Wednesday, October 02, 2019
A well planned learning experience is a gift you give to students
Today children will engage in a learning experience that reflects good research, collegial collaboration, and prep. The learning experience is the popular Four 4's Exercise from Jo Boaler's YouCubed site. This experience prep included collegial conversation which resulted in a hands-on aspect to the project, carefully chosen partners, special places in the classroom, and plenty of teacher support. Knowing the students in my classes this year, students eager to learn together, I believe this activity will not only help children to practice numerical expression, but also result in an engaging game-like experience as children work together to use four 4's to create expressions equal to as many numbers from 1-20 as possible.
Making the time to craft good learning experiences, the kinds of experiences that help multiple children learn essential standards and knowledge with engagement, meaning, and collaboration takes the time to know your students, work with colleagues, do your research, prepare the materials, and set-up the learning environment. It's not a simple science. When we create learning experiences with and for our students like this, it is like giving them a gift--a gift of a worthy learning experience and the gift of valuable learning too.