When I first started teaching, reviewing for a test meant one thing. I would stand at the front of the room and reteach each unit, section by section. I would carefully annotate important points and questions that would likely be on the assessment. After reteaching the material, I would hand out a large packet of questions for students to work on. I found that while this helped some students, many students were either bored or confused. If they didn't understand it the first time, hearing me teach it again the same way probably wasn't helping. If they already understood the material then listening to me teach it again was not helping them learn it any better. I recently ran across a couple of blog posts from MathMedic reminding me of why I do things differently now.
My Mathematics 10 class recently reviewed for a unit test and now we're reviewing for a cumulative assessment on the first half of the course. I typically start with some individual self-assessment where students can review outcomes and identify areas where they need additional practice or review. Next I give students a variety of ways to practice the areas they identified for themselves. Then I like to finish with a (hopefully) fun review game to wrap things ups. Student Self-AssessmentFor our Relations and Functions assessment review, I started with an overview of the outcomes for the unit so students could identify areas where they needed additional support.
Another way we reviewed was to have students in small groups at vertical whiteboards make a list of the most important topics, formula and skills from each unit. This ends up being a study sheet. After groups complete it, they share with the class to see if any groups has something that would benefit everyone. I then collosidated all of these into one class sheet that could be shared on our Google classroom. Individualized ReviewAfter this, I gave them some options to reivew and practice the areas they identified as a challenge. Sometimes this looks like the day in class we practiced domain and range.
Students that want to hear the topic being taught again have lots of options online. There are tons of YouTube channels full of teachers providing lessons on specific topics. I recently found out that a teacher from my school has his own YouTube channel with videos from our curriculum (way to go Mr. Boudreau!). There are also videos on the Nova Scotia Homework Hub, the CEMC Waterloo Courseware site, and many others. Group ReviewTo finish off, I like to play a class game where students work together to study and have some fun while doing it. A game like math basketball is a favourite in my class. We've also done self checking activities like Add 'Em Up or a Scavenger Hunt. Today for the last class of the semester before our assessment, we had a "math market" activity. Students can "buy" questions of different difficulty levels and topics from the market and "sell" solutions back for a profit.
Hopefully students learn lots and find class challenging. I still have lots to learn about teaching and am really trying new things out with my class this year. Let me know if you have a favourite review activity I should know about.
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