Ep 25: Getting Students to Engage in Math Class

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Happy to be back here in 2024.

2
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:11,000
And today's episode is all about tips for non-participation for those students or maybe just one student

3
00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:13,500
who's not participating as much as you would like.

4
00:00:13,500 --> 00:00:22,500
But this is also very timely for just getting back after winter break for students who might not be in the groove of school just yet

5
00:00:22,500 --> 00:00:33,000
and how to get them back excited and ready for problem solving.

6
00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:40,500
Hello and welcome to Making Number Sense Make Sense, a podcast for elementary teachers, specifically early elementary teachers,

7
00:00:40,500 --> 00:00:44,500
looking to really make an impact in the number sense of their students.

8
00:00:44,500 --> 00:00:50,000
Globally, getting right back into the swing of things after break can be challenging.

9
00:00:50,000 --> 00:01:01,500
So the first tip I would say for non-participation is to start with a non-curricular task or series of non-curricular tasks coming back from winter break.

10
00:01:01,500 --> 00:01:10,000
This is a great opportunity for you to go over kind of our norms and expectations for a problem solving session,

11
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:19,500
but also getting kids excited about being back at school, problem solving with friends and classmates and giving them a problem they can really sink their teeth into.

12
00:01:19,500 --> 00:01:30,500
So this might be a non-curricular task, like I said, it might be a more STEM-like task where they're building or creating something not necessarily on a board,

13
00:01:30,500 --> 00:01:36,500
but in the general vicinity. So they might not be standing at a board, they might be building something on the floor,

14
00:01:36,500 --> 00:01:42,000
but just out of the norm of, you know, being sitting at their seats in something with a goal.

15
00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:46,500
If you're working with the younger years, a great and easy task is here are some blocks with your partner,

16
00:01:46,500 --> 00:01:56,500
they want you to build me the tallest tower that you can or try and build a castle or something like that together that isn't strictly, you know, curriculum related,

17
00:01:56,500 --> 00:02:07,000
but they can still really get into it, great chance to work together and it's a really great opportunity for students who might not have always been one to really jump into a problem.

18
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:14,000
Most students really like to build things if you give them a set of Legos or blocks, no matter how old they are, they'll try and build something with it.

19
00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:21,500
So though it's a great easy no prep task, you can give your students to start or really lean into a story, like give them a story, really build it up

20
00:02:21,500 --> 00:02:35,500
so that your students can be successful and get into a room type task, a mystery or really lean into the storytelling of a problem to get kids excited to be problem solving again.

21
00:02:35,500 --> 00:02:47,000
And not just coming back off of break. It's not a bad idea to sprinkle in a task here or there that might be completely non-curricular just to keep it fun and keep it exciting.

22
00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:56,000
Now, if you're doing that and most of your students are there, they're with you, they're problem solving, but you still have some students who are not participating.

23
00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000
They might say it's too hard. They might just not be into it.

24
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:12,500
They might not be standing at the boards for whatever reason that might be a time for you to really speak with the student individually, not during a problem solving session at a different time like recess or when your kids have some downtime.

25
00:03:12,500 --> 00:03:18,500
When they come in in the morning to really talk with that student, you might ask them why they think something is hard.

26
00:03:18,500 --> 00:03:21,500
And a lot of times they might give you the I don't know.

27
00:03:21,500 --> 00:03:26,500
And something that I don't know if it works for all grades, but definitely for the little ones, I would ask them.

28
00:03:26,500 --> 00:03:29,000
Well, if you did know, what would you say?

29
00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:34,000
And sometimes that'll get them to elaborate on why they think something is really hard.

30
00:03:34,000 --> 00:03:46,500
And if you know that they are capable of doing X, Y, Z, and in their head, they just think they're not, that might be that they need a little bit more of a confidence boost to feel like they really can problem solve.

31
00:03:46,500 --> 00:03:48,500
They can get into what you're doing.

32
00:03:48,500 --> 00:03:54,000
Something else you might try for a student who is a non-participator is to give them a job.

33
00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:57,500
Give them a job that is adjacent to what you're doing.

34
00:03:57,500 --> 00:04:01,000
Something that'll make them feel like, oh, you're going to be checking in on this.

