Magnetic Tiles
I've been sharing this idea for years now during seminars and thought I should post it on the web site. It's a simple yet effective classroom tool for teachers who are using student numbers.
MaterialsDirections
- polygons; one per student (these can usually be found in math manipulative kits)
- self-adhesive magnets (you can buy a roll at Michael's)
- permanent marker (a Sharpie is ideal for this task)
- Number the polygons from 1 to n: n being the total number of students you have.
- Attach a one-inch strip of magnet to the back side of the polygon.
- Place them all on a magnetic whiteboard.
You're now ready to roll. And as opposed to a written explanation of how it works, let's do the "one picture equals a thousand words" thing.
Here it is in action.
Any uncertainty as to which students are not done with the assignment being collected? Actually, no. The tiles below the red line represent the students who have yet to finish. That's a good thing to know.
For those of you who prefer details instead of the big picture, here's what happened.
I placed all of the tile on the whiteboard and then drew a red line above them all. As students finished the assignment and placed them in the collection box--the lid to a case of xerox paper is perfect for this--they moved their tiles above the line. The tiles below the line (7, 11, and 15) represent the non-finishers.
Note: You can almost always count on some obsessive/complusive student to organize the tiles so that they end up in numerical order from left to right. Just another example of how to redirect student energy as opposed to always trying to suppress it. Organizing the tiles, both above and below the red line, would be a really good use for some of that OC energy a couple of your students carry around with them.
Yeah, there's usually an extension or two for just about any student number tool. Just remember that it takes a bit of time before the extensions make an appearance.
Here's one to get you thinkin'.
Every Thursday after lunch, my students were given a problem-solving activity to complete. Working in groups of four, they had 15 minutes to try to solve the problem after which 5 minutes was provided for sharing out answers with the other groups.
The groups were created randonly each week. I would shuffle my Class Cards and then deal out sets of four cards. The group members would then be announced, the materials would be distributed, and everyone would get to work.
Well, almost everyone.
Every week we'd have at least one group experiencing difficulty as they got together. The conflict was mainly in the form of a student who didn't want another student in the group. Complaints would be issued which were quickly followed by counter-complaints. Before you knew it, a group would waste 5 minutes on conflict resolution before they even got to the point where they could all concentrate on the problem at hand.
As much as I think it's important for students to learn how to solve their own problems, using a third of the math problem-solving time on non-math issues was not good.
Stepping back to look at the conflict rationally--which, by the way, is hard to do in the middle of the conflict--I came to the realization that the conflict was the result of:
- the randomness of the group composition and
- the sudden awareness of who was actually going to be in their group that day
It was the second reason that actually created most of the conflict. The announcement of who was in each group occured just prior to the group gathering together. The immediacy of that knowledge triggered in some students a negative reaction which they brought to the group.
But how about this idea? What if, as the students walked in the door first thing Thursday morning--hours before the problem-solving activity--they saw this on the whiteboard:
The problem-sovling groups displayed for all to see.
Although they couldn't do anything about the composition of their group, they did have a lot of time to get over it and accept the reality that had been created by a deck of cards.
End result: The majority of the conflict was eliminated and more time was spent on task. That's a big Win-Win.
For 5 bucks you can get a tub of 30 magnetic buttons at Staples.
As I wandered around the room observing the groups, I would give a group a button as a way to recognize them for either doing a good job of staying on task or working well together.
After receiving the button, one of the group members would go to the whiteboard and stick the button next to their group's tiles.
If you wanted to, the buttons could become a part of the rubric used to assess each group's work that week. For me, though, it wasn't an assessment thing. It was just another way for me to say, "Nice job, hard workers."
Don't have a magnetic whiteboard? Go to the nearest thrift store and spend a buck on a large cookie sheet. Just make sure you take a magnet with you for testing purposes so that you don't come back with a cookie sheet that is made of aluminum.
I gave a set of magnetic tiles to my son's former fifth grade teacher for her to try out because I'm thinking about having them manufactured so that teachers don't have to make their own sets of tiles. My thought was that she--and the other five teachers given sets--would be able to provide me with some feedback that would help to make the product a better one. A week after dropping them off, I returned to her classroom and saw this great adaptation for using the tiles.
She was using them to help monitor the progress of her students as they worked their way through a writing activity. The poster shown below provided everyone with a reminder of the writing assignment requirements.
Below the assignment standards, she created an area for indicating each student's writing progress. The tiles below show where everyone was after a couple of days of writing.
My contribution to the process was the red butcher paper taped to the white board. Since I had provided sample tiles in white, I thought the red paper background would make for a more legible, higher-contrast display.
Bonus: Using the butcher paper made it easier for the students to move their tiles from one column to the next. All they had to do was slide them to the right.
Without the paper, sliding the tiles messed up the lines dividing the three areas. That's because the lines had been created with the whiteboard marker which made them suseptible to being erased. The lines on the red butcher paper, though, were indelible which elimanated the nuisance of the slowly disappearing area dividers.
If you'd like to just buy a set of really well-made magnetic tiles and save yourself the hassle of running around looking for the stuff you need to make your own, just go to our on-line store and and check out the set we now have available for purchase.
