Today I started class by giving the students time to continue working on their Haybaler POW write-ups. I am finding it hard allowing students to struggle without telling them the answer. There comes a point with almost all of the more difficult problems where I just want to say, "Okay, now everyone watch me so I can tell you how to do this." It feels like I don't get "closure" on some of the problems. Is that a real thing? Teacher closure? I could define it by saying that it is when a teacher feels that he or she has sufficiently told the students what they need to know.
I try to have the students to share but I don't think I do a great job of that yet. I tend to allow them to share a little bit and then I repeat and extend. Repeating and extending is okay...I think. However, my students need more guidance in presenting their findings and I am not yet sure how to direct them. I am going to have to go search some of the resources that Jim shared with us last week.
After the time for writing the POW, I discussed the Diagonals Illuminated activity. Thing is...very few of my students spent any time finishing the activity for homework. That is so frustrating! Anyway, I had one student out of 60 who did come up with the function rule for the activity. He is such a good thinker! He gave me the pattern verbally and I wrote it as he was saying it. Then I gave him a few hints and he told me how to write the algebraic expression. I asked him if he wanted to share it with the class and he didn't want to. Therefore I shared his findings for him.
The last activity we did today was the Laced Travelers activity. It is neat how the authors used a similar situation but changed the way they gave the numbers. There is not an "algorithm" that is reapplied. They have to think through the information that is given and arrive at their answers. I had a few students to do this activity VERY quickly. I started giving candy to the ones who figured out how many men, women, and children went through Westport.
My 5th period class finished their Creating Families activity today. Some of them still didn't get their families correct according to the constraints. This is definitely a case where I really wanted to take their pencils out of there hands and just do it for them! I decided to just give them a grade today (everyone passed but the I deducted points for incorrect families) and then tomorrow I am going to do the kind of just go through creating each type of family with the students and give an example of each of the 4 types of families. While the information for the families is still on the board I am going to have them do the Hats activity. I hope this goes well. We will see...
Showing posts with label Creating Families. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Creating Families. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
IMP Day 17 - Shoelaces and Diagonals Illuminated and Creating Families (5th period)
Today I handed out my rubric for the Haybaler POW and then gave (through questioning and getting really excited when someone got close) them the hint that two of the bales are 39 and 41. HINT HINT HINT! Some of my students still didn't take the hint!
Then we read the intro to Setting Out with Variables and did the Shoelaces activity. I really liked this activity! Jim had warned us in training that many of the students were going to forget to calculate for 2 shoes in each pair and he was right! Reading the teacher's guide is VERY IMPORTANT for this activity because it has you lead the students through assigning variables and coming up with an algebraic expression for the amount of shoelaces each family needs to buy. *Family folders are needed for this activity because they figure how much they need for their own family first.* Then we talked about substitution... Having not taught out of this book before I keep being anxious to see when the topic is going to be revisited. I know that the topics spiral but I wish I had time to investigate and see how they deepen as they go. Ain't nobody got time for that!! (not right now anyway)
The next activity we did was Diagonals Illuminated. This activity revisits In-Out tables and creating a rule.
My 5th period started Creating Families today. I used Jim's method of grouping them randomly using playing cards and then assigning the type of family by suits. They relocated and worked on their families in the "new" groups so that they were working with the same constraints. I liked this much better than the way I did it with my 2nd and 3rd blocks.
I have also taken some advice from Theodora Psitos (a trainer with It's About Time) and started posting the definitions from the unit on chart paper. Today I would pause every time I came to one of the vocabulary words and point to the definition for them to read to me. I hope it helps!
Popcorn reading seems to work even though they groan a little when we start using it. I also find myself getting impatient and just reading it myself...ALOT. I noticed when we were in training and I was in "student mode" it took me several reads for the info to sink in. I figure that they don't pay great attention to detail the first time through anyway so I speed read to hurry up the process. #trueconfessions I do read slower on the most important parts. Wow...today I really rambled!
