Impact on Student Learning 2

7/30/2019 Impact on Student Learning 2

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Impact on Student Learning 2

As a teacher, I have positively impacted student learning during my time in the

classroom. For example, the three-dimensional (3D) shapes unit allowed students to make

connections between common items they already know and the 3D shape name that these items

are. Prior to this unit, the students did not know what the shapes were; during a discussion, some

students called a sphere a ball or a circle, a cube a square, and a prism a rectangle. By

implementing the following activities, students can now classify certain objects as a certain

shape.

My cooperating teacher and I started the 3D shapes unit with the students learning a

poem called 3D Shapes (Figure 1). There are five shapes listed in the poem: cone, sphere,

prism, cylinder, and cube. The poem compares a 3D shape to an object the students are familiar

with of that same shape. The poem, written on sentence strips, laminated, and placed in a pocket

chart, helped visual learners to see the actual shape, the words of the poem, and an example of

the shape. Auditory learners were able to hear the poem being read and gain an understanding of

the words before trying to read them themselves. Movement was also added to the poem, when

appropriate, to help kinesthetic learners. The higher readers were also able to read along with my

cooperating teacher and I as we read. While reading the poem, my cooperating teacher held up

wooden versions of the shapes so that students could see a real, simple example of a specific

shape. We continued reading our poem multiple times throughout each day and week.

Later that same week, students played a dice game during math centers in which they

rolled a dice with various objects on each face and graphed the 3D shape they rolled. Students

classified objects as cubes, (rectangular) prisms, cones, or spheres. Once a shape won, or had

the most spaces filled on the graph, students chose a new die with different objects to graph.


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Students hearts were engaged because they wanted a certain shape to win. Also, using

crayons to graph is way more exciting than using a pencil. By physically rolling a die, students

bodies were engaged. Last, students minds were engaged because they had to critically think

about the object they rolled and what shape it classified as.

The following week, a new math center consisted of a 3D shape sort. Here, students

were given a bag of cards with pictures of various objects (such as an ice cream cone, a globe,

and a cube tissue box). Students were also given pictures of solid shapes to use as headers for

their sort. On the carpet, students were spread out and sort objects into cubes, spheres, cylinders,

prisms, and cones. This activity gave students practice classifying everyday objects into the

math vocabulary they are learning. During this teacher-led activity, I was able to ask students

questions about what differences they noticed about each shape, thus helping them to notice the

subtle features that differentiate a cube from a prism, for example.

As a whole class, the students then independently completed an informal assessment of

3D shapes, the 3D Shape Color (Figures 2 and 3). Students colored all of the cubes red,

cylinders orange, cones yellow, spheres green, and (rectangular) prisms blue. By completing this

activity, my cooperating teacher and I had a good understanding of which students needed more

practice sorting and classifying shapes.

Figure 2 is the 3D Shape Color of a lower student. The assessment demonstrates that her

knowledge of 3D shapes is proficient; she mixed up a cube and a prism, as well as a prism and

cylinder. This student was able to experience success in the 3D shapes unit because she enjoys

doing things; she likes to participate in activities in which she is active. The dice game and

shape sort were both active activities. Also, this student enjoys coloring, so anytime she was

able to use a crayon, she was more motivated to complete the tasks at hand.


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Figure 3 is the 3D Shape Color of a higher student. He experienced a lot of success in the

3D Shape Color because he had had so much practice sorting shapes. This high level student

was also able to be successful because he was able to actually read the poem and relate the

shapes and examples in the poem to the shapes on the sheet.

While watching my cooperating teacher, I learned a lot about how I can impact student

learning and the sequence in which certain concepts should be taught. For example, I learned that

it would be most beneficial to teach the poem and the dice activity during the same week because

it gave students a limited and not-too-overwhelming amount of real-life 3D shape examples. As

instruction on 3D shapes increased, so did the amount of examples, as in the shape sort.

Furthermore, my cooperating teacher did a good job of modeling for me how to introduce new

concepts to the students. Even though my students are still learning about 3D shapes, they have

made great progress since the beginning of the unit.


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Figure 1: 3D Shapes Poem

Figure 1: Low student work- 3D Shape Color Figure 2: High student work- 3D Shape Color

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Impact on Student Learning 2