Device-Free & Interactive Family Learning On The Go!

My son self-selected a magazine to read from the basket.
The basket wears a seat belt too!

Today, I am thankful for being intentional during the 25 minute device-free commute to church. I look forward to Sunday morning car rides because my husband drives and I am able to be fully present with our kids (ages 8 and 10).  (I  must admit that I am inconsistent and that sometimes I block them out by staring at my smart phone.)  This Sunday, however, I maximized this limited amount of time that the kids are buckled in, without devices, and are yearning for something to occupy their attention.  I want to share the 3 items I constantly keep in the car to facilitate mobile learning and spark conversation (whether or not I am engaged).

Reading basket in the backseat

1.  Reading Basket

Usually, when I'm driving without my husband, I prompt the kids to choose something to read from the reading basket in the back seat. I have written about the purpose and inspiration of the reading basket here and here.  Ten, twenty, and thirty minute car rides can provide a substantial amount of uninterrupted reading time. Magazines, word searches, crossword puzzles, joke books, chapter books, and Mad Libs are excellent basket fillers and provide hours of entertainment.  Endless choices and voice in the car!

2.   Flash Cards

Multiple flash cards are stored in the passenger's
 pocket of the door

This particular morning, I used the math flash cards on the ride to and from church.  I asked the kids if they knew the purpose of my quizzing them on the facts at a rapid fire pace. They both gave good answers. I explained that I wanted them to have enough mental energy to concentrate on figuring out which operation(s) would help them efficiently solve the word problem; and not be mentally taxed with solving the basic computation. My children are going into 4th and 5th grade this year. The word problems will involve multiple steps and operations and perseverance is imperative. It is time to accelerate their computational fluency of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts.  

I never really used flash cards or emphasized speed with them in the past because I wanted them to have a strong conceptual understanding of what the facts represented (number sense). Flash cards are for memorization and do not "teach" the facts. Rather, strategy-based instruction facilitates fact acquisition and number sense more efficiently than rote memorization.  With that said, I know the kids have a solid grasp of the functions of the four operations and I can use flash cards to boost their immediate recall.  

Math flash cards are not all that I pack in the car.  I also carry "Would You Rather" cards to spark humorous conversation.  I wrote about this card game here. We love laughing and giggling over the silly debate topics.

This summer I traveled across nine states with a good teacher friend and my two kids. I intentionally planned the road trip as an opportunity to boost our background knowledge.  I packed the "United States" and "Landmarks" flash cards, I found at Target, to provide short and relevant text. We sorted through the cards and found the nine states we were planning to visit.  The children orally read the cards as we entered each state and before touring each landmark. Reading in advance generated insightful questions, landmarks to discover in each state, and supported their blogging about the experience afterwards.

Reading about the Grand Canyon
before arrival

Reading about the Grand Canyon, seeing a simple photograph, and generating questions prepared us before we arrived (as mentioned in the article - The Night Before the Musuem).   We were able to look at the environment in a completely different way because we enhanced our background knowledge.  (I also share this article about using summer to boost background knowledge with parents.)

3.  Music  

I typically listen to Christian music or smooth jazz stations while I am driving.  I find the music on these stations to be uplifting, relaxing, and the lyrics are appropriate for my children. However, I still have a few educational CDs in the car I pop in occasionally. Keeping these educational lyrics in the car is an easy reminder to review academic skills in a novel manner.

These are three items that came to my mind this morning. Again, I must confess I do not use these items every single car ride.  I do not feel any family has to use these items every single time.  I do think it is important to use them to support learning after school hours, but please find an appropriate balance for your family.  Additionally, I am sure there are many other ways to facilitate interactive family learning without iPads and TV screens.  Please feel free to add suggestions in the comments below.

    

How Close to 100? - 3rd Grade

I blogged about using "How Close to 100?" with 4th graders last week.  Today, I introduced the multipurpose game to two 3rd grade classes.  The repeated practice yielded valuable information... 

I noticed several times, in both classes, that the two-digit addition with multiple addends was not accurate when calculating the player's total score. The addition was not an obvious concern in the 4th grade classroom. The activity is such a wonderful formative assessment opportunity as several students made errors in computation.  The partner format lead to dynamic and productive discourse. The teacher has data to inform her instructional next steps.

Oops! The red player needs to take another look...

I used the same closure technique that I used in the previous lessons.  I simply asked the students what math skills were needed to play this game.  I was thrilled by the academic vocabulary generated by the two minute quick write. Students orally justified skills like sportsmanship, area...

addition, base-ten blocks

skip counting, addition, multiplication, and arrays

addition, multiplication, arrays

multiplication and brainstorming...  :))

Free Download -  How Close to 100?

 

Read more about this and other games to boost computational fluency from Jo Boaler: Fluency Without Fear: Research Evidence on the Best Ways to Learn Math Facts 

 

 

 

How Close to 100?

My Toolbox

The plea for computational fluency is constant  on our campus and has boggled teachers nationally. The effectiveness of traditional approaches (loved by parents and some teachers) are fiercely debated and teachers are simply searching for adequate solutions. I have teachers that are reluctantly abandoning timed tests and flash cards and are desperately seeking alternatives to implement consistently.  This post is dedicated to a powerful tool we have just added to our toolbox.

 Sometimes you have to see something multiple times before you move to try it yourself. That was the case for this activity called How Close to 100? I was compelled to try this computational fluency activity after seeing variations shared a couple of times in my Professional Learning Network (PLN). On October 27th, Dan Meyer tweeted a recommendation, and on November 4th Ashley Minton tweeted a different variation that uses spinners (pictured below).

Twitter photo by Ashley Minton  pic.twitter.com/U45wdFenfo

The dots were connected for me yesterday as this same robust activity appeared in Boaler's article that was shared by Common Core Math Resources on Facebook. I knew I just had to try it and share it with others!   How Close to 100? is one of several resources provided in the must-read article-  Fluency Without Fear: Research Evidence on the Best Ways to Learn Math Facts by Jo Boaler.  (The template can be easily downloaded from the YouCubed website). I highly recommend anyone concerned with computational fluency strategies to read this article and grab the provided resources.  The content is in alignment with another favorite article I've read from Linda Gojak called Fluency: Simply Fast and Accurate? I Think Not!

I introduced How Close to 100? in a 4th grade classroom today!  I inserted a slightly altered template into a sheet protector for each group, gathered enough dice and dry erase markers, and made additional copies for the students to use for practice at home.   (Sheet protectors and dry erase markers make repeated practice sustainable by reducing the amount of paper needed.)

The teacher and students enjoyed the activity tremendously! In fact, my son said, "You packed too much fun into this activity."  During the closure of the practice time, I asked the students what mathematics were used in the activity.  The students noted that the activity includes: writing equations, drawing arrays, applying multiplication strategies (skip counting, repeated addition, etc.), juggling the commutative property of multiplication, and accurate addition!  It also naturally infused several math practices!  This activity is multipurpose and the student discourse is productive!

Each player used a different color dry erase marker and shared a template to increase the opportunities for discourse.

The player with a total sum closest to 100 was the winner!