We are what our teenage life was?

 

“What we do in teenage shapes our lives. That part strengthens.” 

Hence all the more important to have a special teaching tool set for teenagers or middle school students. My main thrust of work has been middle school. I am a specialist for grades 6 to 10. I love this age group, most for the unpredictability of the students. I love the challenge of their mood swings (KahnAcademyMedicine (2105)).

I teach Maths, a subject that evokes both love and hate (Raghunathan 2012). I don’t have the luxury of telling stories of English or connect it easily to real life like science. “Meaning and emotion are crucial elements to grab the brain’s attention and thereby aid learning.” (Sun Protection Outreach by Students (n.d.)). And this defines my focus.

1.      Make Maths meaningful

2.      Make Maths emotionally pleasing

I want to make Maths class joyful for the students. Hence my focus in determined by the emotional response of the students to what I have to teach. Over the years I have worked a lot on my own self-awareness. So I am very attuned to the emotional atmosphere of the class. I am also very reflective as a teacher and every day the end of the day finds me sorting out my day with “what went well and what did not?”

Students often ask, Why are we learning this? What good does it do to me? So I look for context for “to make learning meaningful—and thereby build more extensive neural connections—teachers should incorporate context as much as possible.” (Schunk, 2012, p40)

I first check the topic to be taught and ask myself –

a.       How abstract is this?

b.      Are the students likely to feel happy or crabby?

c.       How much is it focused on the left brain and how much in the right brain?

d.      Is this easy or hard?

The answers decide my lesson plan.

For example, to teach Linear equations in 1 variable to grade 7, the answers would be:

a.       Being algebra, it is abstract.

b.      From my experience, 50-50. Some will take to the standard method very well while others would not relate to it.

c.       It is very logical and procedural and hence left brain.

d.      Some will find it easy while some will not.

Since the content is very left brain centric, I will choose the process that is a mix of left and right, however I would make a special effort t0 bring in the right brain.

This is how I would do:

a.       I would give a real life “context” (Schunk, 2012, p40) to start the equation. “Cab rates are determined in this way: ‘Rs 25 flat rate for up to 2 km and then Rs 3 per km. so if you travel for 3 km, how much do you pay?” I would lead it up to the point where I would ask “If you travel for x km, how much do you pay”

b.      I would explain the standard method of teaching on the board, however go slow. I would break it to small logical steps to appeal to left brain. “Baby steps” (Taibbi, 2018) is my go to method for left brain. I also use “colourful markers” to make it appeal to right brain.

c.        I would keep the class interactive and invite students to ask “why and how”.

d.      Once explained, I would use think-pair-share/TPS, (Think-Pair-Share: Classroom Strategy. (2017) so students grasp the concept well. Then for problem solving I would bring in collaborative to appeal to the “social brain” (Sun Protection Outreach by Students (n.d.)) work so they have an emotionally safe zone to work out.

Finally, I would also give students enough “flexibility to design the physical space”. So if they want to move around the furniture to be in groups or be alone, so be it! For example, a girl told me once, “I get very distracted so I want to take my desk and chair so I am looking outside the window so I don’t see anyone”. I let her and she worked very well. She got “autonomy” (McCombs, n.d).

All of this needs to lead to learning. That is “…a change in the receptivity of cells brought about by neural connections formed, strengthened, and connected…”. (Schunk, 2012, p33). To check that I would take a short 3-minute formative assessment the next lesson. It would be short for the weaker students to achieve a small goal and feel surer of themselves. I find formative assessment an extremely “transformative instructional tool” (Popham, 2008) for uplifting the students’ motivation to Maths

Hence I would create a balanced lesson, for “Although hemispheres have localized functions, they also are connected and there is much passing of information (neural impulses) between them.” (Schunk, 2012, p39). I would imagine that the left and right would help each other! So if a student finds a concept difficult to grasp, the “peer help” would motivate him/her. While if a student is too lost into the colours on the board, the interactive questions would keep the lefts side engaged too.

I gave a long example to show how I usually create a balanced lesson. Some units lead to a balance naturally, such as Geometry which is very logical and visual. One can easily have a good art based project. Connecting “geometry and art” has helped me a lot to bring students to like the subject. Some units such as Numbers are very left brain oriented. There I would bring in strategies such as ‘games, TPS, use of colours’ to make it balanced.

One cannot do it all the time. There is the issue of time constraint due to factors beyond control – school timetable and activities. So I keep a range of strategies in my kitty. TPS and collaborative work is a must and it actually helps in moving the syllabus fast. I may drop long projects. I also ask the students to decide. I have an adult conversation with the class and we decide together what to do if there is a paucity of time. For example, 1 section chose to focus on content itself for Geometry, while another chose to do the project in their own time. That way I allow the students to have a level of autonomy, which is so important for them. I believe that “Teachers can focus on creating responsible and autonomous learners through the use of appropriate student choices.” (McCombs, n.d)

The only time I leave content and focus primarily on process is when I have a class of kids who have been traumatised by maths in my group. That is when I need to focus on process to first bring them to maths. When that is done, I go back to content focus with the aim to create a balanced plan.

Someone told me once, “Monica first brings kids to Maths and then takes Maths to them”. I understand what she meant! “I focus on process and then content”.

References

1.      KahnAcademyMedicine (2105). Brain changes during adolescence. [Video file].  Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Fa8U6BkhNo

2.      McCombs, B. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/education/k12/learners

3.      Popham, W. James (2008), Transformative Assessment, Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, Retrieved from: http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/108018/chapters/Formative-Assessment@-Why,-What,-and-Whether.aspx

4.      The Hindu, R. (2012, August 28). Math Phobia. Retrieved from https://www.thehindu.com/features/kids/math-phobia/article3832443.ece

5.      Schunk, D. H. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.  

6.      Sun Protection Outreach by Students (n.d.). The adolescent brain-Learning strategies & teaching tips. Retrieved from: http://spots.wustl.edu/SPOTS%20manual%20Final/SPOTS%20Manual%204%20Learning%20Strategies.pdf

7.      Taibbi, R. (2018, July 15). Baby-Steps: Fixing Nine Common Problems One Step at a Time. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/fixing-families/201807/baby-steps-fixing-nine-common-problems-one-step-time

8.      Think-Pair-Share: Classroom Strategy. (2017, October 30). Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/strategies/think-pair-share