In charge and Online

Grade/subject area: Grade 6/7 Math

Description of concept: This is a mini lesson on dividing decimals. This concept is difficult for many students because the addition of decimals to a concept that students often struggle with like dividing, makes an already tricky subject that much more difficult. If I were to do this again, I would try to slow down a bit and explain the steps to solving the two questions a bit more fully. I would also get a more reliable camera-person that would stand behind me so that the video didn't seem like it was upside down.



Hi Steve, I heard you were having a few issues with dividing decimals. Dividing decimals can be tricky if you get confused by the steps, but once you know what the steps are, and the order to do them in, it's not any more difficult than regular division.
I have made a quick video of myself completing two different dividing decimals questions, one with a whole number divisor, and a slightly more difficult question with a decimal divisor. You can watch the video here:

I have also emailed you some notes that show the steps so that you can use these to follow along.


Hope this helps, but please feel free to email me again if you are still stuck and we can arrange a face to face.

Part 1: Explanation of core competency

In the above excerpt I am trying to implement "Strategy 5: Design lessons to focus on One aspect of Quality at a time". I want to make sure that my fictitious student has developed a reasonable competency and confidence with dividing decimals before he tries to tackle anything more challenging. from the lesson, "You can then offer feedback focused on the component you just taught, which narrows the volume of feedback students need to act on at a given time and raises their chances of success in doing so, again, especially for the struggling learners. This is a time saver for you, and more instructionally powerful for students."

Part 2: How would issues such as distance and asynchronous learning play into your practice?

I think that distance and asynchronicity would not be particularly challenging to my math program, because it is already designed to allow students to work at their own pace, challenging themselves at three different levels. However, some of the assessment for learning techniques could be better built in to increase student engagement. As Ceara Mullin wrote I could, "build activities into the course that require regular checks of understanding or competence. These could be for the student to see only, such as check your understanding questions with answer keys, or short automatically marked quizzes with the opportunity to see mistakes and correct them."