Read and Follow Directions!! #justdoit

Today I had a realization that I way too often take away my students' opportunities to read and interpret directions. In most cases I have them read the directions for a problem or an activity and then I restate them in a step by step order so that they will "do it right." (Please don't judge me! I teach algebra from a problem-based curriculum and my intention is just to get them going in the right direction...) 

So...today we were doing an activity where we had 4 sets of data that all had a mean of 20. They were given 3 different ways to measure the amount that the data spread from the mean. (The activity talks about 3 different students and their ideas about how to measure the spread of the data...range, adding the differences from the mean, or one other method where they just needed to follow steps!) The 2nd and 3rd methods totally threw them for a loop (even though there was an example to go by). So...I gave them about 5 minutes to get started and noticed as I walked around that most of the papers were COMPLETELY BLANK. They kept saying..."Mrs. Owens I need help." "Mrs. Owens will you come show me how to do it?" "I don't know what to do!" Today I replied to all of this with, "I'm not helping you! Follow the directions!" Then they asked me why I was yelling at them to which I answered that they have to quit sitting there during their "work time" waiting on me to go over the problems with the class. They should make an effort. Read and follow the directions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Try it first!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Ok...sorry about all the ranting. I can not fully explain this to you without telling the directions they were supposed to follow. They were supposed to take off the lowest and the highest data items and then fine the ONE data ITEM that was the farthest from the mean and assign that number (difference from the mean) as the spread. The directions were very specific. Almost every student did fine taking out the lowest and the highest but they were doing some crazy stuff with what was left. Some were averaging the data items that were left, some were adding together their differences from the mean, yada yada yada... They were getting so frustrated that I wouldn't TELL them what to do. I would just ask questions like, "Does it tell you to find the mean?" To which they would say, "I don't know." And I would say, "Read the directions!!" So...I finally had a couple of students start to figure it out and when they did they were all mad saying stuff like, "We did all that math and working it out and we didn't have to?!?!" And I said..."All you had to do was FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS!"

I take full responsibility for my students' dependence on me to "reread" and "reword" directions. I will do better!

(I may have the opportunity to write a blog about a lesson in particular but just in case I thought I would count this one toward the MTBoS Blogging Initiative...this is certainly an example of a "recovery plan" for what I did today when I realized my students depend on me way too much!)

First days of school ideas - adapted from basketball camp!

My son and husband have attended a basketball camp this week. There are a couple of activities they have done in the classroom sessions that I want to adapt for the first days of my algebra classes.

First idea:
Explain a little about what makes a good group member or leader, an average group member, and a bad group member (my students sit in groups of 4)...then give the students some classroom scenarios and ask them to work in their groups to decide how the 3 types of group members would respond.

Example scenario:
The teacher puts a problem on the board and tells you it is review and you should all know how to do the problem. However, no one in your group knows how to do the problem.

Sample reaction of a good group member/leader: "Well, let's look in the book for similar problems."

Sample reaction of average group member: Raises his/her hand and waits for the teacher to come to their group.

Sample reaction of a bad group member: "She's crazy! What's for lunch today?"

I think this has a lot of potential. I want to improve my 3 names of types of group members and I want to come up with some GREAT scenarios! Also, I want to record the students' responses on chart paper and post them in my room as "rules" so I can ask them which category they fall under as we do group work throughout the year.

Second idea:
Next, I want to do a "4 corners" activity where I give the students 4 different characteristics and ask them to determine which one is the most important one for a great student to have. The 4 characteristics (or however many you want) need to all be good...therefore there is no wrong answer. After the students go to the location for the characteristic they feel is most important each group brainstorms why they feel the way they do and then selects one person to "share out" and defend their answer.

I hope these activities will help establish a culture of good communication and quality group work. Who would have thought these ideas would be learned second hand from a basketball camp?!?! If you have any ideas please email me (towens@attalla.k12.al.us) or send me a tweet (@owensteri). I will add them to this post :)

**I tweaked this idea a little but and Mrs. New and I created this presentation for the 1st day of school. Mrs. New had a great idea to use "Which one doesn't belong" activities for the 4 corners. Also, we are doing Jo Boaler's week of math activities from youcubed.org.