35
00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:07,000
You're going to be checking in on whatever makes sense for your classroom to get them to participate more in that sense.

36
00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,500
And then they'll lean into working in a group.

37
00:04:10,500 --> 00:04:22,500
And if the issue is that they're just not working with their group, their partner or their partners, whatever it may be, then they might really need a conversation about how they would feel if their partner wasn't working with them.

38
00:04:22,500 --> 00:04:27,000
I know I had a student who would often decide that he didn't want to work with other students.

39
00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,500
And I really had to talk to him about like, how would you feel if you're really wanting a partner to work with you?

40
00:04:33,500 --> 00:04:41,500
If you are trying to solve this puzzle or you're trying to build something and you have a partner and they're not working with you, like how did that feel?

41
00:04:41,500 --> 00:04:44,500
And they talked and we had a discussion about how it doesn't feel good.

42
00:04:44,500 --> 00:04:48,500
It might make them feel sad that they didn't have a partner who wanted to work with them.

43
00:04:48,500 --> 00:04:53,500
It might make them feel frustrated that they couldn't get it done because they needed two people and they only had one.

44
00:04:53,500 --> 00:05:01,500
So just having them think about how their partner feels in that situation can also help them realize that what they're doing isn't just affecting them.

45
00:05:01,500 --> 00:05:03,500
It affects other people.

46
00:05:03,500 --> 00:05:14,500
So really having deep conversations about that kind of thing can help them kind of come out of their their shell, so to speak, and help them work with other students and also leaning into things that they like.

47
00:05:14,500 --> 00:05:21,500
So if you know that the student is really into Pokemon, maybe make your next task Pokemon theme.

48
00:05:21,500 --> 00:05:27,500
Give them something to get really excited about or ask them like for our next task, what do you want the theme to be?

49
00:05:27,500 --> 00:05:31,500
Like what will help you participate in this next task?

50
00:05:31,500 --> 00:05:32,500
See how it goes.

51
00:05:32,500 --> 00:05:40,500
And then you and I can talk about it and we'll see how for the next task, you can keep that same, you know, energy level participation.

52
00:05:40,500 --> 00:05:47,500
Even if the task is not something like Pokemon, something that you really like, because maybe they did just need a little bit of a confidence boost.

53
00:05:47,500 --> 00:05:49,500
They needed to see that, oh, I can really do this.

54
00:05:49,500 --> 00:06:04,500
I can really do math no matter what the context and that'll really help them to feel successful and help them learn to appreciate and really look forward to their math time and their problem solving time.

55
00:06:04,500 --> 00:06:07,500
This next tip is something that happened to me kind of by accident.

56
00:06:07,500 --> 00:06:13,500
I don't know that I would recommend it, but I'll tell you the outcome and you can see if this is something that might work for you.

57
00:06:13,500 --> 00:06:19,500
So I pulled the task from Enrich, which I really enjoy getting tasks from Enrich.

58
00:06:19,500 --> 00:06:22,500
I don't remember it saying it was for a different age group.

59
00:06:22,500 --> 00:06:28,500
I was quite sure I was in my age group when I was looking through tasks, but somehow I think you know where this is going.

60
00:06:28,500 --> 00:06:40,500
And the task was that the students were given 27 cubes, three of each color, and they had to construct a larger cube that had a different color on the face of each of the cubes.

61
00:06:40,500 --> 00:06:45,500
So no, no face could have two of the same color that you were looking at.

62
00:06:45,500 --> 00:06:49,500
And I saw that I was like, oh, I think that that's a great non-curricular task because they love to build.

63
00:06:49,500 --> 00:06:51,500
I'm going to do that task. I think it'll be fun.

64
00:06:51,500 --> 00:06:53,500
I'll think that I think that they'll enjoy it.

65
00:06:53,500 --> 00:06:58,500
And I just like everybody had some kids who are non-participators, they really didn't like to try those things.

66
00:06:58,500 --> 00:07:02,500
I had every student trying to do that task and working really, really hard on it.

67
00:07:02,500 --> 00:07:07,500
Come to find out that task was tricky. That task was a lot trickier than I thought it would be.

68
00:07:07,500 --> 00:07:14,500
And to be fair, I didn't actually do it myself, which they always say, you know, to try the task yourself before you give it to the kids.

