A Peek in the Classroom - Stacey's Multi-dimensional Class

One of the things I love the most about my job is having opportunities to watch others teaching.  When we have done lesson studies in WCSU, it is one of the most valuable things teachers take away from that experience... the opportunity to see another teacher in action.

I am so, so, so grateful to Stacey Rupp (5th and 6th grade teacher at Calais Elementary) for being willing to allow me to share a peek in her fifth grade math classroom with you.  Rather than making one long video (which would make my iphone gag while uploading to youtube), I created a playlist of the videos starting with my introduction video (the first video below, the whole playlist is linked here).

Watch Stacey tackle:

• A classroom management strategy to get kids to stop playing with those darn Cuisenaire rods when they're supposed to be learning math
• Explaining dimensions
• Efficient movement breaks
• Using learning targets and ongoing formative assessment 

The first two videos give you an overview of what you will see, giving you the context for the lesson that I observed on Friday, December 16, 2016.  

Here's another look at Stacey's white board if you want a better view...

The "Free Build" as Class Management 

To begin, Stacey models "Free Build Time."  This is pure class management genius.  Concrete manipulatives are powerful tools for developing conceptual understanding, but many teachers are looking for ways to get the kids to stop playing with them.  Stacey's answer?  Don't fight it, harness it with "free build time."  Provide students with two different sets of expectations for how the manipulatives will be used: one for "free build time" and one for "math time."  The class earns build time by following expectations during math time.  When they earn enough free build time (five minutes), she starts the class this way:

Another bonus to free build time is that it buys Stacey time to touch base with individual students about the learning targets as she shows in the following video... 

Discussing Dimensions

Stacey's warm up is actually a review of dimensionality.  This is really important for students developing conceptual understanding from additive to multiplicative to exponential relationships.  When I encounter a student that doesn't understand division or multiplicative operations on fractions in seventh grade, usually that student lacks an understanding of dimensions and how they relate to the operations.

I worked with a third grade teacher to facilitate a similar conversation in her classroom a couple of weeks ago to prepare her students to move from repeated addition and equal groups to the area of a rectangle model for multiplication...

An Efficient Movement Break

After this discussion, Stacey's students had a brief "movement break" that I did not video (for fear of running out of storage on my phone).  Students moved to the center of the room and Stacey kept calling out silly things for the students pose as (for example, "an upset unicorn princess").  Students needed to assume the pose and silently freeze.  As they moved or cracked up, they needed to move to the outside of the room, but they still played.

The whole thing took about five minutes and left students ready to focus on the Mystery Solid problem that they started the day before.

Here is where I ran out of room on my phone and had to upload and delete a few things before I could continue the video.

The Mystery Solid is a low floor, high ceiling prompt.  Stacey asked them to investigate a solid that has a base of 40 and a volume of 120.  Within these constraints students were working on their understanding of surface area and volume.  Students began exploring with whole numbers, but the open nature of the problem allows for Stacey the flexibility to ask students to extend their thinking to fractional dimensions.  What if the length of the base is not a whole number?  Asking students this question as they work provides an obvious extension, but it also can provide Stacey with formative assessment information to inform her upcoming work with students on developing the area of a rectangle model for multiplication of fractions and decimals.  

Click here for more posts about low floor, high ceiling prompts.

Using Learning Targets and Ongoing Formative Assessment 

Stacey finished up the class by having students self-assess.  How did they feel they were progressing towards the learning target?  Here Stacey walks them through that quick self-assessment that she will use as a formative assessment to plan her next steps with instruction.

Here is a link to the Cuisenaire spatial problem solving book that I shared with Stacey.  Below you can see a sample puzzle that a student was working on with me last week.  While they work, you can surreptitiously ask them questions about their understanding of the dimensions involved (What's the perimeter of the puzzle?  How do you find it?  What's the area?  How would you measure it? How would you calculate it?  How could you do it another way?).

I hope you enjoyed this peek into Stacey's class as much as I did.  Please thank her if you get a chance!