Teaching Strategies with Addition Strategies

Last Tuesday I did a dance lesson for my 2nd grade class on Addition Strategies. It was a well thought out lesson with a lot of fun activities and exploration, but in the end I ran out of time to finish the whole lesson. It is not so unusual to run out of time when you are doing creative dance lessons with kids, but this one felt kind of stale when it ended.

At first I wasn't sure why the lesson did not feel successful. After all, I had gotten through a lot of fun material, but for some reason I could tell that the kids did not have as enjoyable of a time. They gave me some blank stares, had many requests for different activities that we could be doing, and overall seemed a little less excited.

I have come to the conclusion that the reason they did not have as much fun last Tuesday was related to the fact that I did not finish the lesson. By not finishing they had missed out on the Creating and Performing portion of the Addition Strategies lesson plan. When I came back on Thursday and did that missing portion with them, I saw how excited they were and I realized that those Creating and Performing moments are what matters the most to them.

This experience has turned in to a Teaching Strategies learning moment for me, realizing that I could better involve Creating and Performing throughout my lessons, rather than just at the end, because I know that my students care about that a lot. By doing this I won't have to worry about loosing the best parts of my lessons if I run out of time.

So this week, I am grateful for Addition Strategies that taught me Teaching Strategies. :)
This photo shows the students getting ready to do the Create and Perform aspect of my Addition Strategies lesson plan. Each student will roll their die in their partnership and then together the partners decide which addition strategy they should use to best add their numbers together, and then they execute the associated movement.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 9, 2017 at 12:22 PM

    Love this! So great that you were able to go back and finish what you had planned to wrap the whole thing together. You are awesome and I bet those cute kids are loving having you come!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AdrienneOctober 16, 2017 at 10:17 AM

    I usually worry about ending up with extra time to fill rather than having too much content.. so great job on being super prepared! But my kids love the create and perform part of the lesson the best so I'm also trying to find ways to incorporate it more into the whole lesson. Let's share the ideas we come up with!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heather DrewOctober 20, 2017 at 11:58 AM

    Love the math integration, I would love to take a look at your lesson plan and see how you facilitated mathematical thinking with movement. Happens to be a passion of mine ;)

    ReplyDelete

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