Algebra Learning Group

Mike Nevins, a math instructor at Everett College, invited Kalyn and myself to create a capture of a group on one Workshop Wednesday. This was a weekly event where people worked in groups together completing a worksheet. These five students in pre-college Elementary Algebra I volunteered to be videotaped. We converted the video to slides as we did in our other Making Learning Visible efforts. The link opens in a new tab.

Slope Is Fun

Slope is fun

I am fascinated by the interactions among participants of Learning Groups, the way individual strengths are respected and utilized, and how glorious it is to see no one helping them out. They have to rely upon each other. When the instructor provides tasks in their Zone of Proximal Development and referable resources, such as the blackboard here, the students can find a path somehow.

Note what they say at the end about how successful they feel together. The have a history. The true outcome is not a deep understanding of the algerbraic representation; the disposition to pursue through the fog of inability lasts well beyond the classroom. It can begin to erase the effects of years of miseducation in mathmatics.

It seems to me that if one wants to become a better teacher, making the effort to record and discuss with fellow faculty is where teachers learn to be better teachers.

Just like these students, we educators work best together.