We all know that teaching mathematics online is quite different from teaching it to live in a classroom. In order to be a successful online math teacher, you have to learn a whole new system to
- Teach or impart instructions through an online platform
- Deal or interact with the students remotely
- Provide graded or non-graded feedback in a virtual world
- Set up a community in a cyber world
- Keep relationships strong
As a matter of fact, your students should already be familiar with a web browser, Google Classroom, Google Apps if you want to teach them an online math lesson. If you use other platforms such as Microsoft Teams, it will also do. However, if your students are not familiar with Zoom, you must bring them up to speed with online tutorials or some other online meeting platform. There are tutorials for both teachers and students available with Zoom. You may also find video tutorials on YouTube. Further still, if you want to have some advanced level guidelines, you may click site and benefit yourself a lot. Hence, you must develop an online math lesson template that includes the use of
- Zoom or a different platform of your choice
- Google Classroom
- Web browser for an online virtual manipulative
- Zoom Annotation Tool
- Google slides
- Google Docs or Google Forms
What Should Be the Components of Your Online Math Lesson?
Your online math lesson should have the following components if it is to be a productive one.
- Welcome message
- BellworkTo-follow
- norms and rules
- Personal intimacy
- What to learn
- A warm-up
- Lesson time – you do
- Lesson time – we do/ I do
- Lesson time – practice
- Wrap up
- Let us discuss the components one by one.
Welcome message
Obviously, it takes some time for all the students to log on. Meanwhile, you may, therefore, display a welcome message and greet each student in a polite way. It should be of almost 5 minutes duration. You may use some Google Slide templates with a video timer embedded. You should also add a few minutes to this template to let students know and collect the material required for their lesson: paper, pencil, calculator, etc.
Bellwork
Once your students have logged on with all their equipment and you, too, have welcomed them smartly, you should move on to the bell work. This should be about an 8 – 10 minute activity that may include a riddle, an algorithm practice, a quick estimation activity, etc.
Norms and rules to follow
Next, you should review the norms and rules the students are bound to follow during their online lessons. Admittedly, behavior expectations are always important whether you are teaching online or otherwise. It keeps the whole atmosphere conducive for teaching and learning.
Personal intimacy
You may build up a strong relationship with your students by sharing something about your personal life. This may be something goofy, funny, mysterious, etc. Your students may also share something in return, making the bond even stronger. You may ask a question such as: Whose birthday is coming this week? Here, it is highly advisable to be moderate in your approach and ask only one question per lesson. Things look good and keep on going when they are in a fine balance.
What to learn
The next to do is to present the learning objective in kid-friendly language such as “I can statement” or in some other frank and polite way. You may avail this opportunity to review and connect previous learning and present academic vocabulary. You may use a slide in which you can define vocabulary or point out important aspects by using some annotation tool.
A Warm-up
You should ask a typical question from your students to warm them up mentally and make them alert spiritually. This may be from your recently taught syllabus as a practice. This activity will boost their spirits and morale and they will perform even better when it comes to learning new tactics and rules.
Lesson Time – You Do
You may start this segment with a “What do you observe or what do you wonder at?” But, you must ensure that it is related to your learning target. This may include some image, story problem, or a combination of different things. Then you should give your students sufficient time to think before answering. It is quite natural that students always share whatever they notice and wonder. You have the opportunity to describe all this with the annotation text tool. Here, you should put one or two follow-up questions in order to get your students engaged in problem-solving. Once they have solved their problems, you should discuss with them their strategies.
Lesson Time – We Do/ I Do
At this stage, you should use virtual manipulative from Didax, Toy Theatre, or the Math Learning Center. This will ensure your work with the students on the learning objectives. For example, if you want to compare fractions, you may use the virtual manipulative fraction strips. Next, you may ask students to write inequalities. You are free to use a virtual whiteboard, such as Zoom has one built-in as a feature, together with the virtual manipulative.
Lesson Time – Practice
The most crucial step in the teaching of mathematics is the amount of practice you assign to your students. You may either ask them to play some particular online game to put their skill into practice or give them some assignments in the form of Google Docs or Google Slides. This assignment may have a later due date, so you can check your student’s performance leisurely and conveniently.
Wrap Up
You may wrap up your lesson as soon as your students share what they have learned. You can do so orally or with an assigned Exit Ticket. This may be a simple question that the students have to explain with reasoning. This question may serve as an offline exit ticket through Google Classroom if Google Form or Google Docs are your platforms.
