Exploring The Use Of Slow Motion

Kervin, K. (2007). Exploring the use of slow motion animation (slowmation) as a teaching strategy to develop year 4 students' understandings of equivalent fractions. Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 7(2), 100-106.

Exploring the Use of Slow Motion Animation (Slowmation) as a Teaching Strategy to Develop Year 4 Students' Understandings of Equivalent Fractions.
KristyKervin St. Pius X Catholic Primary School

In 2006, as a beginning teacher in a Western Sydney school, I explored slow motion animation ("slowmation") as a strategy for teaching Year 4 students about equivalent fractions. I taught at this school five days a week, teaching Kindergarten, Year 4, and Year 5. For half of the school year I taught the Year 4 class 1 day per week, in order to provideexecutive release for another staff member at the school. While in the Year 4 class of 28 students, I had an active role in planning the learning experiences. I aimed to use a variety of teaching strategies and utilize the technology available within the school, as well as engage the enthusiasm of the students and staff. When asked to teach the Year 4 students equivalent fractions, I decided to take adifferent approach to the abstract mathematical concept and assist students in creating a slowmation. Slowmation can be defined as a simplified version of claymation that uses many of the same learning processes. The term comes from a combination of the words "slow" and "animation", which have been recombined to make "slowmation". This is because the purpose of slowmation is to animate a process,which is simple to produce and photograph and to show it slowly so that it enhances student understanding (Hoban, 2005, p. 3-4). Slowmations were created by first making paper models and taking digital photographs showing small sequential movements of the models, then placing them in a digital video program to gain an animated effect. This process allowed me to use technology available within theschool: a digital camera, a tripod, and laptop computers. The use of slowmation allowed me to reflect my personal pedagogy with a combination of teaching strategies: allowing students to work in groups to question and communicate, while incorporating the use of concrete materials to animate multiple representations of fractions, ultimately linking into equivalent fractions.

100Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 7(2)

This use of slowmation to teach mathematics branched from my studies at the University of Wollongong, where I had seen primary science slowmations created. My thesis addressed the use of slowmation as a teaching strategy in mathematics as part of a 4-year bachelor of education degree program at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Throughweekly meetings and many emails with my supervisors, Garry Hoban and Ann Baxter at the University of Wollongong, I designed suitable models to show equivalent fractions and used a trial-and-error process of photographing the models to create an effective slowmation. Unit Design Students learned the use of slowmation in a unit divided into six 1-hour lessons, one lesson per week. As I wrote the unitof work and reflected on its outcomes, it became apparent to me that there were three distinct phases: ! ! ! Modeling the slowmation process to the students. Allowing students to create their own slowmations. Making connections between the slowmation and the New South Wales K-6 Mathematics Syllabus (Board of Studies, 2002), other class learning experiences, and the mathematical concept ofequivalent fractions.

I found the final phase crucial as a beginning teacher, as it allowed me to assess what the students had developed and assist the students in transfering their understanding and beliefs to contexts outside their slowmation. Use of Technology Students in the Year 4 class had access to four desktop computers located in the classroom, as well as 30 school laptops twice a week for...