everyone make sense of the problem, students learn from others, teacher can determine next steps and tailor subsequent lessons to student needs
*Problems are
connected to real-life, thus engaging kids in the math
*Use of
manipulatives
*Student driven
learning, students asking each other questions
*Instills
confidence in students
|
As you can see there is a lot more positives on the side of the 3 part math lesson. I believe this is the ultimate structure for planning and vehicle for which student learning can soar in math class!
Sources:
Teaching and Learning Mathematics, The Report of the Expert Panel on Mathematics in Grades 4 to 6 in Ontario, 2004.
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