Goal
This week I continued working on my goal of implementing journaling into my math instruction. However, this week I will specifically focus on having my students justify their answers, explain their thinking and justify/explain why they chose to use a particular strategy over another. I want to then take their journal entries and use them to strengthen our whole group math conversation.
Reflection
As I mentioned last week, I have begun to notice how journaling has helped to strengthen the small group conversations during my lessons. This week, I had them journal about the same things and in the same way as last week and used it to initiate my whole group discourse instead of just small group. Similar to my small groups, I found that journaling helped the whole group as well because by writing write out their thinking, they tended not to "forget" what they were going to say when it is their turn to talk. Additionally, just as I like journaling as a form of formative assessment because it allows me to "get in their heads", this week I noticed it also allows for my kiddos to get inside each other's heads as well. Understanding how their classmates think led to many discussions about efficiency and effectiveness of some strategies over others. The conversation was richer whole group due to the fact that more students (which meant more opinions and a greater variety of strategies) were involved. In math, it has seemed so much easier for my kiddos to "link" to one another's thoughts and I wish it were that way with reading! It is seriously awesome to watch! Right now, I'm thinking it's because math lends itself to being argumentative, which my class really enjoys this year.
This week I continued working on my goal of implementing journaling into my math instruction. However, this week I will specifically focus on having my students justify their answers, explain their thinking and justify/explain why they chose to use a particular strategy over another. I want to then take their journal entries and use them to strengthen our whole group math conversation.
Reflection
As I mentioned last week, I have begun to notice how journaling has helped to strengthen the small group conversations during my lessons. This week, I had them journal about the same things and in the same way as last week and used it to initiate my whole group discourse instead of just small group. Similar to my small groups, I found that journaling helped the whole group as well because by writing write out their thinking, they tended not to "forget" what they were going to say when it is their turn to talk. Additionally, just as I like journaling as a form of formative assessment because it allows me to "get in their heads", this week I noticed it also allows for my kiddos to get inside each other's heads as well. Understanding how their classmates think led to many discussions about efficiency and effectiveness of some strategies over others. The conversation was richer whole group due to the fact that more students (which meant more opinions and a greater variety of strategies) were involved. In math, it has seemed so much easier for my kiddos to "link" to one another's thoughts and I wish it were that way with reading! It is seriously awesome to watch! Right now, I'm thinking it's because math lends itself to being argumentative, which my class really enjoys this year.