Using Response Systems "clickers" to have students actively engage in Math lessons - Alvin Curling P.S. & Highcastle P.S.

The Interactive Whiteboard Learning Communities for the 2014-2015 school year have concluded.

At the LC final session teachers received Active Response Systems (Activ Expressions or Activ Votes) which are devices that allow students to share their voice and thinking using remote devices. Also referred to as clickers, the response systems provide support for students who may not want to raise their hand or speak in front of the class when sharing their understanding. The response systems also provide quick and useful feedback to both the student and teacher about student understanding as results are available immediately.

In recent in-class sessions Itinerant teacher Valia Reinsalu worked with two LC teachers in two very different ways in using the Active Response systems. At Alvin Curling P.S., Sahaira Khan used the expressions with her students using the Express Poll or adhoc questions. While in Gary Stewart's junior/intermediate Behaviour Intensive Support Program, his class used the responses to answer a self-paced assessment. (Click on the images to see a larger version of the photo.)

Alvin Curling Public School, Sahaira Khan, HSP Primary

Ms. Khan uses the Express Poll's wonder wheel to choose the type of question her Primary Home School Program students will answer. (left) Sahaira Khan has pasted the results of the answer onto the question page. One of her students answered different (see graph bottom right corner of photo). She is able to address and students discuss their responses immediately. (right)

Express poll text response: A student in Ms. Khan's class types out a text answer to a question.

Highcastle Public School, Gary Stewart, J/I Behaviour

Self-paced assessment. Mr. Stewart's students use the images on this page to help them respond to the set of questions given to them. They are given: text, multiple choice, true or false, sort in order and confidence questions.

Using the Active Expressions by using the self-paced assessment feature, a teacher can "pre-program" a number of questions on the exact same page. Mr. Stewart built 12 questions on the same Polyhedra page. Student then receive the questions on their devices. Students can answer the questions at their own pace.

Self-paced assessment: The student in Mr. Stewart's class answers a question that appears on the ActivExpression device. She also has a copy of the assessment in paper to refer or do rough work on prior to sending her final response.

(left) The document view of a self-paced assessment. A number of questions are "pre-programmed" onto a flipchart page. The questions will appear on the student's device one at a time. (right) The document view. A teacher can print out the questions so student have a hard copy of the questions along with the questions appearing on the device.

Special Education teachers who received a SEA IWB attended four sessions at our training centres at Terraview Learning Centre (East) and Burnhamthorpe Adult Learning Centre (West) throughout the year. As part of the year-long support the six SEA itinerant teacher also provide job embedded professional learning sessions in the model of co-planning and co-teaching. The LC teachers look to try different ways to engage and teach their students by embedding assistive technology strategies and tools into their lessons.