Summary and Synthesis

I was really impressed with our book we have been looking at and using in class lately. We have been talking about (CGI) or the teaching techniques of Cognitively Guided Instruction. I really enjoyed watching the videos because they gave you a first hand look at how this teaching technique is used in a classroom. I also believe that asking a question to the whole class and allowing them to work to come up with an answer is great. It is important in my eyes that they come together and discuss what they did to figure out the question as group. This was also demonstrated in the video. By allowing students to use a variety of manipulatives to aid in their solving students will come up with unique ways of discovering the answer. This technique helps students learn the material more in depth rather than just memorization. Watching these videos helps me see how I can use this teaching technique in my future classroom.

New Insights and Their Implications

I never new until this class all the different methods of teaching fractions. I was very impressed with all the different techniques that the other students in the class came up with. Dr. Reins was very helpful in opening up my mind to new ideas for teaching fractions. It is difficult to think about new ways when you were only taught one. To me it just seemed easier using the ways I knew until I tried some of the techniques everyone else came up with. It was nice being able to use the fraction bars, pattern blocks, and Cuisenaire rods because they are all helpful methods to help students see the fractions and to do the math problems. I was able to use these things to discover new ways for solving problems. It is important to know that children learn different than eachother and using several methods to solve a problem will help all the children succeed. I will make sure that I use these different techniques when teaching fractions in my future classroom. I will also keep an open mind to new ideas of solving problems. I will also allow my students a chance to discover new ways to solve problems.