A little something I noticed
On the last day of our winter break, starts my planning for quarter 3. Actually before I can start my daily lesson planning I have to pace out my quarterly standards. I have a simple week by week homemade word document that I write a general idea of what we will be covering.
On the back goes the second half of the quarter. As I was pacing I found myself noticing something that I always ask myself to do when teaching a concept.
“What is the difference between…..?”
“What would it look like if it was NOT….?”
“Give me an example of what is NOT….”
“What are similarities and differences between this and what is NO this…..?”
After noticing this I realize the difference it has made in my student’s thinking.
We learn from Newton: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” Hence my reasoning for asking students to justify what is the opposite of what we are learning.
It might seem a waste of time or you might be thinking….”yeah right not another thing to ADD into my lesson planning” Tell you the truth it takes about 5-8 mins of lesson time and it makes a world of difference. All it takes is asking a question similar to the ones above. Don’t have a homework for a certain day??? This makes an easy and attainable homework for all students to accomplish. When they come back with their homework done (cross your fingers) have them share their answers on the board (or on their whiteboards). There is the beginning of your discussion and also a way for other students to see what they might not have noticed. I don’t do the venn diagram thing but it is definitely usable here. The important thing is that students are being asked to really grasp what something is by also looking/figuring out what it is NOT!
Agreed! Non-examples are powerful. Keep up the great work, Sadie!
I like the idea here, Sadie. I appreciate the “sentence starters”. This sounds like the kind of thing that would be good for the left-hand page of an INB.