Video on Avoiding Overload in Math Lessons
The current slew of math textbooks tend to overload lessons with concepts. Newer teachers fall prey to such practice and cram too much information into a single lesson resulting in confused students.
I prepared a video/tutorial using a middle school textbook to show how to break up a lesson into smaller and more easily digestible pieces.
The lesson is on discounts. The textbook crams in the traditional method, the unitary method, and then finding original amounts. I show how to break it up into three separate lessons.
I hear some saying “How can I cover all the material in the book if I take three days to teach what is meant for one day?”
Bear in mind that today’s textbooks frequently boast a “balanced approach” in which some days are devoted to a group-work oriented lesson that is inquiry-based. Such lessons can be skipped, causing no harm whatsoever, and freeing up valuable time for more traditional type lessons.