The Math Mission classroom visit at White Haven P.S.

The Math Mission Continues – First Classroom Visit

Participating teachers in the “Math Mission – Using AT to Support Communication in Mathematics” had the opportunity to visit Alia Erlich’s grade 6-8 HSP classroom to observe a math lesson about money.  Students got ready for the task by predicting whether an answer was reasonable or not reasonable and providing possible answers using the interactive whiteboard (IWB) and ActivExpressions.

Students were given an opportunity to go shopping and to spend their money wisely depending on the money in their account (provide by Ms. Erlich on a sticky note).  The open task allowed students multiple entry points and Ms Erlich was able to differentiate the task by determining the amount in each pairs’ account.  Throughout the “Math Mission”, students have been exposed to a variety of assistive technology tools to communicate their understanding in mathematics.  Students, again, had choice over the tools used.

Students shared their learning by using the IWB and ActivExpression to text in the math they did today.  The lesson and electronic files were shared with the participating teachers and students in the project on our Desire2Learn (D2L) Math Mission course.

Ms. Erlich commented that she has seen a great improvement in the students’ written communication in math.  She feels that it is attributed to the students’ recording their explanations orally, reviewing their recordings and listening to the recordings of others.  She is extremely excited by their progress.

Check out the blog in the upcoming weeks for an entry about our April visit at Warren Park Public School.