Day 19

Today's opener gives them another sequence and an opportunity to graph an equation by using a table of values.

Today's lesson is to explore time and distance relationships and to construct and interpret a graph from collected data. I've invited two of my assistant principals and my media specialist to join us in the gym hallway (long hallway not too far from our classroom), where they will follow a set of "walking directions" for 10 seconds. (e.g., walk at about 1 m/sec for 10 seconds; or walk at about 1 m/sec for 3 seconds, stop for 2 seconds, then walk at 2 m/s for 5 seconds; etc.).

Students are spaced 1 meter apart along the tape measure and as I count off the seconds they note the walker's position (if the walker is within 1 meter of the student). (I'm considering filming this as well so that they have the video to refer to later, but I'm worried that might be one thing too many.)

We'll have a total of 6 walks, then we'll return to the classroom. I will then collate the data for the first walk (maybe the first two if we have time), and then we'll work through graphing the data and answering the questions on the last slide. Then I'll collate the rest of the data and post it on the class blog later that day and they'll have to graph the remaining walks for homework (not enough time to collate all the data in class, so just getting them started so they have the idea).

Their homework over the weekend will be to finish the remaining graphs and to take the Graphing Linear Equations by Using a Table online pre-assessment (on the moodle).

Day 16

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm a day "behind" my original plan so that's why there's no "day 15."

The plan for today is a combination of reviewing the topics we've covered so far (proportions and percents, dimensional analysis, solving equations) and an introduction to graphing (beginning the transition from solving equations to graphing and interpreting them).

Today's opener reviews distributive property and solving equations with variables on both sides. (It's been a while since my last post, so just a reminder that we introduced that last Wednesday, reviewed it on Friday, and they were supposed to watch the video over the weekend. Day 16 is tomorrow, Monday.)

Today's lesson feels a little awkward because it's just a brief intro to graphing and then a review of other topics, but I still feel it's necessary. I think they need a little more practice with the concepts we've learned, and I also think that even though they've graphed on a coordinate plane before, they need a refresher on the basic structure (before we begin to go more in-depth over the next few weeks).

 

Tonight's homework includes asking them what we consider to be the x and y-axis of the Earth, what quadrant our school is in, and how the Earth is different than a coordinate plane. Then they'll need to complete the Solving Equations with Variables on Both Sides pre-assessment on the Moodle (two questions very similar to the questions they will have on the formal assessment in two days).

I then ask them to create a blog entry describing how they solve 3(x - 5) = -7x + 12. I ask them to not only solve it, but explain their thought process as if they were trying to demonstrate this for someone who didn't know anything about solving these types of equations (this won't be due for two days to give them a little more time if they need it).

I then give them some optional practice problems, directing them to Coolmath or Khan Academy if they feel like they want some additional practice (as little or as much as they think they need - completely optional but I wanted to provide them an opportunity for more practice if they want it).

So, not the most interesting day, but again one I feel is necessary. Anyone have a different opinion to share?

Day 14

Today's opener reviews the distributive property and solving two-step equations.

Last year I just assumed that students were pretty good at two-step equations (they've had them before and they had the video for homework), but I think I need to spend another day to help solidify this. So we'll spend some time practicing with two-step equations and then extending our procedure to deal with equations with variables on both sides.

For homework they'll watch the Solving Equations with Variables on Both Sides video.

Day 13

Today's opener reviews solving one-step equations, distributive property, and direct and inverse variation.

Today's lesson is an introduction to multi-step equations. We start by doing some magic:

We then reveal the secret behind the magic:

We then talk about working "backwards" and "undoing" the steps (doing the inverse operation/opposite).

Their homework for tonight is then to watch the Solving Two-Step Equations video.

Day 12

Sometime right around here I'll lose a class period to MAP Testing, so I'm just going to plug it into Day 12 as a placeholder for now (I won't know the exact date until a week or two before).

Day 11

Today is a PLC day, which means we start two hours late and classes are 40 minutes long (instead of 59). Today's opener reviews one-step equations and direct/inverse variations.

Partially due to the shortened classes, and partially due to it just being time to do some skill review, today is a "Carnegie Hall" day. ("How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.") I'll provide the students with a worksheet and they'll work in groups to complete the problems. I haven't decided yet whether to break out the whiteboards for this or not, right now I'm thinking not. With about 10 minutes left in class we'll begin working through them on the smart board so that the "key" is posted to the blog and to try to clear up any remaining questions.

While I think it's fine just to have a "boring" practice day, I'm open to suggestions for how to spice it up a little. Just keep in mind that sometimes I think the students like just cranking away on problems like this, so I don't necessarily see a big problem with it (and they definitely need a little repetition/practice).

