I’m in need of a bit of help blogueros.
I’d like to elicit your careful eyes in evaluating some gaming resources for not just practicing math skills, but for also learning higher order math skills independently of teacher guidance.
I just know there is a strong gaming community for Math students out there that I haven’t found yet. But I don’t have a lot of time to do this research myself.
The best site I’ve seen for teaching essential mathematical skills while engaging with an interactive game storyline is “Mental Maths: Mission 2110“, part of the BBC education site.
The site itself is built upon sound mathematical principals, guiding students to solve problems via actual understandings of math, not just simple regurgitation of facts.
The problem I find myself is how to better individualize my classroom of 28 2nd graders. I’ve broken my Math block into a 10 minute “Math Meeting”, where we discuss weekly problem strategies as a class. This serves to guide students to use Math vocabulary, to model essential understandings, and to apply our understandings to real life situations.
The 2nd portion of my class is individual work time, where students practice and then demonstrate that understanding while I work with a small group of students who struggle with foundational concepts of counting, grouping numbers, ordering numbers, etc. NWEA assessments put these students 2 years behind their peers, so I want to spend as much time with them as possible.
The real issue comes during the last portion of my Math block, where I want to really individualize the directions my students are going. I’ve opened 3 mini computer labs within my classroom, where students cycle through working on individual skills. Another group of students works at our smartboard. Another group works on “real world” applications of the math skills we’ve developed. Finally, I work with a small group.
I value the small group opportunity greatly. It’s a chance to really build personal relationships with my students around math and problem solving.
The independent work that students do at the laptops is lacing though. I’ve yet to find interactive experiences that offer any depth or are truly rigorous. Other options build students computation skills, but that’s such a small part of what I want them to do.
Does anyone have any suggestions for primary age math sites? These need to be completely self-directed, and they need to focus on process and not just computation. I’m searching for higher order knowledge, but sites that also scaffold these processes in ways that are highly interactive.
Additionally, how do you structure inquiry in math for primary students? How do you use the internet to deepen your student’s understanding of process? What exercises in CREATION do you use for your students to demonstrate their thinking in math?
What are your thoughts on things I’m missing?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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