We are now in the final stretch of our math class and have come across visual representations and creating a visual of our problems. Now this for me is a big struggle. I am a poor artist for one, and secondly I never wanted to spend the time drawing out my problems unless I was asked too or its was during Physics class. In Physics class, I suddenly became an artist. It was weird. Why I did not enjoy visual representation was mostly because of the instance where I spent too much time on one question trying to draw it out for bonus marks and I could not finish my test. Well, that never happened again. I could not be bothered to draw out a problem again. Until now. I've realized that it is very important depending on our learners. Not everyone is like myself, rushing through exams, finding the short-cuts and eliminating all the extra work. I know now that some individuals need that extra work sometimes just to help them understand the problem. It can be something as simple as a stick picture or some base ten blocks that can help someone take a step in the right direction. So as a teacher my attitudes have changed from when I was the student.
The manipulative I had the pleasure of using were some that I had never seen before and at this point I am not too sure if I would use them again. They were similar to base ten blocks and provided the same visual representation as them but did not have any value to them. When you think of base ten blocks you think of the single 1, the 10 stick and the 100 square. these had no values assigned to them so it was a bit confusing and I ended up using them wrong to solve my problem. I did however find a different way of using them which I found pretty interesting.
Finally I looked at the online module that was provided about visual representations and I found out that many common methods can often be recreated to be a visual representation. The example is the FOIL method. A student created a visual representation similar to area, that broke down the parts of the equation, which I thought was really interesting. It can be seen below.
Really cool week in math class, see you next week.
Great post Matt,
ReplyDeleteI like your honesty about the visual representation tools that you explored this week. I can see it being a problem if the visual aids being used are not clear or organized. I believe that all visual aid tools can be modified in order to suit students with different learning styles because everyone learns in different ways but it is true that these tools must be clear and concise in order for students to truly benefit from using them. I like the visual representation of the FOIL method that you posted. During my placement I saw a lot of my students using this method during the algebra unit that I got to be a part of. It is interesting to see that there are so many methods and ways of solving mathematics depending on what suits each individual best.
Carla
Interesting post this week Matt. I to am sometimes reluctant in using visual because I am not an artist but I am glad that you pointed out that there are a variety of ways that visuals can be included. I believe that the visual learners will really benefit from the teacher using visuals in their classroom.
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