IMP Alice Days 9-10 - Continuing the Pattern and A Half Ounce of Cake

The last 2 days we finished some discussion of Having Your Cake and Drinking Too and then moved forward. Continuing the Pattern develops the rule for negative exponents and A Half Ounce of Cake starts the development of fractional powers.

Today I handed back the worksheets I left for them to do on Tuesday.  The worksheets were an exploration on exponents.  I gave them feedback on the ones they missed and told them to make corrections. I started class with a warm up which reviewed the rules which will be quizzed tomorrow.  I had each group project their answers using the Ipads. (Airplay allows up to 10 to be projected simultaneously.) I went over each problem by having students to defend their answers. It was great. I have really been enjoying the Ipads!

Some students used expansion...some used the rules...and some used the Alice context... fun stuff!

IMP Overland Trail - solving equations using mystery bags - 5th period

I really enjoyed using Mystery Bags and Scrambled Equations. However, when I gave my students some "naked math" one-step equations they have really struggled. I have one class that is taking all year to work through the 1st half of algebra. They were identified to possibly have a struggle in algebra. I have several incredibly bright students in there. I have often thought - why was this student put in this class...   I had an eye-opening experience today. There were a few of my students who excel when we work in our IMP books who really struggled with today's work. I mean...the ones who are always "piping up" to answer the questions and seem to just "get" the big picture. One student even started the age-old, "When am I ever going to use this? This is stupid!" It took hearing him say that for me to realize that I have not heard that near as often since we started using our IMP Meaningful Math Algebra I books.

Ok...I am rambling a bit in this post so I am going to resort to using bullet points to make sure I get the main ideas that I am trying to convey:

• If I am teaching students who are struggling math students I am going to have to supplement material to help them learn to solve 1 and 2 step equations ...for sure. When integers were thrown in (after mystery bags) it has totally blown their minds. I think I am going to go "old-school" tomorrow and just teach the process in steps.
• After today I have a greater appreciation for how the context and story lines in the books give the algebra more meaning. I think it helps all students but I think it makes an even bigger difference in struggling students who don't usually do well in math.

Kahoot! - educational and fun - especially for reviewing

Today we were delayed for 3 hours so there were several students who were absent. Also, we did not meet with all of our classes and I like to keep my classes together (for my sanity!) so I did not want to move forward with the next lesson. I was thinking about pulling some standardized-test style questions and reviewing. I was just going to project them on the board and have them work on them using the ipads (educreations app) or the small whiteboards. BUT then I remembered how much fun my students from last year had playing Kahoot! for reviewing.

Coach Whitt explaining a problem from a Kahoot!

Fortunately I ran across a wonderful Kahoot when I did a "public search" for graphing equations. It had 16 questions that reviewed finding slope, graphing, finding intercepts, and evaluating functions. I was able to use it with my Algebra IB for review and in my Algebra IA to reinforce concepts we are currently working on.

These 2 guys were working together:)

I realized last year that when we worked through Kahoots which makes the review feel like a game the students invested in trying to learn how to get the correct answer so they can get the points for the next question. After each question the game shows who the leader is and you also have the opportunity to stop and go over the question. Today I gave the winning player 2 pieces of candy and all the other players on the "leader board" 1 piece of candy. It was a fun and productive day.

If you have never used Kahoot! it is great for all subjects and grade levels. You can create your own reviews or you can do a public search for ones that have already been created. There are sometimes mistakes in the public reviews but I just use them and then address any mistakes as they come. My husband showed me last year where the writers of the Kahoot! website even recommend you have students to create their own reviews for the class to play. That is also a great way to see if your students have a clear understanding of the material. Last year I had the students to use their own smartphones. There is a code that they use to log into the game - they do not have to have an account to play. I let students share if they needed to. Today I had 9 ipads for the students who didn't have smartphones so it went great!