1. EDU 709 Creating My Lessons Sharon MacDermaid 7 th Grade Mathematics Lowell Middle School http:// lowellschools.com/education/school/school.php?sectionid =1340&
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5. Clickers CPS response system and MindPoint Quiz Show http:// weblogs.ryerson.ca /roller/clickers/ Screenshot by Sharon MacDermaid (MindPoint Quiz SHowSE)
This is Sharon MacDermaid and this is my final EDU 709 presentation on educational innovations.
I teach 7 th grade math at Lowell Middle School in Lowell, MI. My classes are all considered at-grade level classes. Among those classes is one team-taught class which contains students with math goals in their IEPs and students who are at risk in math.
The lessons I have created cover Chapter 9 from the Holt Middle School Mathematics Text. The Chapter includes basic 2-dimensional geometry topics including Perimeter and Circumference Area of Parallelograms Area of Triangles and Trapezoids Area of Circles Area of Irregular Figures Squares and Square Roots and The Pythagorean Theorem
The innovations I used to create my lessons were Student Clickers used with MindPoint quiz Show and Quizlet.com online flashcards.
Clickers, as they are commonly referred to by most educators are actually called CPS in the marketplace. CPS stands for Classroom Performance System. A clicker system is essentially a remote control system that allows students to respond to questions from their seats and transmits their answers through infrared technology.
Although my primary focus in this lesson is the use of the clicker system I also used game show type review software included with my textbook called MindPoint Quiz Show.
The process is fairly simple, The teacher will need to set up the base station with a computer in the classroom. Students will be asked to register their clicker with the base computer and will then participate in a review game. Quiz Show is set up like a game show. Students are presented with multiple choice questions and will select an answer on their handheld “clicker” to participate in the activity.
When looking at prior skills needed there are not many which makes this a great classroom tool. Teachers need basic computer knowledge and must be able to operate a connected data projector. Teachers must be familiar with the use of Quiz Show software and need to be able to locate the correct data file for use in this lesson. Additionally teachers need to know how to set up and use eInstruction’s CPS numbered response pads and how to troubleshoot them if one or more of the response pads do not respond correctly. Students will need to have knowledge of Chapter 9 of the Holt Middle School Mathematics Course 2 text. As long as students know how to use a remote control they should have no trouble using the clickers.
One advantage of this project is that it allows the teachers to automatically integrate the use of clickers with the Quiz Show reviews that come standard with the Holt Math text. There is no need to create the review materials. Another advantage is that the review session is more interactive and promotes greater student involvement as all results are tracked through the computer. Additionally there is a certain amount of pride and satisfaction that comes to a group of students when everyone in the class gets a question correct. Students will become more supportive of each other and will become a more cohesive learning team when this happens. This encourages students not to guess but rather to work through the questions using the correct formulas and methods.
In most case the biggest disadvantage of this activity is the limited number of resources most schools have. My school only has 2 classroom sets of clickers so there are generally only utilized by a few teachers. If teachers are not able to use the clickers often it is difficult for them to become comfortable enough with the technology to want to use it repeatedly.
For my second lesson students will utilize http://quizlet.com/ and a premade study stack (http://quizlet.com/_2q9op) to learn and study the vocabulary from Chapter 9 of the Holt Middle School Mathematics Course 2 book.
Students will be asked to access http:// quizlet.com / and will go to my Chapter 9 study Stack located within Quizlet Once the students have located the correct study stack they will have several options for learning and studying the vocabulary. I will have my students utilize the “scatter” and the “test” options for this lesson.
Teachers will need only basic computer knowledge in order to use Quizlet. For this lesson the study stack was made ahead of time so no further skills are needed. I have a video on my wiki for this lesson that gives a thorough introduction to the side for teachers. I would not recommend using the video with students as it is not terribly entertaining. Teachers will need to learn how to make their own study stack of they were going to implement this lesson for a topic other than the one I have included. Students will need to know how to utilize a computer and the internet through a web browser.
There are many advantages to using Quizlet versus traditional flash cards. The flash cards made within Quizlet are in many cases neater than those that would be handmade by students. The digital flashcards have more options for studying than traditional flashcards as the he site generates several different activities. Additionally, the study stacks can be shared among teachers and students so that students can spend more time studying and less time creating the actual study materials.
One disadvantage to using Quizlet is that it requires an internet connection. Many students do not have access at home so would only be able to utilize this technology while at school. A bigger disadvantage is that Quizlet does not allow students under the age of 13 to register on the site so they are not allowed to create their own study stacks and would be limited to using stacks that have already been made by others.
For more information, visit my EDU709 wiki. I hope you have enjoyed my presentation as much as I have enjoyed creating it.