I wanted to expose my Geometry students to linear equations in context after realizing that they are weak in linear equations on our “Throwback Thursday” warm ups. We worked through Mathalicious‘ Domino Effect. I helped a lot in act 1, but not at all in act 2. It took 2 class periods.
Month: November 2013
Day 64: Always sometimes never
I love these! It really supports concept development.
Listen to the great conversions!
I love that some students prefer to justify their reasoning with diagrams & examples, while others explain their thinking with words.
Modified Standards Based Grading: Thinking Out Loud
I like Standards Based Grading, but I want to improve upon my system. SBG has completely affected the culture in my classes and how I plan and teach and even how I interact with my students. This is my 4th year using some form of SBG. My dilemma is that all standards are weighted equally, but in reality they are not. I don’t want a student passing algebra 1 if they cannot solve multi-step equations or graph a line, even if they are proficient at other standards. To me, these are non negotiable basic algebra skills and the student would be set up for failure if they did not demonstrate proficiency at these. Currently, students still play the points game, albeit not as much as under a traditional grading system, but they learn that they can score below proficient at a skill or two every grading period and still pass.
My first thought was to switch from a 1-4 scale to the binary system, but this wouldn’t change, and may even encourage the “its ok to not be proficient in everything” game.
I want to set up a system where I can tell students that to score a C (minimum passing at my school) you must be really know these learning targets, If you want a B, then you need these too…etc… Scoring on a binary scale. I would assess the “C” targets most frequently, the B a little less often, and the A targets on occasion.
I am not clear in my mind on how this would play out with students, or how I would manipulate my district mandated traditional online gradebook, but I would love thoughts at this point so that I can keep developing a better grading system.
Day 61: Adapting…
The plan was to compare and list properties of parallelograms. 1st period went ok, but it was tedious & I’m not sure how much learning was happening:
Later, decided to just do a checklist instead, I think this was better:
Day 58: Polygon properties
We talked about methods to use to divide polygons into triangles to find the sum of the interior angles. Once we agreed on a method, students completed this in small groups. Tomorrow I plan to practice using this info.
I was really surprised with how quickly they generated formulas! Using Fawn Nguyen’s Visualpatterns.org for warm ups 1/week seems to have really helped !
Day 57: Learning from our mistakes
The quiz last Friday was over 2 learning targets: 1) determining triangle congruence reason & 2) writing basic triangle congruence proofs. For some odd reason they did much better on the proofs than #1. I think it may have been something goofy like the format or the wording of the directions based on listening to my students today. The worst is that this is the first grade of a new grading period, so about half of my students are now failing!
I decided to have them move to different groups, correct their quizzes and complete a reflection form similar to the one made by Lisa Henry & Max Ray below:
They were left with an assignment to practice these skills & bring questions tomorrow. Reassessment is mandatory for all & will happen Wednesday at the start of class. Hopefully they do better… I know this is not always a fruitful strategy, but I think in this case it was. Time will tell.
Day 56: Quiz today on triangle congruence and basic proofs
So I have nothing to say about the quiz, since I haven’t graded it yet.
On another note, students turned in their warm up sheets today, this was the first week we used them & I loved the feedback on them. Thank you so much @algebrainiac1!!
This one left me feeling like a crappy teacher, than I realized that I am lucky to get this info promptly before it she continues to feel this way for weeks. I am happy to know that this is her perception so that I can work on it with her ASAP. I’m going to try not to feel too crappy about it, I’m just going to handle it.
[Update 11/15: This was her sheet the next week]
On a personal note, I have been trying to help my stepdaughter, who is 21, study math since she was 8. She finally realized that she can earn more than minimum wage by going to college! We studied for the placement test for the past few months and this was the text I got today:
Crazy Math Teacher Lady 