Day 9

Today's opener reviews Order of Operations, solving a one-step equation involving multiplication, and a Dimensional Analysis problem. While they are working on the opener I'll be walking around checking to make sure they have at least the Self-Check problems from the video they were supposed to watch for homework.

Then today's lesson is to learn about Inverse Variations in the context of speed (d = rt). First, we take a look at this.

I solicit guesses but am not counting on them guessing - at least not until I pick up a tennis ball and start tossing it in the air and catching it. Then, perhaps. Then I'll show them this:

Again, they won't see this entire slide at once. I'll show them the top two images and ask them what question(s) we could ask. Hopefully they will come up with at least "how fast is it moving" and perhaps "how high was it dropped (thrown?) from. I'll then ask how do we figure out speed (based on last year, most students don't seem to really know this). I'll then display the equations and the additional pictures (and, with the picture of the meter stick, I'll open the original so we can zoom in on it to see the markings on the meter stick better).

After we figure out speed, then we'll work through these questions:

I'll then display these pictures for context and to see whether our answer seems reasonable.

Assuming that goes well (that may not be a good assumption, the students struggled with this last year), we'll move on to another rate problem. Using an excerpt I've edited from this video, we'll see if we can figure out Rich Eisen, Tim Tebow (bonus, since he's a Denver Bronco and a hot topic around here), and Jacoby Ford's (average) speed (again, borrowed from Dan Meyer). We'll then do a quick table of values and sketch the graph to (hopefully) notice this is not a straight line, and then define inverse variation.

If we have time, we'll then do a couple of skill practice problems (if not, we'll pick up with this tomorrow).

I'm not sure at this point whether I'll give them any homework or not, depends on how it's going. Most likely their homework will be to review their notes and determine what areas they are feeling comfortable with and what areas they need some extra help on.

Day 7

Today is our first assessment over new material (the initial skills' assessment was theoretically over knowledge they already had). On assessment days last year when students entered the room they would see something like the following instead of an opener:

My thinking was to have them to begin to focus on the assessment as soon as they walked into class, giving them some scaffolding in terms of what I think they should be thinking about as they prepare. Then once the bell rings and everyone is settled, they begin the assessment (more on the assessment in a minute). The time it takes them to do the assessment, and for us to then go over it on the board, should be roughly equivalent to the time it takes to do a normal opener. This way we still have a "full" day of instruction even on assessment days.

While I like this plan, one thing I discovered last year was that some (many?) students really didn't prepare for the assessments. I've thought of switching to giving a short opener on assessment days, knowing they would do much better on the assessment, but I'm not sure that contributes much to their long-term understanding (and it would also reduce instruction time for the day). So I think I'm going to stick with just giving them the assessment without the opener, but I'm open to hearing your thoughts.

A very brief aside to describe my assessments just to give you an idea. My assessments are an imperfect implementation of standards-based grading. Instead of giving them a test over "chapter 3" or whatever, each assessment is over a specific skill(s). This allows both me and the student to get a better handle on what the student actually knows how to do (not "I got a 73 on Chapter 3"), and what they need more work on. It also keeps the assessments very short (usually only 2 or 3 questions) and very focused, which has the added benefit of making re-assessments take less time. (I've previously written about assessment here and here, so I won't repeat all of that.)

After the students take the assessment, I (or sometimes students) work through the actual problems on the assessment on the smart board, which then gets posted to the class blog (so students have the exact assessment, including worked out solutions, to look back at if they need to review and re-assess). To give you an idea, here's last year's (pdf).

Then we begin today's lesson with a measurement activity that will lead us into dimensional analysis.

Then I get a little more explicit about the vocabulary (rate, unit rate, dimensional analysis), and we do some unit conversions that are hopefully somewhat relevant to the students. The "Vehicle Stopping Distance" at the bottom is a link to a website that talks about average stopping distance to give a little more perspective.

We then do a couple more conversations based on track records at my school, then watch a two-minute video from Discovery Education about dimensional analysis using the cost of gasoline in Australia. I'll then have the students figure out today's cost of gasoline in Australia (in U.S. dollars per gallon). I provide them with links to the current exchange rate and average prices per liter in Australia.

While I anticipate we'll be out of time, I have one more slide where we figure out how much Steven Spielberg made per second he was awake in 2009 that we'll go to if we do have extra time.

Their homework tonight is to check their grade on the assessment on our online portal and, if necessary, make an appointment to come in and re-assess (or get help first, then re-assess) if they did not do well. Tonight is also our Back To School Night, so I'll ask them to remind their parents to come tonight.

Thoughts on today's plan?

Day 6

Today's opener reviews proportions and percents and integer operations, and also gives them a more open-ended estimation problem.

