White boards are an effective way for teachers to gauge students' independent performance levels. Each student will need a white board, dry erase marker and an eraser. To use this strategy, teachers should ask questions and have students write their answers on the white board and hold them up for review.
Based on students' feedback from the white boards, a teacher can determine future lesson plans and whether students need to form small groups for re-teaching or advanced lessons. Teachers can use white boards in the class every day, especially as it relates to how well each student understands previous lessons. This strategy virtually eliminates students from masking if they have attained a lesson, because another student correctly answers a question.
A visual approach to learning is often very helpful, and can be a fun approach to learning math.
It can be used a variety of ways. Teachers can reinforce basic math facts by giving students response cards such as even/odd, prime/composite, yes/no, area/perimeter. Teachers can ask a math question and students can hold up the correct card as a response. Students learn and absorb the information visually through the use of the cards.
Students who are left in charge of some aspects of their learning can achieve good results, and by teaching others students can help their own learning process.
Give students chalk or a marker and have them explain their answers to questions. This helps students organize their thinking and helps teachers understand more about how students learn. Teachers can involve other students by asking them to repeat a student's explanation.
Teachers can also ask students to read directions or problems aloud, a practice that encourages listening skills. Other strategies include asking students to define math terms in their own words and posting students' definitions.
Teachers can model strategies. This involves more than just telling students what to do, but also showing students the thinking process they use to solve problems and then checking the answer.
For example, a teacher can use manipulatives to demonstrate how to solve a subtraction problem. The teacher would talk her way through each step of the process. After solving the problem, the teacher would discuss a method that would check the answer to see if it is correct. This approach is effective because students can see and better understand the problem-solving process.