STRATEGIES AND METHODS OF TEACHING

            As I stated in my goals, I believe it is important to vary the use of different instructional styles.  It keeps student interest high and allows students to showcase their differing talents and abilities to their teacher and to their classmates.  Therefore, I attempted to implement as many strategies as possible into my unit.  However, some strategies were met with opposition as the students had never been exposed to them before and felt a bit of anxiety at their introduction.

            As an introduction to my unit, I used a modified Mad Lib type activity.  The purpose of the Mad Lib was to introduce the concept of an inequality monster that was in search of the largest numbers he could find to eat.  In this way, students connect the mouth of the monster with the appropriate inequality symbol, which opens toward the larger quantity.  This lesson relied heavily on the strategy of connections to aid my students in forming mental schema for the new topic.  Connections were also used to deepen the students’ understanding of translating literal inequalities into algebraic inequalities.  The students were assigned to ask a family member how they use inequalities in their daily life, whether it is in their job or even in a hobby or other recreational activity.  The students then wrote sentences using this data they collected and translated them into algebraic inequalities, using their choice of defined variable.  In both instances, connections served to engage students in the material and provide personal links to the concepts that the students could refer back to later if they were struggling.  This strategy served very effectively for me, as I noticed many students in the class reminding themselves of the monster’s mouth using hand motions and referring back to examples from their family members later in the unit as the material became more difficult.

            Additionally, toward the beginning of the unit, I implemented a Think-Pair-Share strategy to have students work cooperatively on a worksheet, and also to brainstorm ideas to fill in a Venn diagram comparing equations and inequalities.  Cooper states that, with Think-Pair-Share, “teachers offer every student a practice opportunity and get a broader picture of mastery” (Cooper 298).  I decided to implement the strategy for the students in the completion of their first worksheet to allay any concerns the students might have had about the transition into the new material.  The students first worked on the worksheet individually for five minutes, then with a partner for about ten minutes.  At this point, we reviewed the worksheet as a class and discussed the correct solutions.  I also implemented Think-Pair-Share when I introduced the idea that solving inequalities is much like solving equations, which the students had already learned how to do.  The students first brainstormed the similarities and differences on their own, talked about their ideas in small groups, and finally presented their ideas to the class to fill in the Venn diagram.  In both instances, the strategy proved successful.  My students had experience with Think-Pair-Share as my cooperating teacher had used it many times before, and enjoyed the opportunity to talk about their ideas with their classmates.  I believe strongly in cooperative learning as a teaching tool since it allows students to become both student and teacher to their peers and deepen their own understanding while increasing the comprehension of their classmates.

            As I neared the end of my teaching experience, I decided to attempt using a problem solving strategy, at the end of which, the students would also become the teachers for their fellow classmates as well.  The students worked through a problem solving outline to discover on their own, the fact that the inequality symbol is reversed when multiplying or dividing by a negative coefficient.  The students initially had difficulty with this strategy because of their lack of experience in being taught in this manner, but eventually came to the correct conclusion.  After I was certain each student understood the concept, each group was able to become the teacher for the rest of the students in the class.  Each group presented an additional example to the class that showed their understanding of reversing the inequality symbol when dealing with negative coefficients of the variable.  Although the students were wary both of the problem solving activity and of the presentation, most succeeded even beyond my expectations and enjoyed the experience and the knowledge they gained.

            Finally, throughout the unit, I employed direct instruction to teach the students about concepts they had never seen before, such as graphing inequalities on a number line.  I felt that direct instruction was the most appropriate strategy and would be the most effective in this case.  The students grasped this material very quickly and were able to apply this knowledge later in the unit, as they graphed their solutions to inequalities solved with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

            Overall, I was very pleased at how my students responded to the different instructional methods that I employed in the classroom.  Although I was just a visitor in their yearlong learning journey, they treated me and the topics I taught with the same respect and dedication as they had been showing my cooperating teacher since September.  The students were accustomed to learning through direct instruction, group work, and had occasionally used the Think-Pair-Share strategy in the past.  However, learning through problem solving and performing a presentation to the class were relatively new to them.  Through these strategies, the students gained skills to be successful independent learners.  They initially struggled, but as they discovered the solutions, I could see the pride in their faces derived from their mathematical success.  Many of the students eventually even said things such as “Oh, that’s all we were supposed to get?” and “Wow, I thought it would be harder than that…”  I was very proud of my students for handling what could have been an anxiety ridden situation with ease.

            As the implementation of a variety of instructional methods was one of my initial goals, I was pleased with how the students progressed with these strategies throughout my unit.  Perhaps I could have used even more instructional methods in my ten day unit, however, I do not think that additional strategies would have enhanced or strengthened the learning my students acquired.  Considering the limited experience the students had with these strategies in the past, I feel that introducing additional strategies in such a limited period of time would have overwhelmed the students and detracted from the larger picture of the concept I was trying to present.  The strategies I did implement were effective and were presented smoothly.  My students greatly appreciated the opportunity to work cooperatively with their classmates on their work.

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