IMP Day 1 - What's Next

I added this picture later. The young lady that came up with this explanation for #2 is such a great thinker!

Today I did the What's Next activity with all 3 of my algebra classes. The timeline says it should take 30 minutes but it took much longer than that.  I spent about 15 minutes on intro activities...

1st I asked my 2nd and 3rd block classes what their first impressions of the IMP books were and listed there answers on chart paper so we could revisit them later. Many of the comments had to do with the books being "wordy." They said the content of the book look more like an English book. I did have one student who had already taken the ACT say that the questions reminded him of the ones on the ACT. I had a few students act like they were excited about starting to work in the new books.

2nd I spoke briefly about the forward and the intro to students.

We read through pg. 3 and 4 and then I let the students work. They resisted writing the description of the pattern. I told them to write the description in a way that someone who couldn't see the pattern could write it down as they described it. I had a few students write their descriptions on the board and tried to generate the pattern from their description.  I think this helped them because it forced them to consider telling where to start the pattern and being more specific. We took about an hour for them to generate their answers and us to discuss questions 1-5.

My 5th period 50 min class only got through the first couple of questions.