Last week I began a new unit on fractions in Maths. After a couple of lessons going over some of the basics I showed a very simple YOUTUBE clip about fractions. My hope was to just provide some different examples about fractions to my students.
As I was watching the clip I thought that we could do the same in our class. So with no planning at the conclusion of the video I got them into groups, gave them a few parameters and then let them go.
My aim was to get them done in 4 lessons including the first lesson with the original video.
We completed it easily. Here is an outline of the lessons.
Lesson 1 – YOU TUBE clip / into groups / parameters / write intro
Lesson 2 – write ‘what is a fraction’ and key terms.
Lesson 3 – write worked examples / write on big sheets of paper
Lesson 4 – video on flip view
I then took the videos home and used coral video to make them. Took 5 minutes each one and this saved wasting more lessons on the students doing video work. After all it was a maths task and not and ICT task.
I was pleased with the process the students had to include how to add or subtract fractions and I did no teaching on this so the video served as an eye opener into this process. I will need to teach this aspect as the videos proved some groups have not grasped this concept yet.
I also found doing it quickly a benefit. We didn’t waste lots of time but the students certainly learnt lots. Sometimes we waste so much time doing these types of activities they end up hindering learning.
Here is an example of one of the finished videos. Hope you enjoy.
