"Are they dots or are they periods?" is what I was asked by a student when asking him how many items he saw in the quick 3 seconds I gave him. "Because we aren't suppose to call periods dots!"
My experience with showing a class pictures of images in a few seconds and ask them how many they saw, was a very fun activity! I loved to see how their minds grasped the way in which to "count". When I asked how they came to that answer, hands shot up all over the place, they were all so eager to share.
"I'll show you how I strategized!" one girl said. Strategized! Wow! The terminology for these 4th graders was even impressive!
Depending on where their level in math was I found depended on how they come up with their answer. Those that obviously knew their multiplication math facts, all showed groupings in which they multiplied to find the answer. Those that didn't know multiplication math facts, showed groupings where they added together. Yet, all were very proud of themselves and the fact that they could get the answer in 3 seconds!
I constantly told them how impressed I was with their math thinking and that I couldn't believe the different ways in which they grouped dots together in order to find the answer. I also felt this was a great exercise to do before a math lesson to get students brain tuned into math (to warm it up).
I like looking at quick images as a great "exercise" to do before a math lesson to get students' brains tuned into to math, to "warm up" their brains." I guess the brain is like anything else that needs to be warmed up before use, like bodies before exercise, cars before driving or voices before singing. Many things work without a warm-up, but work much better with one. Looking at it from this perspective makes me think about quick images in more of a practical way. Most students enjoyed it, so I plan to also use it for times when a few quick moments become available and I want to fill them with productive, interactive learning. Since it takes such a short amount of time, quick images can be plugged in throughout the day, or to get students' attention by involving them in a truly "quick" engagement. They love finding answers in 3 seconds! Most exercises take far longer than that.
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