69
00:07:14,500 --> 00:07:17,500
And, you know, we're not perfect. Nobody's perfect. It doesn't happen all the time.

70
00:07:17,500 --> 00:07:20,500
And I was like, it's just building. How hard could it be?

71
00:07:20,500 --> 00:07:25,500
It was actually very tricky. And what I found out is that none of my kids got that task.

72
00:07:25,500 --> 00:07:34,500
And it actually ended up being a really good talking point for us as a class to be like, OK, we were all trying that task for a long time.

73
00:07:34,500 --> 00:07:40,500
And not one of us was able to figure out how to get that task to work.

74
00:07:40,500 --> 00:07:47,500
And it was a good way for us to reflect on how even though it didn't work for us, we kept trying.

75
00:07:47,500 --> 00:07:52,500
You know, it wasn't the end of the world. Nobody was in tears. We had a good time with our partner.

76
00:07:52,500 --> 00:07:59,500
We had a good time building cubes. And I had several kids more than any other task ask me if they could keep trying.

77
00:07:59,500 --> 00:08:04,500
They're like, can you leave those cubes to the side? And maybe during station time we can try it again.

78
00:08:04,500 --> 00:08:08,500
And I was like, sure, you can definitely try it again during station time if that's something that you would like.

79
00:08:08,500 --> 00:08:15,500
So they didn't feel discouraged by their lack of success. They were more motivated to keep trying.

80
00:08:15,500 --> 00:08:24,500
And when I looked up that task in preparation for this podcast, come to find out it says on the little thing, and I will have a link to it,

81
00:08:24,500 --> 00:08:30,500
that that task is for 11 to 16 year olds, not five year olds. So that was my bad.

82
00:08:30,500 --> 00:08:35,500
But I swear, I really did not think that that task was for a different age group.

83
00:08:35,500 --> 00:08:42,500
I could have sworn that I clicked on my age group and was just searching from the tasks and games that they have for my age group.

84
00:08:42,500 --> 00:08:48,500
I don't know how I ended up on that task for that grade level or that age group, but it didn't matter.

85
00:08:48,500 --> 00:08:56,500
They kept trying. They had a good time. But it just goes to show that for a task like that, that can lean more non-curricular,

86
00:08:56,500 --> 00:09:03,500
the quote unquote grade level is not that important. If it's accessible, if there's an entry point, they'll be able to do it.

87
00:09:03,500 --> 00:09:09,500
And that task that I just explained, the entry point is we all love to build. We all love cubes. We know how to make a cube.

88
00:09:09,500 --> 00:09:18,500
So even though our task itself was not super successful, the experience of having a group failure in my book was successful.

89
00:09:18,500 --> 00:09:24,500
It was a quote unquote teachable moment. We moved on from it and we did great with our next task.

90
00:09:24,500 --> 00:09:30,500
So I'll leave you with that thought. And like I said, I don't know if I would recommend that, but it did work out for me.

91
00:09:30,500 --> 00:09:35,500
If you think that your class would benefit from that kind of discussion, you could try something like that.

92
00:09:35,500 --> 00:09:44,500
So I hope those tips and ideas helped you. I'm happy to discuss it more. You're always free to send me a message on Instagram.

93
00:09:44,500 --> 00:09:51,500
I'm happy to hear from you. As always, if you have any suggestions, you can always fill out the Google form below.

94
00:09:51,500 --> 00:09:58,500
I read every single one. Speaking of, I did get a message that sometimes I talk too fast and I'm trying to work on that.

95
00:09:58,500 --> 00:10:11,500
But even so, if you're on Apple or Spotify and you're listening to a podcast, if you look at the bottom left hand corner, you'll see a 1x or a point 08x.

96
00:10:11,500 --> 00:10:19,500
That's the speed. So if you click on that, you can move it down to point seventy five and make the sound slower.

97
00:10:19,500 --> 00:10:25,500
You can also make it go faster. I'm a point two five point five, maybe two X girl.

98
00:10:25,500 --> 00:10:31,500
I usually make things go faster, but you can also make it go the reverse if I'm talking too fast for you.

99
00:10:31,500 --> 00:10:59,500
I'm trying to work on it, but you know, sometimes it doesn't work out.