T2W3-1E2 (AFL so far...)

Term 2 has started and we are back in class learning together. My shortcomings for Term 1 for this class was that I didn't prepare them well enough for my 'class entrance'. I thought it was clear to all students (from the extensive discussion done in T1W1-T1W3 about class rules and expectations) that the expectations was for them to wait for their subject teachers with their books ready on the tables. Boy was I wrong! And I wasn't helping the situation as I didn't adhere to the standard procedure but just walked in and stood in front of the class and waited until they were ready to greet me ( which could take about 5 extra minutes of 'SHHHHH' and somebody saying 'Stop talking'). Hmmm....I guess instructions will only be remembered if each subject teacher gives the same instructions to them. (It would be even nicer if the teacher who had just ended his/ her lesson , help to get students to get their materials ready for the next lesson.....)Thus I worked on this ever since T1W6 and now I will not step in until everyone in the class has their books and homework on their tables ....and they stand, ready to greet me... :) ( I can even hear them scurrying to get ready when I am about 5 metres from their classroom...hehe..

I think AFL has really helped me in teaching this class. As what I had done for my other classes, I would write what I would be teaching at the top left corner of the whiteboard so that I am able to carry out my lesson as planned and also to ensure that students are on task and not waste time, as usually I will have about 3 lines of instructions. For e.g., for my 2-period lesson with them on last Tuesday I had these on the board: 1-go through HW Ex 4.1, 2-learn substitution, 3-HW Ex 4.2 (do all odd numbers). This answers the question of 'where are we going?' in AFL. My lesson often starts with a review of last period's homework. (This answers the question of 'where are we now' in AFL) I will give the answers to the questions (even though they are found at the back of the book) and students will be marking their own work with a pencil or green pen. For every answer that received remarks such as 'Huh?'or 'I didn't get that' or 'Miss Rozi, I got a different answer' or when at least 1 student raised their hands to indicate they got it wrong, I would write the full solution on the board and explain the question thoroughly. I find that this works very well for this class. They are good students who will definitely do their work and they want to do well. Thus by going through the answers and getting the correct solution from me (when they got theirs wrong) it ensures that they get the correct feedback to help them in their own learning and to clear any misconceptions that they have. It is also during this session of going through homework that I find students thinking. Some would be asking questions of a slightly higher level and their classmates would often offer answers (before I do), which I thought was excellent ...:) At the end of going through the homework in class I would collect the assignments and mark them (the marking is less tedious now as most have been done by the students diligently) and at the same time I would be able to mark their corrections and put some more comments on the mistakes that they had done or to give encouraging remarks when they have a lot of mistakes but effort was shown when they diligently do their corrections and also congratulatory remarks (very good! or well done! or smiley stickers) for those who have got full marks for their assignment. When their assignments are returned the next day or a few days later, students who had not done well in their assignments and have 'come and see me' written on their assignment, would meet me and I would find out if they have overcome their misconceptions in that assignments.
In overall, I think 1E2 has responded well with AFL. Timely feedback given to them clears their misconceptions and satisfies their curiousity. I think that the building blocks have been put into place satisfactorily for future learning of Mathematics and I think it has kept some, if not all of them, interested in Mathematics.