Grade 11 lesson activities & Teacher Efficacy

Grade 11 lesson activities & Teacher Efficacy


Lesson activities:

Teaching grade 11 concepts in creative ways to help improve student understanding is very difficult.  I think that Corin presented a great way of helping students visualize a complex trigonometric word problem.  I think that many students have troubles visualizing problems, and for this reason they tend to do poorly on trigonometric word problems.  By doing the demonstration presented by Corin, it would help students feel more comfortable to use objects at their own desk when working through word problems in order to better visualize the problem.  Another part of Corins lesson, I look forward to implementing in my future classes was having students split 3-D objects into 2-D shapes in order to solve the problems.  I think this could really help students understand the steps needed to solve 3-D questions, and diminish math anxiety. 

Trigonometric identities are usually hard for students to understand, and hard for teachers to make exciting.  For this reason, I really like the 2 activities presented by Sarah.  I think the first activity of having the students determine a series of steps in order to simplify trig identities would help diminish math anxiety.  This is because with trig identities, there is a lot of erasing that occurs, which in some cases may discourage students; however, with this activity, students are already given the steps and just need to be able to match/ order them.  I think that the second activity would be fun for the students because it is a puzzle, which diminishes the stress associated with mathematics.  I also think the puzzle activity would be great to use in a classroom because it allows students to work together to practice the math concept. 
 
Another topic students struggle with in grade 11 is exponential function.  I think that Jonathan created a fun and interactive lesson which students would really benefit from.  I really liked how he incorporated real data about the Plague for students to analyze.  I think that this would increase interest in the lesson, as well as help students see real life applications of exponential functions.  I also think the simulation of the plague provides an added visual representation of the exponential function being analyzed.  I think that the Geogebra part of Jonathan’s lesson would be especially effective for showing students how the variable influence the function. 


Teacher Efficacy:

Teacher efficacy refers to the belief that through their actions, the teacher can positively influence student outcomes.  One of the main factors influencing student achievement is collective teacher efficacy.  I.e. the collective belief that the staff in a school can make a difference in student achievement.  Two ways to improve teacher efficacy is: taking on leadership roles (i.e. gain more opportunities to participate in school decision-making) and having a clear set of goals (and collaborate with colleagues to establish these measureable, clear, & challenging goals). 


I think it’s also important to promote student self-efficacy, and increase their confidence with subject material.  Some ways teachers can promote this is by using positive encouragement and feedback in their classes, as well as holding extra-help sessions for students to gain practice and understanding of challenging concepts. 

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