Marquetta Strait February 20, 2013 CU Life Math Strategies Training Reflection: 2 The second day of Claflin Universitys

Learning Improvement for Future Excellence (CU Life) mathematics training, Ms. Nelson had us review the information that we discussed last session. Some of the aspects we discussed were the six shifts in math from the former states standards to the Common Core Standards. The six shifts are focus, coherence, fluency, deep understanding, applications, and dual intensity. Marzanos nine instructional strategies. One of the main points we discussed was

The three strategies that I will expound on are

identifying similarities and differences, summarizing and note taking, and nonlinguistic representations. Marzanos nine instructional strategies are research based. They have been proven to be effective in the classroom and improve students comprehension of concepts taught in the classroom. While in our mathematics session, Ms. Nelson had us to use the Jig Saw Method while we learned the nine strategies. Identifying similarities and differences is a very effective strategy to make certain that students are comparing and contrasting two different items, such as mammals and reptiles. The students would demonstrate their conceptual understanding by creating a Venn diagram or chart to compare and classify the items. The students would write down the characteristics of both mammals and reptiles and then eventually discuss their similarities. Summarizing and note taking is one of the most common visuals within the instruction process. It is common that when you ask students to summarize a portion of the text, students

M. Strait|2

will often write every sentence that they feel is answering the question, but yet, not fully comprehending what they have just read. Instead, Ms. Nelson taught us to use a gist strategy. The gist strategy allows for students to read a text and summarize as much content as they can without exceeding a twenty word limit. Another version of the gist strategy, when there are several pages of content, is to have the students get a sticky note and paraphrase a point on the pages that they feel is important to discuss, putting one point on each sticky note. After the given time has ended, the students would close the textbook and summarize the information that they read using only the sticky notes as an aid. I believe this strategy is an awesome technique to get students to take their time and retrieve the important points of the content. Lastly, I would use the nonlinguistic representations within my instruction. Research has proven that nonlinguistic representation stimulates and increases brain activity. The example that Ms. Nelson used in our session was a song called Transformations. The song was used to help the students comprehend the three types of transformations on a plane, translation, reflection, and rotation. The students would repeat after the teacher and perform the movements, such as turning to the left and turning to right to represent rotation. I would definitely use this strategy with students because it allows the students to be more involved in their learning, especially if they are having fun learning. It would be easier for students to use the nonlinguistic representations to be more open to the new content because it is not in a traditional format. By implementing these strategies within my classroom, I will have a surplus of methods to measure the students comprehension of the concepts. I plan to increase visual aids within my classroom and use other methods, such as mnemonic devices, to assist my students. The overall goal is for students to become more knowledgeable, which will in turn assist them in real-world applications.