Week 5

Week 5 Virtual Manipulative: Bar Chart
This manipulative is found under Number & Operations Grade Pre-K to 2. This manipulative is a good way to introduce bar chart (bar graph) to students. It could record as many as 12 columns and 20 rows. The students can label the columns whatever they want. I used this manipulative in a kindergarten class. We talked about our favorite colors. Since the colors of the columns are preset I made sure that they were the right colors so that the students did not get confused. After I made the bar chart they each had to copy it on paper. For the younger grades the standard mode would be used which counts the number of filled cells. The percentages mode shows the percentages of the total number that is in each column. This could be used in the upper grades.

Week 5 Private Universe Project:
This week’s Private Universe Workshop 5 – Building on Useful Ideas focused on the teacher’s role in the classroom. As teachers we should always challenge are students. We should get them to think in different ways. Students have to be asked why and how. The teachers in the video asked their students to explain how they got their answer and why they thought it was right. This makes them think more about what they did and how they could change it if needed. The video showed how the students were able to build on what they had learned in the past. It is very important that students are able to recall in the past, not only the day before but years ago. The students recognized how things they learned in the past could be used to solve the new problem.