Fill in the Missing Pieces

My colleague coined it scaffolding for our students. He is right. We need to build some structure help to our weaker students. Here is what I did. Instead of just solving an equation, I solved the equation myself and then took out key parts. I made labeled these "blanks" with letters so that the students could communicate with each other which "blank" they were referring to. The students then were given time to work this out with their partner. Then I randomly picked a student to go up to the board and fill in a missing spot. Interestingly the student who started picked the middle to start with. See video. Students came up one by one until they hardest spot was left. All of the explanations were very good. Things like, "you have to add it to both sides" came out. I like when that happens. I'm trying to build a little challenge for my stronger students as well as a little guided help for my weaker students.

The second video looks at a different class in a pre-calculus example. This uses the same idea as above, except it has some diagrams involved.

What do you think?

Remember to Take Time to Enjoy Teaching,

Dave