Warmups and Their Effect on Comprehension Conclusion

In this section I am going to discuss the findings of my action research on the effects of different types of warm-ups on students in the classroom. This finding will help and determine the usefulness of warm-ups in a mathematics classroom.

Surveys were completed after each unit to gather information on what the students thought about each warm-up before they received their test grades so that they were not influenced by their grade. I expected the students to have increased motivation for the games and puzzle units while having increased comprehension in reviewing the previous lessons material. I hoped that reviewing previous mathematical concepts would aid in their comprehension, but I did not know what to expect. In each unit the question, what are your observations about the beginning of each class (what happens?, what do you do while homework is getting checked?) was asked. The students' comments were categorized into four categories. They were not relating, doing something other than mathematics, working on the warm-up, and working on mathematics not dealing with the warm-up. Interesting trends I found when looking at the data are the more and more warm-ups the students saw the more participation I received. 

Warm-up Problems and Their Effect on Comprehension and Motivation in Math

Introduction

The beginning of my teaching was an exciting and educational time for me. I learned and discovered many things, but one of the biggest struggles I saw with myself and with other teachers was the start of every class. I struggled to completely engage the students while doing all of the administrative tasks that were assigned to me as well as making sure the students had completed their homework. Even if I completed the tasks quickly and could start class at a reasonable time I still wasted some time. With only a few wasted minutes it was still difficult for me to turn the students from what they had been doing previously into what I wanted them to be doing. To combat this problem, I started giving students problems or thought provoking questions on the board to start the period. I soon realized that these questions helped keep students engaged with mathematics while I completed these tasks, and it turned them from what they were doing into the world of mathematics. As I started to implement these questions on a daily basis, I began to wonder what type of questions were the most beneficial. Also, how other teachers were effectively using the beginning of their class periods. This led to my desire to research and study warm-ups. Included in that would be researching different types of warm-ups and there overall effects on students motivation and understanding in the mathematics classroom.