I enjoyed this weeks readings on why mistakes are important. The value of them is crucial in the process of learning and understanding the what is being taught. The teacher has to do a good job at setting up the environment of the classroom to make children feel comfortable with making mistakes. It is only natural for people get upset or embarrassed when they are wrong but if the teacher structures the lessons, their teaching, and the the norms of the class to encourage mistakes and learn from them, then students will get more out of what is being taught. One way to address making mistakes and solving them is to let students work together to help each other out. There were multiple examples throughout the readings when children were allowed to work together and communicate between each other to help understand and find an awesome to the question. It can be difficult for teachers to step back and let the students take control for part of the lesson, and even though it might be time consuming, it can have a great outcome. Allowing students to reason why an answer may be right or wrong takes their learning to a whole new level. Students who help others to understand will learn the material better and may be able to teach it in a way that other students will understand it more. Holding whole group discussion and allowing the class to answer each other questions can really help the teacher understand who is thinking what and who is struggling and who is striving. Mistakes are healthy components to build students awareness. They are the difference between a student learning the material to understanding the material.
One way that a teacher can be ready to take on students mistakes and their process of learning is through TTLP. It is important that teachers prepare their lessons and be ready for anything. Using Thinking Through a Lesson Protocol enables teachers to be really think about their lesson before hand and be prepare for how students will take on the lesson. I liked how this type of lesson planning has teachers think about how students will preform and create questions that will help guide their type of learning through the lesson. The article stated how it helps teachers become a better facilitator. I agree because being a good facilitator starts before you are in the role to lead, it starts with the amount of preparation and thought you put in before taking on the role. I can see where other teachers are coming when they said it takes a lot of time. This type of lesson planning might be one that is more of a thought process rather than a written out technique. It maybe something to just add to the steps teachers take while creating their lesson plans that take just teaching the lesson to a whole new level.
I really like the idea of having students be comfortable if they make mistakes in the math classroom. When I was in elementary school, and even middle school,I would be so scared of making a mistake in math that I would never want to participate. I think this is because I struggled in math, and know that sometimes I would not be able to come up with the correct answer. I would always sit in my desk and pray that my teacher wouldn't randomly call on me to give an answer. If teachers set up a comfortable classroom environment, I think it would be very beneficial. If I felt more comfortable as a student making mistakes, I think I would have been able to overcome the parts of math that I was struggling with, because I wouldn't be embarrassed number one to be wrong, and number two to ask for questions or help with areas I was confused about. In my placement, my teacher uses sticks to call on random students. Although, as a student this might be scary at first, it seems to work in my classroom. All students seem to answer questions wrong at some point or another, and rules and expectations have been established in the classroom so that if a student answers a question wrong, they wont feel embarrassed because no student will laugh at them, or make fun of them. They are only allowed to encourage their classmates. As a teacher, I will make it a point in the beginning of the school year to set standards about appropriate behavior in the classroom relating to making mistakes.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, I feel like I am going to make mistakes teaching math. The TTLP tool seems like it would be a useful tool to assist me while teaching math. When I first read all the things that a teacher should fill out in the TTLP chart, I felt overwhelmed, then I went on to read this, "Many teachers’ first reaction to the TTLP may be this: “It is overwhelm- ing; no one could use this to plan les- sons every day!” I thought of ways I could modify this in order to use certain areas of the tool in all of my lessons.I think that using this tool would help me to plan good lessons that involve high-level tasks.
I also enjoyed the idea of allowing students to make mistakes and for them to learn from them. I think many students are afraid to make mistakes in risk that other students will make fun of them or the teacher will give them a hard time. I believe also that the classroom environment really depends on whether students would feel alright if they make a mistake or if they would feel embarrassed. Growing up most of my teachers did not show the acceptance of making mistakes and for the most part student did not as well. Students would make fun of others if they made a mistake and the teacher would not say anything to the student instructing them to realize it is okay to make mistakes. I feel that this article also some what relates to previous ideas that we have talked about in class, with the idea of students having multiple ways of solving math problems. These ideas can be intertwined with trying new ways to solve math problems, which may result in mistakes. However, the student was willing to try a new way and may not have come up with the correct answer but at least they attempted to solve the problem using new ideas.
ReplyDeleteI also found the TTLP tool to be useful idea but can be a bit much to fill out for each lesson. I think that this tool should be used a lot at first to have the teacher really think about what they are going to do for their lesson and to ensure that they are giving the students the appropriate education. however, I do feel like it is a lot to fill out, so once the teacher gets the hang out what they want to facilitate in the classroom and how they think students will answer question. They then can use the basic lesson plan idea again. I also agree colleen in the idea that the TTLP chart would be an awesome idea for higher level tasks, in the sense that you would want the students to understand that task more than the lower level ones.
Overall, I found this weeks readings to be a good source of what to do and use in the math classroom environment. And that mistakes do happen and it is alright for them to happen in the classroom. I plan to use that idea in my future classroom!