Leveraging The Flipped Classroom to Increase Writing and Discourse in Mathematics

Zach Cresswell - @z_cress

Tara Maynard - @tmaynard5

Delia Bush - @deliabush

bit.ly/flipcon15discourse

bit.ly/discoursebackchannel

The Importance of Talk

“For the past two decades, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has encouraged teachers to use classroom discourse in math classes, to support both students’ ability to reason mathematically and their ability to communicate that reasoning. When teachers commit themselves to teaching for understanding, classroom discourse and discussion are key elements in the overall picture.” (Read the full article here.)

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The Importance of Discourse

• Constructing knowledge
• Inquiry
• Formative Assessment
• Peer Instruction

Discourse:

Activity … Backs to Front

• Partner activity. One student sits with their “back to the front” while the other is facing front.
• Can use vocabulary words, drawings, figures, graphs, etc.
• Students can respond verbally or written by drawing, graphing or writing.

Discourse:

Activity … Backs to Front

Isosceles Triangle

Regular Pentagon

Vertex

Interior Angle

Discourse:

Activity … Backs to Front

Basic Geometry examples

Circle Unit examples

Discourse:

Activity … Backs to Front examples

Discourse:

Activity … Back to Back examples

Characteristics of Functions

Discourse:

Handling Homework Questions

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• Students fill out Google form before class
• Discuss difficult problems during class

Flowchart Blog Post

Sample Form Sample Results

Discourse:

Handling Homework Questions

Discourse:

Handling Homework Questions

• Collect student questions via socrative.com
• Use Quick Question then short answer

• Group students with same questions
• Push students ahead that don’t have questions

Discourse:

Discussion - Getting students to talk

WSQ done with Video: Stolen from Crystal Kirch

• Watch and take notes (My students liked guided notes better than taking notes on their own.)
• Summarize - a short summary of the lesson
• Question
• If not understanding, write a question for the team or teacher.
• If understanding, create a question for your team.

Thinking and Questioning Sheet

• In binders, used in team discussions

Discourse:

Discussion - Question samples

Discourse:

Discussion - WSQ samples

Discourse:

Discussion - Nearpod.com Pin: SUVYP

• Generic or specific presentation
• Use draw feature (can import images behind)
• Share wrong answers with teams to discuss
• Student names are not shared

Number Talks

What are they?

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Why have them?

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Let’s try it!

Number Talks - The Rules

• You must solve the problem mentally.

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• When you have a solution, put your thumb up & then try to find another way to find the solution.

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• When asked, share how you developed your solution.

Number Talks

32 x 15

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• You must solve the problem mentally.

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• When you have a solution, put your thumb up & then try to find another way to find the solution.

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• When asked, share how you developed your solution.

The Importance of Writing

• Memory Cement, Concept Glue
• Constructing Knowledge
• Assessment
• Develop Executive Function
• Authenticity = Engagement

The Brain Based Benefits of Writing in Math and Science

Writing: Precalc Blogging

Prompt: We’ve spent the last several days talking about the law of cosines and the law of sines. The last couple of days were spent talking about an ambiguous case of the Law of Sines in which you are given Side-Side-Angle information of a non-right triangle. In this post I’d like you to discuss the following ideas:

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• Why is SSA considered ambiguous?
• Why can’t we just simply apply the Law of Sines to the given information?
• How would you explain this Law to a relative with minimal mathematical knowledge? (Hint: You may want to include diagrams…)

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As noted in the hint above, diagrams with definitely help your readers understand the topic better. Please use Google draw (create a drawing, then save/crop a screenshot) or Geogebra (Same process) to make your diagrams. See this example of a Google drawing.

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Writing: Precalc Blogging

Writing: Precalc Blogging

Writing: Precalc Blogging

Writing: Calculus

Reflective Learning Blogs mixed with specific prompts.

Writing: My Favorite Blogs

Karrigen’s Precalc Blog

David’s Precalc Blog

Lauren’s Precalc Blog

JT’s Precalc Blog

Katie’s Precalc Blog

All Precalc blogs can be found on our precalc website, slmpprecalc.weebly.com.

All AP calc blogs can be found on my calc website, cresswellcalc.weebly.com.

The rubric I use to grade precalc blogs can be found here and the one I use for AP calc can be found here.

Writing: Tic-Toe-Toe Vocabulary

Pick a “tic-tac-toe” and write one sentence that contains all three terms and makes sense! (Could turn it into a paragraph with 2 “tic-tac-toes”.)

Writing: Venn Diagrams into more

Have teams, partners create Venn Diagrams to compare & contrast two concepts/methods.

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(Could turn it into a paragraph or more.)

This presentation: bit.ly/flipcon15discourse

Zach Cresswell

Mt. Pleasant High School

Mt. Pleasant

HS Math

@z_cress

cresswellzach@gmail.com

zachcresswell.org

Tara Maynard

Creekside Middle School

Zeeland

8th grade math

@tmaynard5

taramaynard5@gmail.com

taramaynard.weebly.com

Delia Bush

Alpine Elementary School

Kenowa Hills

5th grade

@deliabush

bush.delia@gmail.com

flippedclassroom.blogspot.com