EEND 713 Artifact and Reflection #2

Assignment 5: RLO using WeVideo for Constructions  (click to see video)

     Many teachers, myself included, grew up during a mathematical period when constructions were never taught or even shown. After the adoption of the Common Core standards for Mathematics, constructions of some for were required in all Geometry classes. I have taught, after first teaching myself, the typical protractor and compass method of creating a construction for several years now, but not with a lot of success. Students struggle so much with just using the tools and then in particular, they struggle with remembering the steps. I created this video to help accomplish two things. One, to teach a different method of creating a construction and two, to give the students a reusable tool to look back at as often as necessary to help understand and remember the steps. I feel like I accomplished both of my goals with this video.
     The video was time consuming to create. This is primarily because I first needed to take all of the pictures of the constructions and then share them to WeVideo. The reason I wanted to create this video was because there are not a lot of resources available for patty paper constructions. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to create my own images. I had a small amount of practice using WeVideo from a previous class, but it was very basic. However, once I really got started working on the video, I realized that the program itself is easy to use and understand. I am happy with how the video turned out. I think that my students will use it and appreciate having it available.

EEND 713 Artifact and Reflection #1

Assignment 3 Assessment for Learning (click to see assessment)

     Not only is teaching Geometry students to do a construction difficult, it is also difficult to assess mastery of those same constructions. A student might be able to draw an image that looks to be the same as the original, but they didn’t really use the correct steps. I have tried a variety of ways of assessing my students on the use of constructions in previous years, but none of them have felt like they were the right fit. I included this artifact because I am hopeful that this assessment will meet all of our needs.
     This assessment works like this: the students will be assigned two videos (created by me on Youtube) to watch. After watching the video, or even during the video, they need to describe each step that is being taken during the construction. I feel that this will do a better job at showing me if the students understand how to do the construction, or if they are just “faking it” for the assessment.
     There were not that many roadblocks while creating the assessment. The main one was that I needed to create 5 to 6 mini videos. Since this is not something that can be done as a screencast, I needed to employ the help of someone else to record me doing each construction. Thank goodness for husbands and children! The good news was that I learned how to use Youtube’s video editor, which was surprisingly easy to work with.
     Overall, I am very happy with the results of this assessment. I look forward to seeing how their grades, and their general understanding of constructions, change due to the changes I have made during this course.