"I have.......who has...????"

"I have..., who has....?" is a great activity to use for several SOLs in Math 7 and I'm sure many others. Recently I used it for SOL 7.20. Students were each given pairs of cards. One "I have card" and One "Who has?" card. The " I have" cards would have a statement such as " I have 6x +7" and the"who has?" cards would have " Who has seven more than the product of six and a number". The game needs to start with a person reading their "who has?" card and then continues with the second person reading the corresponding "i have". If they are correct, they can then read their "who has?" and so on. You must be sure to make sure each person has one "i have" and one "who has?" and you must be sure they do not match. I've also used sorting activities in this SOL . They are both great ways to break up and create interest in what seems to sometimes be a "boring" lesson...:-).

Review Ideas

Students need everyday reviews to help them retain information. I also like to to do formal reviews as lessons before the big tests in our district. I think we all always need fresh ideas for review practices.
1. Sink or Swim- this game can be used best with vocabulary. Students are on two teams and students who get the question correct can sink an opposing team member or save one of their team members who was sunk. The kids love this game because of the social interaction.
2. Power points (which can be used year after year) are usual because they can be sent home and used over and over for practice.
3. White boards and expo markers for each child keeps them all on task and gives immediate feedback to the teacher.
4. Daily Exit tickets- Students are given a review question each day and have to provide the answer on a ticket to turn in as they exit the class.
5. Swat it- Use fly swatters to select the correct answer for a question
If anyone else has any review ideas, I need some new ones too!

Properties

Last week I taught properties and I found my students severely lacking in prior knowledge. My students were turned off to how easy some of the properties were "Duh, Ms. H, 3 + 5 = 5 + 3.", however they had no idea, even when presented with options, what the property was called. I checked the SOL's and it turns out, they were taught the properties in earlier grades, but not to the extent that their current grade level demands. I found that 3 + 5 = 5 + 3 is taught in primary school, however memorizing that it is called the Commutative Property is not demanded for years after that. I was wondering if there is a certain rationale for that or if Commutative Property is just too big of a phrase for primary school.

SOL 7.20 Activity

This is an activity I just used yesterday in class. Each student gets a set of numbers, variables, and operators (see graphic). I created a power point of verbal expressions and equations. Each screen has two or three depending on the level of difficulty. The students create the algebraic expressions and equations with the cutout pieces. Traveling around the room is an easy way to see which students are having problems and which are doing fine.

Angle Relationships

We just had a fantastic workshop for the third nine week SOLs but we also focused on previous SOLs that were troublesome, angle relationships being one of them. A collegue presented "Can You Build It?," a great activity where students use pipe cleaners to build an angle using a protractor and then add to it its complement or supplement or making it part of a vertical pair. I'm looking forward to using it as a re-teaching tool. I'll let you know how it goes.

What Now!

Now that the first semester assessments and data reports are over, I find myself wondering what to do next. The results were not where I would like them to be (what else is new) yet the scores increased. The trend is to continue with the curriculum and separate the students into remediation groups with a portion of the class period. I am still on the fence about how I feel about this idea. I quess I will know by next year. I just hope the trend does not change by next year so that I will be ready to imporve on the mistakes that I will make this year. My quest is to find the happy medium between knowing when to continue with the curriculum and reviewing previous material.

Angles

Last we focused on complementary, supplementary , vertical angles , etc. The students were having a hard time remembering the word "vertical". I told them that it is the one that is opposite of the angle you are looking for and it always forms a "V", either a wide "v" or a small "v". Also the kids came up with changing the "c" in complementary to a 9 and adding a 0 to remember that complementary is associated with 90 degrees. And for supplementary angles change the s to a 8 and add the 1 and 0 to associate supplementary with 180 degrees.

Math Talk

Something that has been working great for my classes is challenging students answers. I no longer just accept an answer. Right or wrong, I have them justify their answer. Then, even after I have then justify, I ask other students whether they agree or disagree and explain why. Doing this, I have come to understand better my students' thought processes and methods. Other students may have gotten the same answer, but came upon it differently. They desire to share their new or different method with the class. With this, I have seen students' engagement, confidence, and vocabulary grow. It also gives way for students to teach others. This has greatly and positively effected my classroom environment.

Algebra Rap

A sixth grade student is required to know the difference between variables, coefficients, terms and equations. I came up with a little "rap" to help them differentiate between the four vocabulary words. As we all know, they can remember anything when it is put in a song!

A variable is a symbol you see, like a circle, a square or an A B C.
You get that symbol with a number in front and that number becomes your coefficient.
A term is easy, there's no need to fuss! You just take away the minus and the plus.
Put it all together with an equal sign, and Yo! Yo! Yo! It's equation time!

You may be able to persuade me at our April meeting to perform this if your having trouble picking up my rhythm! I hope this helps!

SOL review

It's that time of year when I start to wonder what my students remember from earlier in the year, We have started reviewing SOL's, and I wanted to get some of your opinions and strategies on what has worked for you in the past. At my school we are dividing our students up by ability levels to differentiate the instruction. They are divided into 3 groups, "enhanced"(they have it down and just need a little refresher), the "target group"-(need some work but should be able to master the material with more work), and the "prerequisite group", (these students are way behind and need a lot of re-teaching). We are team teaching these kids for the first time this week, I'll let you all know how it works next month.

Black History Month

My students are doing a project on notable african american mathematicians. They have been given the choice to write a paper, brochure or power point (to differentiate). I had the mobile lab in this week to begin research. They were able to choose from a list of about 29 different people but if they found a name I left off the list they were more than welcome to choose that person as long as they fit the criteria, african american and in the area of mathematics.

Achievement Series

"Achievement Series" is an assessment tool that allows K-12 educators to develop and administer online and paper-based test from Scanton. I learned about Achievement Series last year and I strongly recommend other teachers to use it. Below are several features that I really like about Achievement Series:

-Build Test Item Banks: You may create a test with your own questions, but you may also search items for a test based on the (Virginia) SOLs.

-Administer Tests: After you create a test, you have the option to create different versions (by switching questions or the answer choices) of the test.

-View Reports: You can select the option to provide immediate results to students when you create the test. This option will let students know what questions they complete correctly and incorrectly.

-Data Analysis: The Achievement Series will provide you data (in many different ways that you need) for monitoring student progress.

My school district has been using Achievement Series for several years. I don’t want to sound like a salesperson, but if you have a chance to use it, definitely give it a try. Trust me, you will love it too!

We are currently working on SOL 7.1 (compare, order and determine equivalent relationships between fractions, decimals, percents and to include scientific notation). We created a game of "WAR" using cards that have a decimal, percent, fraction or number written in scientific notation. The game can be played in pairs or groups of three. Deal out all the cards and each student turns over one card. The student with the highest value wins the hand. My students really enjoy it and are required to show their work.

Seating Strategy

This strategy came from a Dan Mulligan Workshop--and I love it!! When I arrange my classroom, I put the desks in groups of four. Two students sit shoulder to shoulder, facing the other two students who are also sitting shoulder to shoulder. The students sitting next to each other are...ready?...shoulder partners. The students facing each other are called...you got it...face partners. It is important to know the mathematical level of your students for this to work the best. Your shoulder partners should be paired with a one-level difference. (A strong math student should be paired with an average math student and a struggling math student should be paired with an average math student.) Face partners, however, should be of the same mathematical level. Sometimes students work with their shoulder partners and sometimes they work with their face partners, depending on the nature of the activity. Grouping students in this way has really helped my cooperative learning groups reach new heights!