A Teacher's Story (2)

Continuing from our last post,  this supernal 3rd grade teacher asks students to measure their own feet using a ruler, measuring with inches. She models how we to trace around the foot and estimate first; then measure the tracing and round up to the closest inch by using the document camera to model so that everyone can see clearly. Then, she asks students to work in pairs to complete this measurement. Once they have measured their feet, they cut them out and arrange them from smallest to largest on the floor.

After examining the vertical bar graph that the students have created on the floor, students create their own bar graph using the data of the measurements. Again, the teacher models bar graph construction for them under the doc cam. After completing the graphs, she has a few students come up to show their finished work under the document camera. Quickly and quietly, she captures their work by scanning it. Her plan is to upload these digital exemplars to the class website so they can show their parents what they did and how they learned it.  

Finally, the teacher displays an exit ticket under the doc cam for them to complete, as the lesson comes to its end, and before the students move out to lunch break.  (An exit ticket is a short task they must complete, often a formative assessment or reflection, before they can exit the room.)

Wow, fourteen creative ways to employ the document camera in a single math lesson! Can you imagine that? This is what visual learning and teaching are all about. And this is why classroom document cameras are deeply relevant in classrooms today.