As a fifth grade teacher, I used to have my students use Number Pieces, an App by Clarity Innovations to create, visualize and model problems. They now have a web version for Number Pieces as well! Last week, I was asked by a teacher, if I thought Number Pieces could be used to demonstrate fact families in her second grade classroom...
 |
| Sample of One Student's Work |
Of course it can!
Number Pieces is an excellent App to have students manipulate pieces to create models to demonstrate their understanding of mathematical concepts!
So today, I helped introduce the App to her students for the first time. These students were amazing! We gave the students the task to create a model of a fact using Number Pieces for the fact family of their choice.
We introduced the App by quickly showing her students how to drag pieces on their screen to construct their model. Students then discovered one their own how to change the color of their pieces and add numbers to demonstrate their fact family! I am a strong believer that teaching students how to use a tool should be integrated into an activity. Students will explore, learn and master how to use a tool when they have a real purpose.
Once students had modeled their fact family, each student screen captured their model by holding down the home and lock buttons at the same time to take a picture. Next, students opened their Seesaw App to add their item from their camera roll. Students found their picture, added their voice and text to finish explaining their fact family. What a simple, but easy way for students to demonstrate their understanding of fact families!
Click here is one student's example of their fact family they submitted today into their journal on Seesaw!
No comments:
Post a Comment