Day 9 Feedback and Thinking Tools

Feedback

Today started with the class watching a Marian Small video.  We were asked to come up with 3 things we know about feedback, 2 things we learned, and 1 question we still had at the end of the video.  I have to admit that I watched the whole video waiting for her to say something about feedback and wondering why she kept talking about questioning instead.  I liken this this to the discussion we had the other day on success criteria.  I was given what to look for (the questions that Ve posed) and was so busy waiting to hear something that was related to what I knew about feedback that I missed that in talking about questions she was talking about feedback.

I have always seen feedback as something the teacher gives to the student in order to help the student improve upon his or her work, so using questions to prompt the students for further thinking never really crossed my mind. Ve, however, said something that changed my thinking so that I am now able to see the value of using questions for feedback.  He said that the purpose of feedback is to have students leave knowing how they are doing, and questioning allows students to nudge their own thinking so they can come up with the answers themselves and "fix" their own thinking.  This makes sense since we have discussed many times that our goals as teachers is to have our students be able to problem solve and think independently.  Rather than just simply telling the student what she has done well or what she can improve upon or where she has made her mistake, through questioning the student can figure that out for herself. 

One thing I continue to struggle with is knowing when I should delve into student thinking and when and how to let students know when they are simply wrong.  I believe a student needs to know that 3+7=10.  If he comes up with 3+7=12, that is a problem.  Of course I would have a conversation with him about how he arrived at that understanding, and it would be great if that discussion was enough.  But if it is not, when and how do I tell him that the answer is 10.  I do not want him leaving thinking the wrong answer is correct and that he can apply whatever thinking he used to get that answer to other situations.  I suppose this is something that I will understand better when I actually have a student with such a difficulty and as I gain more experience.

The Area Model and Algebra Tiles

I really liked the area model.  It made sense to me and I can see its inherent value.  I especially like that it is a visual representation that can be used in a variety of contexts as students move through the grades.

I found that the algebra tiles can be useful--like most manipulatives--in the right contexts.  During our discussion of the article, our group talked about the idea of doing 4-7 with algebra tiles somewhat problematic.  It does not make sense to add something in order to then take it away.  It also did not make sense to essentially be adding zero in order to subtract 7.  One member of our group suggested that instead of 3 zero pairs we add 7 negative tiles.  This would be a better visual representation. Students could add 7 negative tiles and then get rid of 4 zero pairs leaving -3.

Thanks for reading.