We had CLIMBS day 4 on Thursday of this week, and it's all about schema activation in order to get the students to better connect with the content. There are three components to schema activation: developing vocabulary, building background, and linking concepts to prior learning. We hit the afternoon after a lot of conversation in the morning, and I put a slide up asking participants in the workshop to discuss ways to activate a student's schema related to the topic of probability in math class.
People talked in their table groups, and we came back together and came up with a healthy list of vocabulary that the students might need in order to be able to access this content. The problem, though, was that we hadn't come up with any activities that might help them to connect. I asked about that again, and crickets filled the room. Well, no, the sound of crickets filled the room. Well, maybe the sound of crickets chirping just filled my head. But the table conversations had all revolved around the vocabulary, it seems, but not around linking to prior learning or building background.
I suggested that we might consider the fact that different cultures view the concept of "luck" differently, and that might be a good jumping off place for activities. But I didn't really have a well-developed plan for responding to my own question, and that's a no-no in presenting. Sorry, friends.
So, of course, I've been stewing about it all weekend. I came up with these activities that I might use to start a unit on probability in math class:
1. Anticipatory Guide: put together a series of statements that students have to agree or disagree with related to luck and probability. Have them make choices and discuss with a partner before coming back to a classroom discussion to share out as a group.
2. Writing round robin: Have students write for three minutes on a time that they felt that they were lucky or unlucky and why they think that the luck/lack thereof occurred. Students can all share in a group of four, and then the instructor can ask each group to share out one story from their table.
3. Previewing video: Put together a video where a hand is drawing colored marbles out of a bag. Stop the video. Ask students to work with a partner to make predictions about what color they think will come out of the bag next and why. Ask students to narrate the video without sound for their partner. Then, come together as a class and talk about the predictability of the next marble.
4. Have students read this article from Wikipedia. Make it a jigsaw so that each person has to report back to their group on the part of the article that they have read.
The idea is to have a four-skills activity that requires students to NOT work solo, to make connections to the content before having to wrestle with it, and to give the class a common language base from which to work. I'd like to give one of these a whirl, but I feel like probability is a ways off in the class I'm teaching this year. Any takers out there?
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