I was trying to figure out how to make an engaging lesson to help my students apply their graphing of ordered pairs skills and I think I have made a fun and entertaining lesson! In this activity students work as partners to plot coordinates of various places in "Scarytown" in order to help Mathica Monster find her way around. I like to try to make math fun for the kids because I think this makes both your day and theirs go much faster and helps to limit excessive behavior problems. This lesson really helped students to understand the concept of distance between points on a coordinate plane and to apply graphing ordered pairs in relationship to other positions. Even though this year has been tough because we are transitioning to a new and more deep curriculum, I have seen some positive strides over the course of the year from when I first started working with my students to now. It takes time to help students learn how to apply math rather than merely complete basic skills. I am excited to see how I can grow as a teacher and how my students in the future will benefit from going deeper into the math concepts. This blog is my way of reflecting and sharing my ideas of what works with my fellow educators. This was definitely a lesson that I felt enriched the students' understanding of this concept. This lesson can be found at my TpT store for FREE please stop by and browse some of my other resources. If you like what you see please FOLLOW ME. Here is a video preview of the Mathica Monster Lesson. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you come back!
It has been a while since I have written a blog entry. (Snow days and state testing has backed a lot of my lesson planning up). I am very excited to write about a recent lesson that I completed with my students that involved reflecting across the x and y-axis. In this lesson, students discovered the mathematical patterns behind reflecting ordered pairs and collections of ordered pairs across the x-axis and y-axis. The students used mirrors to help them see what was happening. It was a lot of fun watching them discover this and it was rewarding to even see my lower ability classes coming up with some amazing observations. (View the video to see this lesson in action.)
Students started out with a short video showing them how to use the mirrors to reflect across each axis.
Here are some glimpses of some of the notes sheets that were featured in the above video.
A similar lesson to this would not be difficult to create, however if you like what you see on this blog, the lesson is available at my TpT site and can be viewed here. Thank you for taking time to view this lesson, it was very fun to teach and the students got a very good understanding of it.
At the end of a few beautiful and restful snow days, I am getting ready to go back to work today. (It has always been a well known fact that teachers enjoy getting those calls more than the kids do!) Having a little extra time off has given me time to spruce up my dividing fractions unit and take what I did (which worked really well with my 6th graders) and share some of my thoughts with you about what I think is the best way to develop this concept in the classroom.
Common Core Does NOT Mean that the Algorithm Has to Be Thrown Out the Window...
I have listened to various professional opinions in regard to this misconception about the Common Core Curriculum. The goal of this approach to math is that the students become better at mathematical reasoning. When teaching this concept, I took the approach that I wanted the students to discover as much as they possibly could on their own in the most visual way possible. I wanted them to truly understand each step of the algorithm before they even began using it. Why do algorithms even exist? This is the question I want my kids to understand, not just tell them to "Do these steps and you will get the correct answer." Algorithms are a result of looking at numerous problems visually to see if you notice any patterns. If something is noticed over and over again about a certain type of math problem, this pattern can be used to create a set of rule (algorithms) that work no matter what. I tell my students that usually the algorithm is a short cut that is a result of much research.
Here was the sequence of discovery lessons that I wrote to help guide my students to this conclusion.
Sequence of Lessons: Pre-requisite Skill: Multiplying Fractions Students will learn what is really happening when two values are being multiplied together. This will help them to understand why you multiply the numerators together to get the new numerator and why you multiply the two denominators together to get the new denominator.
Lesson Includes: •Fully typed out UBD lesson plan and Teacher Notes •Power Point and all Instructional Videos •Accompanying Student Notes Sheet •Practice Worksheets
Lesson 1: Introduction to Dividing Students will first manipulate counter chips to better understand what they are doing when they are dividing. Students will then manipulate fraction bars either by using a fraction bar manipulative website (or by using the attached templates that students can cut out if access to computers is not possible) to also discover what happens when you divide a whole number by a fraction. Students will begin to discover a pattern when they divide a whole number by a fraction.
Lesson Includes: •Fully typed out UBD lesson plan and Teacher Notes •Power Point and all Instructional Videos •Accompanying Student Notes Sheet •Practice Worksheets
Lesson Includes: •Fully typed out UBD lesson plan and Teacher Notes •Power Point and all Instructional Videos •Accompanying Student Notes Sheet •Practice Worksheets
Lesson 3: Learning Why the Dividing Fractions Algorithm Works. In this lesson students will use what they discovered in the previous lessons to recognize patterns. Through this understanding they will work through a template that they will be able to describe in detail to better ultimately better understand the algorithm.
Lesson Includes: •Fully typed out UBD lesson plan and Teacher Notes •Power Point and all Instructional Videos •Accompanying Student Notes Sheet •Practice Worksheets
This lesson has really helped my students to truly understand how to divide fractions and they can also explain why the algorithm works.
Some of my students were able to then progress from the template shown above to merely multiplying the first fraction in the division problem by the reciprocal. (I allow them to do this if they discover this on their own.)
Thank you for visiting my blog. I should be writing some more soon!
Sincerely,
My students completed their Math Practice Flipbooks yesterday. Here are some images of them creating their flipbooks.
They used them today as a resource for writing the reasoning behind the math tasks they will be working on. I created a easy level task for students to begin using this resource and the kids did so well I decided to put this on my blog :o). I will also be putting some examples once I have finished grading them. The Flipbook Template and the math task below can be downloaded at http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Common-Core-Math-Practices-Flipbook
The students did a really nice job with this activity and came up with some really great answers. Here are some images of them working on this math task.
The students were able to use their Math Practice Flipbooks to help them write the reasoning behind these math tasks.
As I have been waiting to implement the Common Core in my Classroom, I am realizing that my students are going to need a lot of help transitioning into these new expectations. After Easter Break, I plan to start out doing this by first having students gain a deeper understanding of the Math Practices they will be conscientously using to solve problems. If I simply gave them a copy of the online practices, they would be confused and frustrated. I have created a Flipbook for their notes that will be an easy resource to refer to when using these practices. It includes kid-friendly descriptions of each standard and will also be used as an activity to have students think about 8 different situations and decide which math practice was used in each scenario. Once we have discussed each scenario and where it fits in as a class, they will glue it on the appropriate flipbook page to serve as an example when they refer back to this resource. I will be uploading pictures of the finished products as well as some of our class discussion points once I complete this lesson with my kids next Tuesday, so please visit frequently!
