Many teachers have found that their students learn better with a virtual whiteboard. By using “Zoom” technology, it’s possible to have a virtual meeting room during an online learning course. When it comes to teaching math online, there are some best practices that all teachers should follow. One is to make sure that lessons are available for home study and another is to make assignments on the board regularly.
Have you been on the fence about teaching online? Do you find yourself asking, “How do I teach math online?” But above all, do you want to enrich and propel your students’ learning in a supportive and flexible community? If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Identify the Essential Content
Distance learning demands that teachers think very intentionally about which concepts students need to master. The reality is, mastery isn’t always what’s necessary for a particular concept; rather, observation or even just exposure may be sufficient to spark curiosity and wonder.
For Lavallee, matrices and the application of Cramer’s rule in Algebra 2 are non-essential and can be eliminated from the curriculum; completing the square to derive the quadratic equation is something students should observe; a few fundamental concepts within logarithms should be mastered; and functions are a must-have, to the point where students should both master and reflect on them.
Make Content Delivery Asynchronous
If you shift content delivery to asynchronous instruction, as with self-made, on-demand videos, you free up synchronous time to collaborate with students and work through example problems and address misconceptions.
With on-demand instruction, Lavallee suggests, “The key strategy is a structure where students know their objectives, and they have the ability to check for their own understanding along the way.” With that strategy in place, you have created a basis for self-paced learning.
Focus on Practice
“Eliminate ‘homework,’ and just call it learning,” Lavallee suggests, adding that incentivizing students to practice working with concepts is what matters. You might also consider moving away from the easy-to-hard paradigm to make the practice more about reflecting. “Assess students not on their first draft of homework or their final product, but on their revisions and reflections,” he says. “Let them see the final solutions, then focus on, assess, and incentivize the revision process.”
There are also a host of apps that make math practice engaging and enjoyable, particularly for elementary and middle schoolers.
Create Opportunities for Interaction
Lavallee notes that “teachers need to intentionally design for interaction in online formats and create structures that empower student voices.” One strategy for empowering student voice that Lavallee learned from a peer is to have students imagine that they have a partner who doesn’t understand a problem and then make a video explaining how to do it: The work of creating the video pushes students to deepen their understanding, and the teacher can use the videos for formative assessment. As a bonus, if any students are still struggling with the problem, their peers’ videos can be a valuable resource.
You can also infuse your instruction with assignments that rely on more complex collaborative work (say storyboarding and multimedia), and use online breakout rooms as a place for students to engage in meaningful math discussions among themselves or with you in order to build confidence in their voices and perspectives.
Rethink Assessment
A three-fold approach to summative assessment works well online, Lavallee writes. Consider incorporating:
- Automated assessments for conceptual understanding—e.g., a set of multiple choice questions that students can complete in 15 minutes;
- Oral exams, where students take 5–10 minutes to walk you through a solution to a multistep problem; and
- A culminating project for each unit—e.g., students choose and present an authentic, contextualized application.
With both oral exams and culminating projects, consider how student choice can further enrich your students’ experiences and understanding—that approach can make students more engaged and result in a deeper, more authentic understanding of the content.
ACCESS AND EQUITY
Although synchronous learning can be a powerful and engaging way to keep students connected, the reality is that it is not always equitable. Students may not have access to a digital device, there may be multiple children in one family sharing a device, or families may have poor internet connectivity. Asynchronous learning that allows students to log in on their own time and working parents to support student learning outside of business hours may be more equitable. However, the downside of asynchronous learning is that students lose connectivity and relationships with their teacher/s and peers can suffer. In the 2020-2021 academic year it will be important to strive for a combination of synchronous and asynchronous virtual learning, along with rigorous offline learning experiences, to provide all students with equitable and meaningful learning experiences.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Identify the critical standards and keep the learning goals at the forefront. Plan lessons that are focused and succinct. One lesson may need to be spread over two days to provide students with sufficient time to process and internalize learning. Focus on what matters rather than having too much of superfluous things. There are a multitude of apps and other things that various companies are offering but it is vital to make sure that the math content is at the forefront so that it does not become more about the technology than the learning.
Don’t rush into teaching the curriculum. Focus on building class community and relationships for the first few weeks. Allow time for students (and parents) to become acquainted with the online platform/s and digital tools you will be using. Make sure everyone is comfortable with getting into your Google classroom, muting and unmuting, sharing their screen, uploading work etc. and introduce any virtual math manipulatives students will need to use in the first few weeks. If you are using a hybrid model it will also be important to establish expectations for both classroom and online learning during this time. Below are examples of agreements for both the math classroom and online meetings that you may like to use as starting points for creating your own class agreements with students.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
There are many amazing digital tools, apps and platforms available but using too many can quickly become overwhelming for students (and parents with multiple children at different grade levels who are not familiar with these interfaces). Keep it simple. Streamline the number of different digital tools, apps and platforms students are expected to access. Pick a few that work best for you and your students and keep using them. For example, Google Slides is one simple but versatile option for teaching math remotely that stimulates learning. The toolbar is user friendly and students can be given access to the slide deck by sharing an editor’s version of the deck link to allow for student collaboration. Consider which digital tools, apps and platforms are being used at each grade level in your school. How many different platforms, tools and apps will students be using in math? What about other subjects? Is there consistency across grade levels/grade bands?
FEEDBACK
Enlist parents as partners. Use surveys (in different languages) at regular intervals throughout the year to ask parents what they need. What were your biggest challenges with remote learning in the spring? Do you have reliable internet? What is the ratio of digital devices to children and adults in your household? Ask parents (and students) for feedback regularly and be aware of the support needed for those struggling with online tools and methods. Is your child’s workload just right, too much, too little? How is the pacing? Does your child prefer to work online or offline?
Conclusion
It is important to understand first what should you teach and should not before showing students different ways to study online and other points that you find useful. These points should be achieved and should be applied in your class to ensure that students do the same. This article will provide some best practices that will help you design a great class where everybody can learn math online.