Mathematics and Dual Language Learners – A CBE Aha! Moment 7.19
Posted by cemignano on
We’d like to welcome July’s CBE of the Month, Rosie Santiago, back to the blog to share her CBE Aha! Moment. As part of the certification process, we ask educators to reflect on past teaching practices and identify the Aha! Moment they experienced when realizing that BrainPOP’s learning activities could improve these practices. We hope reading Rosie’s reflection will inspire you with ideas to identify your own!
1) Tell us your BrainPOP “Aha! Moment” from the certification process. What specific use or application of BrainPOP excited you during this course? How did it change your expectation for using BrainPOP in your teaching practice?
Mi momento “¡Ajá!” during my certification was all of the possibilities with individual student accounts. These accounts allow teachers the opportunity to create classes, assign them movies with activities, provide feedback on their assignments and track their progress. It helped me differentiate but, most importantly, it allowed me to redefine traditional Math tasks in a way that would not be possible without the individual student accounts.
2) What is a specific lesson or unit you’ve taught in the past that you can re-formulate to bring in the new tools, features, or content you discovered through the CBE process?
In math, students are required and expected to write several sentences and even paragraphs explaining their math and justifying their answer. For every unit I would have students reflect on their math after solving a math task or math word problems by writing in their math journals (as part as one of our learning stations) to check for understanding, deepen students’ understanding in math, and provide practice with academic vocabulary in math. We would also write about math in general, math processes, and how they think about math. Examples include:
- Constructed response tasks
- Gallery Walks
- Carousel Walks
- Sentence Stems
- Math Prompts (General and Grade level/Skill specific)
- Math Concept Writing
- Math Read alouds response
- Math How-to writing
3) How will you integrate BrainPOP’s new features and tools to replace what you’ve done in the past?
The BrainPOP feature that I love and works for us, is Make-a-Movie. I teach Math in Spanish and Make-a-Movie allows students to do more when explaining their math and justifying their answer in the target language. It allows for multiple opportunities for students to talk and write during their math instruction. Students are able to make connections better by collaborating with their peers, recording their voice, drawing, and using the images available for them. It is an opportunity for creativity while meeting grade level expectations.
Make-a-Movie is just what my students needed from me as a choice and tool so that I could meet them where they are and provide them with the best educational experiences that I could. Now, with BrainPOP and Make-a-Movie, I am able to support students who are learning in two languages to strengthen their knowledge of both languages during Math instruction.
