I teach high school mathematics. For years I taught geometry using what I consider very "traditional" methods... I taught by writing notes on the board, and the students would copy them. I gave definitions, formulas, theorems, examples, etc... and they would write everything down in their notebooks. The problem was, that whenever a student asked for help, I would refer them back to their notebook to look for help. I was trying to teach them to use their notebook as a reference tool to help them solve problems. But, I generally found that the information in the notebooks was all blurred together, as pencil has a tendency to blur on the page over time. It was very difficult for the student, and even myself to find any important information in the notebook. Then I stopped teaching geometry for several years, because there were other courses that required my attention. About four years ago I found myself with a geometry teaching assignment again, and I knew that I could not approach it the same way as I had before. So, I began to look for new strategies, and boy did I ever find a good one! Foldables! Dinah Zike wrote the book on Foldables, literally. She has several books published that you can purchase on how to use Foldables for almost any subject area. My current school uses the Glencoe Geometry textbook, and the resource material came with a copy of her book on how to teach mathematics with Foldables. And so began my new era of teaching! Foldables are an interactive way to help students organize their notes. Basically, it's a graphic organizer made from folding one or more pieces of paper and making different types of booklets to write their notes on. This helped my students to better organize their notes. Also, when helping students I could say, "Where's your flipbook? Let's look there for the information," or "You can find the formula in the pink foldable." The students really enjoy using the Foldables in class. You can find more information about Foldables by clicking on any of the following links:
Below you can see a sample Foldable that I made with my geometry class. This is a Flipbook used to organize all the information that students must learn about right triangles. Click on the picture to see more Foldables that I have created with my students.
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