Using Response Systems "clickers" to have students actively engage in Math lessons - Alvin Curling P.S. & Highcastle P.S.

The Interactive Whiteboard Learning Communities for the 2014-2015 school year have concluded.

At the LC final session teachers received Active Response Systems (Activ Expressions or Activ Votes) which are devices that allow students to share their voice and thinking using remote devices. Also referred to as clickers, the response systems provide support for students who may not want to raise their hand or speak in front of the class when sharing their understanding. The response systems also provide quick and useful feedback to both the student and teacher about student understanding as results are available immediately.

In recent in-class sessions Itinerant teacher Valia Reinsalu worked with two LC teachers in two very different ways in using the Active Response systems. At Alvin Curling P.S., Sahaira Khan used the expressions with her students using the Express Poll or adhoc questions. While in Gary Stewart's junior/intermediate Behaviour Intensive Support Program, his class used the responses to answer a self-paced assessment. (Click on the images to see a larger version of the photo.)

Alvin Curling Public School, Sahaira Khan, HSP Primary

Ms. Khan uses the Express Poll's wonder wheel to choose the type of question her Primary Home School Program students will answer. (left) Sahaira Khan has pasted the results of the answer onto the question page. One of her students answered different (see graph bottom right corner of photo). She is able to address and students discuss their responses immediately. (right)

Express poll text response: A student in Ms. Khan's class types out a text answer to a question.

Highcastle Public School, Gary Stewart, J/I Behaviour

Self-paced assessment. Mr. Stewart's students use the images on this page to help them respond to the set of questions given to them. They are given: text, multiple choice, true or false, sort in order and confidence questions.

Using the Active Expressions by using the self-paced assessment feature, a teacher can "pre-programme" a number of questions on the exact same page. Mr. Stewart built 12 questions on the same Polyhedra page. Student then receive the questions on their devices. Students can answer the questions at their own pace.

Self-paced assessment: The student in Mr. Stewart's class answers a question that appears on the ActivExpression device. She also has a copy of the assessment in paper to refer or do rough work on prior to sending her final response.

(left) The document view of a self-paced assessment. A number of questions are "pre-programmed" onto a flipchart page. The questions will appear on the student's device one at a time. (right) The document view. A teacher can print out the questions so student have a hard copy of the questions along with the questions appearing on the device.

Special Education teachers who received a SEA IWB attended four sessions at our training centres at Terraview Learning Centre (East) and Burnhamthorpe Adult Learning Centre (West) throughout the year. As part of the year-long support the six SEA itinerant teacher also provide job embedded professional learning sessions in the model of co-planning and co-teaching. The LC teachers look to try different ways to engage and teach their students by embedding assistive technology strategies and tools into their lessons.

IWB Learning Community – Job Embedded PD Spotlight: Nelson A. Boylen planning post-21 lesson

Using the IWB to Support Post-21 Planning for Students with Developmental Disabilities

For many teachers, one of the most impactful experiences of the IWB Learning Community journey is the opportunity to co-plan and co-teach with their Itinerant Resource Teacher. During these opportunities, HSP or ISP teachers are provided with a half-day of release time in order to meet with an Itinerant Resource Teacher to co-plan an authentic and relevant lesson using their classroom’s IWB. Collaboratively, special education classroom teachers and their Assistive Technology Itinerant Resource Teacher support differentiated learning by creating an interactive, multi-sensory lesson using the Promethean IWB.

Recently, Learning Community Member and teacher at Nelson A. Boylen, George Liolis hosted an IWB observation lesson. During his co-planning session with his Itinerant Resource Teacher, George chose to focus on his unit on ‘Employability Skills’ for his senior low-incidence class.

Through a variety of IWB activities; which included features such as containers, layering, and embedding video and sound students learned to identify the job titles, job duties and job tools associated with working at grocery store, as a custodial workers and at a restaurant. Through this lesson, students were supported as they sorted images of job duties associated with a specific job role and identified the job tools required to each tasks. Mr. Liolis’ students eagerly participated in the lesson and demonstrated sustained attention and excitement!

Throughout the lesson, students chose to access the board in a variety of ways. In this picture, one student uses the ActivWand to complete a container activity in which she sorts images of  job tools associated with a custodial worker. When she chooses a correct tool she hears a reward sound of cheering, if an incorrect image is chosen, it bounces out of the container. This activity provides immediate feedback and supports errorless instruction. This lesson truly met the needs of Mr. Liolis’ students and supported their skill development.

Our Learning Community members who attended this observation lesson, left feeling motivated and inspired to try new tools and features of the IWB to support student learning within their intermediate/senior low-incidence programs.

Interactive Whiteboard Learning Communities Have Started!

The year-long Learning Community sessions started on Monday, October 20^th at both Terraview Learning Centre (East) and Burnhamthorpe Adult Learning Centre (West). Special Education Teachers who received a SEA Claim IWB (Promethean Board) are put into Learning Community Groups based on the exceptionality and grade level they teach. This year there are 15 Learning Communities supported by the Assistive Technology’s six Itinerant Resource Teachers.

As described in our Interactive Whiteboard Learning Communities "Getting Started" soon blog post, teachers in the first Learning Community session learn how to use the tools available in ActivInspire on the Promethean Board to engage students and support their learning needs.

Teachers who teach in Low Incidence classrooms created sign-in
pages for their students to reinforce concepts such as picture and
name recognition.

At the first Learning Community Session, Teachers were provided with two manuals to help them learn how to use the tools available in the Promethean ActivInspire software.  Teachers were also given an ActivWand to help students reach the Promethean Board and participate in activities and lessons.

For more information on different ways students can access the Promethean Board please see our previous blog post titled Ways to support accessing the Interactive Whiteboard .

So you Inherited a Promethean Interactive Whiteboard, now what? Learning Community session review

Learning Community Session ~ Math and Differentiated Learning

Through a math 3-part sample lesson, teachers were shown various ways that the IWB could scaffold for students, along with provide a multitude of differentiated virtual manipulatives to support their learning. They also had a chance to explore the use of the Response Systems (ActiveExpressions) as a way to engage and motivate students, along with providing all students with an active voice.

 In the picture below, two teachers are sorting responses to an open-ended math question that were inputted by the participants using the texting feature of the ActiveExpressions.

Dual user feature promotes collaboration.

Teachers were then provided with work time to create their own 3-part math lesson, incorporating IWB tools and features. Below is a sample of one flipchart page created by one of the participants.