The EduProtocol Field Guide Math Edition

15 Student-Centered Lesson Frames for Math Mastery

Lisa Nowakowski, Jeremiah Ruesch

• Publisher: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781951600754
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

The EduProtocol Field Guide: Math Edition provides educators with a treasure trove of modular, innovative, and engaging activities that can be adapted to any grade level. Approachable and exciting, EduProtocols are gamified pedagogical interventions that flexibly work with a variety of learning styles so math teachers can meet students where they are, even as they inspire them towards subject mastery. Thoughtfully and comprehensively presented with step-by-step instructions for implementation, each EduProtocol is designed with Common Core standards and Four Cs practices in mind. Whether you are new to EduProtocols or an experienced teacher looking to add even more tools to your pedagogical toolkit, The EduProtocol Field Guide: Math Edition has something for everyone interested in customizable student-centered learning activities.

III

A Guide to New EduProtocols

12

The Visual Directions EduProtocol

“What are we supposed to be doing?” said Max for the fourth time since class started three minutes ago, immediately following both oral and projected directions. As teachers, we seem to have at least one Max in every class, and with up to seven periods a day that can be a lot of repeated directions. The Visual Directions EduProtocol was developed to address this constant classroom challenge by using familiar images to create visual directions for students. These visual directions typically use icons and are easier to comprehend quickly than print directions for our English language learners and students with learning challenges at all grade levels. The goal is that in lieu of the teacher giving the students directions, the students are responsible for telling the teacher what they are going to be doing. That is, the teacher shares the visual directions and asks the students to explain what it is they will be doing in this task. The roles are reversed, students are making their own connections with the directions, and now Max can own his learning!

Academic Goals:

• Clarifying the conveyance of directions.
• Seeking input from learners to tell you their understanding of directions.
• Visually telling directions in a few icons, makes clear what is essential to task.

Teacher Big Ideas:

• One of the most difficult and tiresome parts of working with dozens to hundreds of kids is having to repeat directions multiple times.
• This process seeks to invite the students into the mix, to collaborate, to interpret and make sense of visual cues, and to take a risk in sharing their interpretation with a partner or whole class.
• Most importantly, it provides a pathway for students to make sense of what they are going to be doing from their peers and their own voices.

Description:

Jeremiah’s mentor, Phil White, always shared the following advice: “Never tell a student something they can tell you . . .” Phil’s wise words led Jeremiah to the construction of a non-verbal way to elicit student understanding through their own feedback. Students are shown a series of images describing the directions to their next task, followed by the prompt.

This thought process, over time, led to the idea that if directions could be projected for the task students were going to engage in as a series of icons, the teacher could then say, “Your directions are on the next slide. With your partner, determine what you are going to be doing.” The teacher shows students the slide, provides some think time, lets students discuss, and monitors their conversations. When the buzz of their conversations dies down, the teacher would then either select a few students to share out or elicit volunteer responses. That hard wait time for students to respond is critical here (especially the first couple of times we do this in class), as it is scary to take a risk on being wrong in this abstract way. Once that inertia is broken, there is a typical increasing volume of input as the wave of understanding crashes upon our shores and washes away the confusion and doubt. After their input is connected, just walk through the steps incorporating students’ language and clarifying things that may not have been clear or were not addressed.

Here’s an example: take a look at the image of a typical slide that Jeremiah often uses with kindergarten through eighth grade.

When I show students this I get a lot of responses about the eyes, and eventually some about the word “me.” I respond, “How might the eyes and the use of the word ‘me’ be related?” The sea of puzzled looks is wiped away when I say this slide says, “Eyes on me,” and then I ask, “What do you think that means?” My favorite response came from a first grader who said, “It means we stop squawking and look at you.” I know, right?! I continue with, “That’s right; this is my call for the whole class’s attention.” After we practice this a few times, being silly of course helps make this really sticky, but that’s just a personal preference.

Next we get into the instructions of a task or the lesson. I share another example below, but try not to jump down below the picture. See if you can figure out what the directions are for the students.

We would go through a similar routine as described above, and then I fill in whatever the students didn’t get. Typically, my summary would be something like, “Yes, we’ll be in groups of four, you will number off 1 through 4, each person will rec...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Foreword – by Jon Corippo
• Foreword – by Marlena Hebern
• I. Mathematics through the Looking Glass
• II. Remixed and Revised
• III. A Guide to New EduProtocols
• Acknowledgments
• Continue the Journey
• Notes
• About the Authors
• More from Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.