Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Volume: 5th Grade Project Based Learning


Yesterday I led new learning, new learning for students and for me too.

I was adding on to a volume project I've done in the past by making the project more open ended.

My first reaction to the exploration was that as with much of what I do, it was a bit rushed creating some angst.

Why the rush?


As always I'm trying to teach a large number of straight forward concepts in ways that are deeper, more engaging, and more memorable. While paper/pencil or online practice helps us to meet all the standards, that method does not add meaning, depth, relevance, and a love of the study of math.

So with regard to the exploration, a lot went wrong on the initial day including the following events:
  • I didn't review scissor safety--critical.
  • I didn't review material care and use - important.
  • I tried to add too many facts up front which lessened the time for exploration and made some students confused. 
  • I didn't have enough models to show in order to give students a view of what the project entailed.
So as I taught, I added the missing pieces. 

I updated the study guide.

I updated the learning menu - see image at the top of the page.

I also showed a couple of related videos:





I'm hoping today's work and exploration will go a lot better. Let's see.

And if you have suggestions, I'm open to that too.

Afterword: As the pictures I added above show, today's exploration was much better.