Teach My Lesson [MTBOS Blogging Initiative Week 4]

 

In December, I went to a conference that focused on strategies for teaching Common Core standards.  One of my biggest take-aways was in regards to the activities that we need to try to integrate to make our lessons Common Core aligned.  The biggest argument against these activities is that we don't have the time.  What I learned in this conference is that the activities don't have to take an entire class period.  You can plan the activity to take ten minutes or to take twenty.  It's all up to you.

I applied this mind-blowing idea to a lesson I taught in January on indirect measurement.

Part of the Do Now for the day was to sit with a partner.  Another part was to practice converting height measurements into inches.  We went over the Do Now questions as usual, then my next slide said to determine who was partner A and partner B, and to fill in the table given to students as part of their notes with the height of each partner in inches.

Students were asked to think of ways to answer the question "If partner A stands 64 inches from the mirror, how far from the mirror will partner B have to stand to be able to see partner A's eyes in the mirror?"  Students didn't jump to using similar triangles right away.  They weren't sure how to picture the arrangement, so we skipped to the first two examples, which had diagrams of similar situations.  Once they had those examples under their belts, they were able to complete this problem with ease.  Once they completed the problem, they came to the back of the classroom to see if they solved the problem correctly.

Here is how I had the activity set up:

I had the tape placed on the floor for partner A to know where to place his/her heels.  This piece of tape is 8 tiles (the tiles in my classroom are 8 x 8") away from the mirror.

I placed the mirror on the floor and taped down two tape measures end to end.  Partner A places his/her heels on the tape shown above, and partner B stands at the measurement their team found for him/her to stand away from the mirror.  I told students to place their feet on each side of the measuring tape, with their heels lining up to their calculated measure.

Each team came to the back of the room one at a time, and tested the measurement they calculated to see if it was accurate.  If it is accurate, then the students can see each other in the mirror.  If the students couldn't see each others' eyes, they had to go back and re-calculate.  Some students thought it was the coolest thing, some students just asked "That's it?"  (Honestly, I was surprised by the students that were excited at all.)

After students tested their calculations, they went back to their desks and worked on two more examples (from the Common Core Geometry Regents Exam).  Overall, the lesson was a success, and the students and I enjoyed it much more than I thought we would.

You can get the Interactive Notebook Printout here.

Asking Questions [MTBOS Blogging Initiative Week 3]

 

Like I said in my last post, I was supposed to be blogging along with these prompts a few months ago.  I don't really remember what was going on question-wise back then.  I've decided to complete one of the prompts with questions that I plan to use next week.

My favorite formative assessment is Exit Tickets.  I feel they're one of the best formative assessments for math because I can give my students a problem or two and see which steps give them trouble.  After a recent observation my principal suggested that I give Exit Tickets aimed at seeing what has already been committed to memory, without the use of my students' notebooks.

Next week we are working on coordinate proofs.  On the first day we are going to complete proofs using the distance formula.
These are the questions from the Exit Ticket my students will receive:

1. What do you look for to prove a quadrilateral is a parallelogram? [opposite sides are congruent]
2. What do you look for to prove a quadrilateral is a rectangle? [diagonals are congruent]
3. What do you look for to prove a quadrilateral is a rhombus? [all sides are congruent]

I wanted to keep the questions simple.  The alternative is to give students a proof to complete in the last few minutes of class, which just won't work out well.

As previously stated, the purpose of my questions is to assess student recall/understanding at the end of the lesson.  For some students it will be simply recall.  For my advanced students, they will understand the material.  I will benefit from asking these questions by knowing whether or not my students grasped the material being taught that day.  My students will also benefit from these questions.  If my students struggle with the questions, I will know that I need to re-teach the material.

My Favorite [MTBOS Blogging Initiative Week 2]

This post is two months late.  Things got in the way of my blogging, mainly lack of motivation and an abundance of burn out, but I'm not a quitter, so here it is.

The truth is I stalled on this post initially because I have so many favorites I didn't know where to start.  I decided to just pick one of the suggested topics:  a favorite game.  (I can save my other favorites for future blog posts.)

My favorite game to review before a test is Grudgeball.  You can read all about how the game works here.  To play the game I've started taking screen shots of past Regents questions, and putting one question each on a slide in SMART Notebook.  I also write all of the answers on an index card for me to hold onto during the game.

I've changed one rule about game play.  Each question is assigned to one team at a time.  All teams are expected to work on the question because if the team that is assigned the question answers incorrectly, the question will go to the next team.  If a team calls out an answer when it is not their turn, then they lose their next turn.  Without this one rule, there is no order in the game, students are shouting out answers left and right, and it's pure chaos.

To play the game I use a Koosh ball (which is amusing because most of my students haven't seen one before we play Grudgeball) and a garbage can.  I set my desk garbage can aside at the beginning of the day so it stays clean, and use it to play Grudgeball for the day.  (I have to hide it under my desk because just turning it upside down is not enough of a deterrent for students to not put their garbage in it.  Luckily every time this has happened, the custodian had a few extra garbage bags stashed at the bottom of the garbage can.)

I LOVED playing this game in the past years.  It was something different and fresh that students hadn't done before, and they would beg to play the game.  For the first time this year though, I have students that have played the game in previous years, and by different rules.  Now when they see the x's on the board they groan about how they hate the game, or are sick of the game, etc.  And the differing rules (mainly my rule that prevents shouting out) confuses the students.  It's been a real downer.  Now I have to find another game to play with my students this year.  Any suggestions?