Day 3

Day three is when I give the common assessment over the Math Skills (this is the only thing all year where they are not allowed to use a calculator). I plan to start with an opener that has several problems that involve the four skills areas on the common assessment. The basic structure of my openers is that they are projected on the smart board as the students come in to class. I ask them to be in their seats and either start them before the bell rings or be ready to start as soon as the bell rings. They work on them individually for a certain amount of time (varies depending on how many and the complexity of the openers), writing them down in their notebooks. Then I ask them to take a few minutes and discuss their results with the other members of their groups (again, typically four in a group, with one or two threes to make it work out even). Then I ask for volunteers to come up and work them out on the smart board (which I then post to the class blog - sample from last year) and explain then to the class. (I go back and forth whether to ask for volunteers or just pick randomly making them all responsible for being ready and "forcing" them to come up - your thoughts?)

After we work through the openers, I'll then give the common assessment (roughly 15 minutes, although I remember last year it took some students significantly longer than that). Then, based on Dvora's comments on the previous post, I'm considering shifting some of the culture/class expectations piece to today. I'm thinking that after the assessment I may take them to the computer lab (assuming MAP testing hasn't started yet and I can get into the lab) to help them get into their Google Accounts. All of our students have Google Apps accounts, and for students that were in my district last year they may remember how to login, but I also have three students who are new to our district. Once they get logged in I'll help them with their basic Blogger setup (mostly display name and creating a reflective blog for my class), then have them read (and eventually comment on, although we may not get that far) a post on the class blog talking about culture and expectations. This may enable some of a conversation online even if they aren't quite comfortable enough yet to engage in a face-to-face discussion.

Their homework will be to check the online portal for the results of their assessment and, if necessary, make plans to re-assess over any of the areas they did poorly on. (While I'm probably going to tweak it some, here was my assessment plan for last year.) Students sign-up online to re-assess (again, here's last year's sign-up form), and they only need to re-assess over the area(s) they did poorly on (so I'll divide the assessment grade into four portions: adding and subtracting fractions, multiplying and dividing fractions, integer operations, and order of operations). In addition, depending on how far we get in class, I may ask them to comment on the class blog post about culture and expectations (perhaps not "due" until Friday as we don't meet on Thursdays).

We would then be setup to really begin "Algebra" on Friday.

Day 2

Day two is really my first day of class due to the freshmen class meeting on the first day. When the students come in they'll find a handout with their name on it (to again help them find their desks) with a suggested layout for how they organize their notebooks.

I'll also explain that we will typically start with an "Opener" that they are expected to begin working on by the time the bell rings. (I may have a brief opener this day as well, or the opener might just be explaining how the openers are going to work, I'm not sure yet.)

Then my natural inclination is to jump right into the content. While I value class culture tremendously and I admire teachers who can generate a great discussion on day one (or two), I've never been successful with that. I can barely get my students to talk at all the first couple of weeks of school. So, let me put that part on hold for a bit, then return to it later in this post.

As I mentioned previously, my math department asks students to complete a Math Skills Assessment over the summer. These are prerequisite skills that the math department feels enable students to be successful in Algebra at Arapahoe. Consequently, the first thing we're supposed to do is assess our Algebra students over those skills (a common assessment). Last year my class didn't meet on Tuesdays (Algebra only meets four days a week at my school), so I asked students to review on their own during the two days between the first day where we really didn't meet and our second day (in addition to the review they hopefully did over the summer), then gave the assessment after a very quick opener reviewing the skills.

This year my class meets on Tuesdays (and not on Thursdays), so I think I will devote some class time to reviewing these skills (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing fractions; adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing integers; and Order of Operations), and then assess on day three. While my "stand and deliver" gut response is to dazzle them with review, my initial thought is to have the students work in groups to develop the review themselves. I've purchased a set of 8 large whiteboards (roughly 24" by 32" from here, thanks to Frank Noschese) to use this year. Last year I grouped students into groups of four (with one or two groups of three to make it work out evenly), and I anticipate doing that again this year (currently 31 students, so probably 7 groups of four and 1 group of 3). I'm thinking of giving them one skill at a time (adding and subtracting fractions; multiplying and dividing fractions; operations with integers; order of operations - may break it down further than that), and asking them to work in their groups to explain the skill. I'd have them use the whiteboards to demonstrate what they know, then pick one or two groups to share with the whole class. (I'd also capture the whiteboard images and post to the class blog.)

I think that sounds okay, but things always take longer than I expect and I'm worried that with 8 groups and only one or two being able to share on each skill that they others will feel like they're wasting their time. So, alternatively, I'm considering giving each group their own skill (probably adding fractions, subtracting fractions, multiplying fractions, dividing fractions, adding integers, subtracting integers, multiplying & dividing integers, and order of operations - to make it work out to 8 groups) and that way each group is responsible for something on their own and reviewing for the entire class. Two concerns with this approach. First, some of those skills are easier (and quicker) than others. Second, I could by chance have a group that's not capable of generating a review on the skill they get.

So, which approach would you favor? Or do you have a different idea altogether?

Now, back to the culture piece. While I still don't feel like I can lead/generate a good discussion this early in the year (and that early in the day - my class of teenagers meets from 7:21 - 8:20 am), I feel like I need to do something to address the culture of our classroom. So I'm considering spending a little time talking with them about my philosophy and thoughts about this class. That's still very much one-sided, just me talking at them, but perhaps it's better than ignoring it altogether (and maybe a few brave souls will join in). Last year it wasn't until about three weeks in that I shared some of that with them and perhaps sharing it sooner will help.

Thoughts on that? Or anyone want to try to convince me of another activity surrounding culture I should try?

The homework for day two would then be to spend as much or as little time as they think they need to review the skills (by using the skills assessment website and/or the whiteboard images captured in class that will be posted to the blog) in preparation for the common assessment on day three.