Post #3 Reflections on an Old Post

When I walked into Ms. Glory’s Step 3 Math class on Friday, I saw a life size coordinate graph. Duct tape stretched vertically and horizontally across the room represented the x and y-axis. Pieces of string represented the spaces. One student stood at the end of the y, and another at the end of x. Each of those two students had a die. The rule of the game was no speaking. In the activity, the x student rolled the die, then the y student rolled the second die. Miss Glory went first. She moved X number of steps right and Y number of steps up. The other students in class followed suit.

Kait’s post about incorporating visual aid to help stimulate student interest specifically with Picasso reminded me of what I saw on Friday. In fact, it made me go as far back as elementary/ middle school when I first learned about coordinate geometry. Coordinate geometry was tough. I wish I had my own version of Ms. Glory.

Each student understood the concept by the end of the activity. Ms. Glory, who doesn’t speak Spanish herself, was able to convey coordinate geometry to students without using any language. The activity was impressive.