What I did at school today: 5/21/13

Yesterday I wrote about the importance of reflecting on a lesson and modifying it to make it more effective.  I'm happy to report that I retaught my second grade probability lesson using an app on the iPads rather than the SMART Notebook software, and it was a success.  The students were more engaged and were able to get a better grasp on the concepts we were covering. 

There were many more opportunities for on the spot assessment than in the original lesson.  For example, in one activity the app was set up with the following numbers on the side of a virtual die: 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4.  They were given a paper to record their results.  First, they completed the prediction section, guessing -- out of 20 rolls -- how many times they it would land on a 1, a 2, etc.  Then, they would actually do the rolling, record their results, and compare their predictions with the actual outcomes.  (They did this in pairs.)  I noticed a handful of students who had predicted they would roll a 5 or a 6 some number of times.  This gave the classroom teacher and me opportunities to clarify and reinforce the concept of "impossible".  In this particular activity, it was more likely they would roll a 1, but it was impossible to roll a 5 or 6.

I came up with a follow-up activity on the spot to further reinforce these concepts.  One student in each pair was to set up the six sides of the dice without the other one seeing it (e.g. 1, 2, 2, 2, 5, 5).  Then, his partner was to roll the virtual die 20 times and try to guess what numbers were on the sides.  I think this was the favorite activity of many of the students because it put them in the role of teacher.

Today was one of my busiest days and there's much more I could share, but I promised myself to keep it short and simple.  Until tomorrow!