When I was in Elementary School, I remember absolutely hating worksheets. I found them boring, and a chore to get through, and finish. Whether I completed them at home, or in class, I couldn't keep myself focused. From my classes at Hunter, I have learned the worksheets are being used less, and less in the classroom environment because they are generally ineffective, and they exist to regurgitate information. That being said, in the KC class, worksheets are used as a supplemental assessment tool, while not being the center of an activity.
For math, the worksheets go with a counting activity that uses unifix cubes. The activity involved taking two parts, and combining them into a whole. The supplies were a Styrofoam plate (with equal thirds sectioned), and 12 unifix cubes. The worksheet featured a line of unifix cubes (lets say the row featured 6 cubes). Students would recreate what they saw, and take any part out of the whole on the actual cubes. They would draw out the number of cubes in each part. Then, they would fill in the numerical values in a sentence like "_____ and _____ make _____". This is a precursor to learning addition, with the next class introducing the symbols "+", and "=".
What makes this more effective than worksheets that I've seen, is that it isn't about regurgitating information. The activity is a measure of understanding using written images (drawing a picture of the cubes removed), tactile counting (removing the actual cubes), and it gives students free choice (choosing the number of cubes they can remove from the whole). While it uses a worksheet, it's still personalized by the student.
No comments:
Post a Comment