How designing a Logo changed a math class forever!

The situation

I am reminded of a grade 8 class I had. The students were very diverse. Indians from cities and villages, a student from Australia and one from The UK. Some of the Indian students were under special learning needs and 1 girl was completely Math phobic. She was also under therapy for emotional abuse by her father.

My frustration

I found this group totally unresponsive to everything that I tried with them. All activities, creative work, problem solving and collaborative learning attempts ended with fights, sulks or someone crying. I was ready to give up all attempts and simply teach using board and marker.

I tried them all. “Time, structure, support, and complexity are four pedagogical variables that teachers must provide in differing amounts”. (Bray, 2005, p.2)

My last attempt was a way to bring them in touch with their emotions, hoping for a way to have a cathartic experience for them.

The experience

“The three elements of instruction can be differentiated: content, process and product.” (McFarland-McDaniels, n.d.). The content was fixed, the syllabus. I decided to vary the process and product.

Content: Symmetry of Geometrical shapes.

I asked each student to design a logo. I chose this to be individual work, for “LD students often had difficulty paying attention in whole-class discussions…” (Bray, 2005, p.2)

They had fixed instructions:

• It should have 1 or 2 lines of symmetry.
• It should use at least 3 geometrical shapes.
• It should be constructed perfectly.
• Explain in a paragraph why this is the logo chosen.

I also gave them ‘choice’. The logo can be either:
Based on your life. Who do think you are and how do you view life?
Based on a company. ‘Imagine you are designing logo for a company. Decide for yourself what the company sells and design a logo’.

Since the group was in their teens, I gave choice. “One way to support students in building autonomy is to offer opportunities for them to make choices about how and what they will learn.” (Btay, 2005, p.5). However, since I wanted specific Maths skills to be used, I also kept some parts of the work fixed.

The turning point

This was THE turning point for us. The very emotional students designed logo of their life, pouring out their turbulences into it. The practical ones chose to design one for a company. They were deep into it. They drew, wrote and learnt the Maths needed for it on their own.

The outcome

The outcome was a set of “logos”, (Kochar, 2011) and a class that for the first time smiled at me. We developed a connection and that was the beginning of Maths teaching and learning in this group. Everyone succeeded in the class as there was ample differentiation to ensure the same.

“Instruction is no longer blanketed teaching but planned for learner success instead of waiting for learner failure.” (Stanford, & Reeves, 2009)



References:

• Bray, W. (2005). Supporting diverse learners: Teacher collaboration in an inclusive environment. Teaching Children Mathematics, 11(6), 324-329. Retrieved from JSTOR.
• Kochar, M. (2011, October 29). Designing a logo with symmetry. Retrieved from https://humanemaths.blogspot.com/2011/10/designing-logo-with-symmetry.html
• McFarland-McDaniels, M. (n.d.). How to organize a classroom for diverse learners. Classroom. Retrieved from https://classroom.synonym.com/organize-classroom-diverse-learners-8235933.html
• Stanford, B. & Reeves, S. (2009). Making it happen: Using differentiated instruction, retrofit framework, and Universal Design for Learning. TEACHING Exceptional Children Plus, 5(6), 1-9. Retrieved from ERIC.