Dave Hewitt - Classroom Orchestra

Today we Dave Hewitt demonstrate a alternative method of teaching. A strategy that involve the whole class, one that is dramatic and like an orchestra. In the classroom we saw him tap the walls with his rulers and have the class add and subtract depending on the direction Dave was tapping in. They would all reply by speaking in unison. Clockwise was add, counterclockwise was subtract. His goal was to have the students see that pattern of what is going on.

Dave eventually introduced variables as a starting number. He drew a row of boxes on the chalk board and designated one as x and chose another box as the destination. He then demonstrated that he could do various combinations of left and right taps to get to the desired destination.

Example: x -> x + 2
This could be solved as three taps right and one left or two taps left and four right, etc

On the board he wrote:
x + 2 = x + 3 - 1 = x - 2 + 4 = x + 612 - 610 ...

He did this all without describing what '=' was too. He wanted them to learn by association.

Some good things about it is that it starts simple and goes to complex and it is an introduction to patters. Also, it is interactive and engaged the whole classroom. Also, the classroom was well managed.

However, there are many negatives to this teaching lesson. There would be a good number of children who will be very bored due to the extremely slow pace. There was no note taking involved which could be seen as both good and bad. Bad for some since a few people may get nervous not having anything written down to refer to. I would also like to see this orchestra method used for a more involved topic other than adding and subtracting which is something the students should have already learned.

Certain topics should be taught using traditional style (quadratic equation), some using constructivist style (geometry) and others by using this Orchestra method (counting). I guess the trouble is figuring out which is best suited for each lesson topic.

On a different note, I was talking to Mike after class and we were talking about alternative ways of teaching math. Us both being Physics students too, Mike brought up math labs (ie. Physics). I thought, why not? Especially kinematics, the math involved in physics is very simple and uses math from grades 8 and 9, and a little from grade 10 in the means of trig. I definitely want to explore this more, teaching math but using physics related questions for applications and word problems.