Through your field experiences in this program, what strategies have you observed that have hindered or helped students to generate meaningful questions that develop their mathematical thinking? How will these observations affect your future practice?

ANSWER STUDENTS RESPONSE FROM TOPIC 2 DQ1 AND TOPIC 2 DQ2 WITH 100 WORDS AND ONE SCHOLAR REFERENCES. THESE ARE SEPARATE ASSIGNMENTS AND SHOULD HAVE THERE OWN REFERENCCES PAGE. YOU MUST INCULDED THE TITLE IN THE TOPIC SO I CAN INDENTIFY THE ASSIGNMENT . WHEN RESPONSING TO STUDENTS SAY HELLO AND USE THE STUDENT NAME.

Topic 2 DQ 1 SPD–570

Through your field experiences in this program, what strategies have you observed that have hindered or helped students to generate meaningful questions that develop their mathematical thinking? How will these observations affect your future practice?

Stefanie R Re: Topic 2 DQ 1

Through my field experiences and experiences within the classroom as a teacher, I have observed many different strategies and approaches for students to develop mathematical thinking. Of these, there have been some that were successful and others that were not so successful. One strategy that hindered the students was asking open ended questions that are too open ended (Way, 2014). Often, students get confused or far off track when these types of questions are posed with no guidelines. Another strategy that hindered student’s thinking was giving too much information or guidance and overly helping a student. The student does not learn and often gets frustrated because they don’t need that amount of help.

A few strategies that have worked well in the classroom include appropriate open ended questions, think pair shares, scaffolding to meet specific needs, and the use of multimodal representation. When open-ended questions are asked appropriately, students have the chance to practice their critical thinking and begin to generate meaningful questions and make strong connections with their skills (Way, 2014). Think-pair-shares follow this idea of critical thinking while brainstorming as a group and working on conversation and team skills. Scaffolding works great, when done appropriately, to best meet the needs of all students while they’re on different skill levels. Representing the information visually, auditorily, and kinesthetically helps reach all students’ learning styles, keep students engaged, and allow students to receive the information in multiple ways.

I will continue to reflect on my teaching and strategies used based on their success and the students’ success. I will continue educating myself on research and the latest educational strategies and trends to stay up-to-date and always doing what is best for my students.

Reference

Way, J. (2014). Using Questioning to Stimulate Mathematical Thinking. NRich. Retrieved from https://nrich.maths.org/2473

Carey WIlliams
2 posts
Re: Topic 2 DQ 1

During my field experiences, I have been able to assist during a few math lessons. The teachers I have been able to work with are so great with questioning strategies and engagement. One of the strategies I have seen that helped students generate meaningful questions are asking “why, how, or explain further”. By asking these questions in math class the student can explain their thinking and further their understanding of the math concepts. Teaching students to ask their peers these types of questions can encourage deeper thinking and understanding when working in groups. Another strategy that I have seen that can help or hinder students to generate questions is wait time. Depending on the teacher, wait time is either used usefully or harmfully.

Working with special education students, wait time is so crucial to their understanding. It can be one of the most difficult strategies for teachers to remember. When you give a student a lot of time to process and think, it can feel awkward but it is necessary. If not given enough time, the student may not be able to process the information, come up with meaningful questions or complete tasks. I have been in classrooms where wait time is used as a helpful strategy and also in classrooms where it is not used when needed (Talking Math, 2015).

All of my field experiences have given me great resources to bring back into my own classroom. Seeing how the teachers interact with their students, accommodate students, modify lessons and material has really given me new ideas. Talking about strategies to use with students to help them understand difficult math concepts, like wait time, is something I always struggle to remember. Seeing how the teachers do it gives me a greater understanding of its importance and I will definitely bring that back into my classroom.

References

Talking Math. (2016). Getting Smart. https://www.gettingsmart.com/2015/10/talking-math-6-strategies-for-getting-students-to-engage-in-mathematical-discourse/

Topic 2 DQ 2
Describe how to generate questions for students while addressing a variety of levels and capabilities of mathematical thinking in an inclusion setting. Explain your choices.

Stefanie R
Re: Topic 2 DQ 2

Posing questions in an appropriate way that aids in critical thinking, yet does not frustrate or bring results that are off topic is difficult. Beginning with open-ended questions that allow for critical thinking encourages the student to explore the content and bring to surface any background knowledge (Way, 2014). From here, more content specific questions can be posed that have clear answers. These can be built upon by further content specific questions that relate to the skills being taught. This type of question can be used as an assessment (Way, 2014).

The last set of questions closes the lesson by creating a group discussion and making connections with other students. Together, creating questions that are meaningful, content specific, and allow students to use their critical thinking and background knowledge to form responses open students ‘ mathematical thinking. Knowing each students’ abilities is necessary for posing questions. This allows you to know when to scaffold or prompt when asking questions, specific to the student’s needs.
The importance of asking appropriately challenging questions is imperative in the education, comprehension, growth, and determination of a child. Ask questions based on what specific information you are looking for, what response type you are looking for, and how much you want the student to explore. Questions are easily differentiated to meet the needs of specific students.

Reference

Way, J. (2014). Using Questioning to Stimulate Mathematical Thinking. NRich. Retrieved from https://nrich.maths.org/2473

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