Navigating by GPS Through My Classroom

I love Chapter 7's analogy of the teacher as a GBS system!
It makes perfect sense.

I stopped to reflect a bit on my recent differentiated classes.
How have I been a GPS system for my student's learning?

While visiting with all my students I started to see some similarities in some of our conversations.  Students solving one -step equations were not wanting to show their work as I had asked them to do.  It was much simpler to work it in their head.  Normally, I encourage mental math, however, I knew that their journey would lead them to solving multi- step problems where showing their work would be critical in finding the answer.  So, to help students get a picture of where they were headed, I created two videos on the screen chomp app starting with one- step equations and moving to multi- step describing the process of showing my work and how it progressed through the various levels.

I also noted in my visits with students that some did not have a clear understanding of why they performed the inverse operation.  I decided to connect it to PEMDAS, a concept we had learned earlier.  I knew students had had Hands-On equations in previous grades, so thought this approach might help them make the connection.  Again, using the screen chomp app, I made a video for the students struggling with this concept.

Some of students don't seem to have the confidence to learn on their own.  While others took the opportunity and ran with it.  For those struggling, I was the GPS voice, suggesting another route (learning style, learning hint, etc) for them to try.  While this was what some needed, some needed a little more guidance as to how to get started in the learning process.  We gently pressed down on the accelerator, as I modeled for them how I would go about learning a new concept.

I noticed I was asking a lot of questions as I went from student to student.  The questions fell into the same categories as those in Chapter 7.   Sometimes, I would be conferencing with a student that had specific questions on how to work through an equation.  Depending on where they were on their journey, I might ask a probing question to help move their thinking.  Or, we might talk about where they might get the information.  Sometimes, I would be talking to a student and the questions would be more logical in nature as we discussed where they were in the learning process and when they would be ready to quiz out.


Chapter 7 offers an in depth look at questioning in the classroom, something that I can always be reminded of as I continue to push my students to the top of Bloom's Taxonomy.