As they work on the opener I'll walk around and ask each group if they had any questions about how the online pre-assessment worked last night (and I'll also talk briefly about it after we finish the openers as a class).

Today's lesson is designed to solidify their understandings of ratios, proportions and percents. We'll start with a quick skill review, with students working in groups and then coming up and explaining their work at the board (or possibly on their group-sized whiteboards, I'm not sure which yet).

Then we'll look at an example with the chemical formula for TNT and one with the stock market. (Again, note that I'm displaying the entire slide for you, but I would use the window shade function to reveal only parts at a time.)

Then, thanks to Dan Meyer, we'll watch about a minute of The Bone Collector and then I'll turn them loose (with printouts of the footprint/dollar bill and rulers handy - bottom image is hidden until we discuss it).

Their homework will be to prepare for the Solving Proportions and Percents Assessment that they will take first thing tomorrow. They can do that however they'd like: review the video, review their notes, review everything that's been posted to the blog, review the online pre-assessment, do some practice problems online or from the textbook, work with a friend/parent/sibling, etc., as much or as little as they think they need.

Thoughts?

Day 5

As a reminder, this is day five of my class, but it will be Monday of the second week since my class only meets four days a week.

The opener today is designed to build off the work we did on Friday as well as the video they watched for homework.

As they are working on the opener I will be walking around and looking at their notebooks to make sure they have the "Self-Check" problems from the video written down. This is somewhat of a philosophical dilemma for me. Last year I made the philosophical decision to not check whether they had watched the video. I explained to them that I expected them to watch the videos and that they needed to watch the videos in order to be successful, but that I wasn't going to look over their shoulder to make sure they did it. I continued to talk about this throughout the year, and it worked well for some students, but unfortunately other students had real difficulty completing these videos without me "checking up on them." So this year I've decided to backtrack a bit and check that they're watching the videos/completing the self-check exercises, at least at the beginning of the year. Then hopefully gradually back away from that throughout the year as they internalize that the videos are helping them. We'll see.

After they work on the openers individually, and then in their table groups, we'll discuss them as a class. Then today's lesson is to look at ratio, proportion and percent in the context of a sampling problem. We'll begin with a 3.5 minute video from Discovery Education on the Capture-Recapture Method of estimating animal populations. After watching the video we'll simulate the capture-recapture method using paper bags and two colors of beans (in the context of sampling fish at a nearby reservoir).

After working through the simulation, we'll then see if it took hold by completing three sample "application" problems. Assuming that goes okay, we'll then talk about how we could sample our class to try to predict answers for the entire school (or a class across the hall). The "freshmen" question is designed to get them thinking about what a good sample might look like (since my class is majority freshmen, this is not a good sample for the school, but might be for an Algebra class at the school). (Note: On all these images keep in mind that they are on a smart board and I'm using the window shade to control how much is visible at one time.)

If we have time, we'll then conclude with a quick skill review..

 

We'll then talk briefly about their homework for tonight, which is to complete the Solving Proportions and Percents Online Pre-Assessment. My plan is to use these in a very similar way to the way I did last year. Usually two class periods before an assessment I'll have the students complete a sample online pre-assessment. This gives them an idea of how they'll do on the actual assessment and gives them some time to get help/figure it out before the assessment that "counts." I ask them to write down the problems in their notebook and work them out, then click on "Check Your Work" to see how they did (and correct if necessary). I'll also give them an optional link if they'd like more practice, but it is completely optional.

A second piece of homework, but one that's not due until Friday (four days from now), is their first reflection piece:

Looking back at your first week in Algebra (and, for some of you, your first week at AHS), how are you feeling? What's going well or you're excited about? What's challenging or are you concerned about? Then I want you to set three goals for yourself for this semester. One goal specifically related to Algebra, one goal related to AHS in general (can be related to classwork, sports, activities, or something else at AHS), and one goal outside of AHS. Make these goals fairly specific, not just "I want to get a good grade." I'll be asking you to revisit these goals toward the end of the semester and evaluate how well you're doing on them, so make them be worthwhile and achievable.

Last year we did this in Google Docs, but this year I've decided to go ahead and have them blog them. I debated about whether I wanted these private (in Google Docs, so that they could perhaps be more honest and share more information), or public (Blogger, where they might feel somewhat constrained because it's public). Last year I really didn't have anything shared that I think wouldn't have been if they'd been public, so I want to open this up for all the usual reasons for why blogging can be powerful. I'll also let the students know that if they have anything they'd like to share but not publicly, to just let me know.

I'm a little worried that's too much homework, but I figure the pre-assessment only takes 10-15 minutes and the reflection isn't due until Friday (and they have Thursday "off" of Algebra), so I'm hoping it's not too bad.

As always, I'd appreciate your thoughts/suggestions on any of the above.