math screencasting in intermediate EFI classes

On Tuesday, I visited Mme. Bird's Grades 4/5 Early French Immersion class and Mme. Trewin's Grades 6/7 Early French Immersion class at Bridge Elementary. Both classes had been learning about algebraic thinking and we used math materials and the Doceri app on the school's iPads for students to communicate their mathematical thinking en francais.

The Grades 4 & 5 students thought of a pattern rule (ie. + 5) and the Grades 6 & 7 students thought of an algebraic expression (ie. 2n + 3) and then represented their increasing patterns using math materials. They then took a photograph of their patterns and opened the photo in the Doceri app. Using the app the students explained their pattern and created a chart or table using both the drawing features and the audio recording features of the app. The students were then able to play back their screencast to check it  over and then save it to the camera roll on the iPad.

Screencasting in mathematics is an excellent way to capture students oral explanations of their mathematical thinking, an essential element of our mathematics curriculum in BC.

Below is a short Animoto video of some of the students from these two classes:


I also used the Vine app to capture the students' french language use while they were screencasting and posted these clips to Twitter. If you go to twitter.com and search the hashtag #sd38mathandscience you will be able to view the Vine video clips we shared with the world!
~Janice