O yea!! We received the teaching kits from It's About Time last week for the PD. In the kit there were 2 books about the Oregon Trail and I read excerpts to my classes today. I didn't read long but it was fun. The book I read from has a collection of journals from the perspective a 15-year-old boy. I plan to read a little every day.
Then we read the intro to Setting Out with Variables and did the Shoelaces activity. I really liked this activity! Jim had warned us in training that many of the students were going to forget to calculate for 2 shoes in each pair and he was right! Reading the teacher's guide is VERY IMPORTANT for this activity because it has you lead the students through assigning variables and coming up with an algebraic expression for the amount of shoelaces each family needs to buy. *Family folders are needed for this activity because they figure how much they need for their own family first.* Then we talked about substitution... Having not taught out of this book before I keep being anxious to see when the topic is going to be revisited. I know that the topics spiral but I wish I had time to investigate and see how they deepen as they go. Ain't nobody got time for that!! (not right now anyway)
The next activity we did was Diagonals Illuminated. This activity revisits In-Out tables and creating a rule.
My 5th period started Creating Families today. I used Jim's method of grouping them randomly using playing cards and then assigning the type of family by suits. They relocated and worked on their families in the "new" groups so that they were working with the same constraints. I liked this much better than the way I did it with my 2nd and 3rd blocks.
I have also taken some advice from Theodora Psitos (a trainer with It's About Time) and started posting the definitions from the unit on chart paper. Today I would pause every time I came to one of the vocabulary words and point to the definition for them to read to me. I hope it helps!
Popcorn reading seems to work even though they groan a little when we start using it. I also find myself getting impatient and just reading it myself...ALOT. I noticed when we were in training and I was in "student mode" it took me several reads for the info to sink in. I figure that they don't pay great attention to detail the first time through anyway so I speed read to hurry up the process. #trueconfessions I do read slower on the most important parts. Wow...today I really rambled!
O yea!! We received the teaching kits from It's About Time last week for the PD. In the kit there were 2 books about the Oregon Trail and I read excerpts to my classes today. I didn't read long but it was fun. The book I read from has a collection of journals from the perspective a 15-year-old boy. I plan to read a little every day.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Day 9 of IMP - Creating Families - working with constraints
When I first looked at this activity I kind of thought it was just to do something a little different and have some cross-curricular work too. However, after helping the students work through the process of creating their families I appreciate more how this is intended to give a real-life context to working with inequalities. Making sense of words and phrases like at least, at most, between, less than, etc...
Sonya and I had created the charts for them to keep up with their family members easier and we also printed off a picture of a covered wagon that the students were able to decorate after they completed their work. This worked very well since some students finished much faster than others. However, I wish I had done a better job of making each group help each other after they finished created their own family. The group members who were responsible for the large families were (of course) always the last ones finished. I need to do a better job of reminding the group to help each other once they finish with the family that they were assigned.
I have also noticed that doing these types of problems make it so easy to talk about a real-life situation. For instance, before they left today I asked the students if anyone was interested in architecture or carpentry. I asked them if they were aware of the building codes that one must follow when building a new structure. I told them that they are constraints similar to the ones they had to follow today.
Sonya and I had created the charts for them to keep up with their family members easier and we also printed off a picture of a covered wagon that the students were able to decorate after they completed their work. This worked very well since some students finished much faster than others. However, I wish I had done a better job of making each group help each other after they finished created their own family. The group members who were responsible for the large families were (of course) always the last ones finished. I need to do a better job of reminding the group to help each other once they finish with the family that they were assigned.
I have also noticed that doing these types of problems make it so easy to talk about a real-life situation. For instance, before they left today I asked the students if anyone was interested in architecture or carpentry. I asked them if they were aware of the building codes that one must follow when building a new structure. I told them that they are constraints similar to the ones they had to follow today.
Above are some of the wagons where the students wrote the names and ages of their family members. Tomorrow I will be introducing the haybaler problem and I am a little concerned because I personally have not figured out the best way to approach the problem. Good thing it is a POW so I have some time to decide the best way to solve the problem (in my opinion). The students will probably figure out a much easier way on their own anyway!
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