SESSION 4: MALIKHAING GAWAIN

(DEVELOPMENT OF ACTIVITY SHEETS FOCUSED ON LEAST-MASTERED COMPETENCIES)

October 11, 2012

OBJECTIVES
At the end of the session, the participants will be able to: discuss the importance of providing enjoyable reallife activities and problems in enhancing the students knowledge and understanding on the least-mastered skills/competencies; come up with and suggest potential classroom activities aside from the usual; design/develop activity sheets based from the suggested and presented classroom activities; establish rapport and cooperation among the members in the group during the activities; evaluate and assess their learning of the session.

ACTIVITY
GROUP TASK Using the competency in Math 6 and Math IV, complete the table below.
Competency MATH 6: Solve word problems involving measurement of solidsprisms MATH Yr 4: Find the roots of a quadratic equation by completing the squares

Activities Used/Employed

Suggested Appropriate Activities

Present your output (3 minutes per group).

ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
Based from the responses of each group, what can you say about the activities which are actually employed inside the classroom based on the competency presented? What can you say about the other suggested activities? What are the factors that we must consider in developing activities? What insights have you gained from this activity?

WHAT IS AN ACTIVITY SHEET/WORKSHEET?

Work and task sheets are part of the Lesson Plan and one of the tools that teachers use in their teaching. It is intended to encourage and assist students in doing lesson activities in order to master an understanding, skill and/or behavior. The use of a worksheet can assist in directing the lesson so it is more efficient and effective.

Worksheets must NOT only be a training exercise or a test, which are often used close to the end of a session, rather, it must be used when a student is learning a concept. Worksheets should encourage students to act and think creatively, produce more ideas in their own words, and not just follow the directions/guidance of the worksheet.

COMPONENTS OF AN ACTIVITY SHEET

Information/Context of the Problem, should inspire students to answer/undertake a task; not too little or unclear so students are unable to answer/undertake the task; but not too much so that it reduces the students creativity space. Information/Context of the Problem can be supplemented with pictures, text, tables, or concrete objects. Question/Command should spur the student to investigate, find and solve problems and/or be imaginative/creative. There should be no more than 3 questions so the task/worksheet is not like a jungle that is a reading burden for the student. If the teacher has more than 3 good questions, the additional questions should be kept in reserve and put to students orally as a supplementary exercise if necessary.

ROLE OF THE TEACHER

The teacher has an essential role to play, especially to create an interactive learning environment. In addition to using worksheets, teachers should give more or harder questions to more capable students as well as simpler questions to the students who are of less than average ability.

CURRENT PRACTICE WITH THE USE OF WORKSHEET

Work/task sheets are one teaching tool available to teachers; Worksheets are at present generally like test sheets; Worksheets are more in the nature of a supplement to the teachers explanation of a concept, rather than a trigger for the student to discover the concept themselves or to solve a problem; Many worksheets require the student to just fill in the dots with a brief sentence, rather than encouraging students to express themselves as broadly as possible.

QUESTIONS WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES WHEN DOING AN ACTIVITY SHEET

Is the information in the worksheet sufficient to inspire students to answer/undertake the task? Does the statement of the problem in the worksheet require the students to look for the methods/strategies for resolving this problem? Do the questions/instructions encourage the students to investigate, search for and resolve problems or be imaginative/creative?

TIPS IN DEVELOPING ACTIVITY SHEETS

Create a minimalist worksheet but one that has an impact on the students and causes them to produce many ideas. Activity sheets do not necessarily need to be in the form of physical sheets of paper. It should not be fixated on the piece of paper. The contents and the structure are very important. If it is not possible to provide sufficient number of activity sheets, the contents can be written on the board. If it is possible, the contents may be orally given to students.

APPLICATION
Make

an activity sheet using the suggested activity you presented. Present your group output.