Weights of math courses

Perhaps I shouldn't be typing a new blog entry at the end of a long, exhausting week when I am all fired up, but here goes.

Our school has adopted the Common Core math program and gone to three levels - Accelerated (the highest), Honors, and College Prep.  The controversy of which I speak is currently Accelerated and Honors students are receiving the same credit towards their GPA.  This just does not make sense and that is probably why it has happened.  (note the sarcasm)

  Then, why would a freshman take Accelerated over Honors?  We are told they want to be challenged and not just boost their GPA.  Really, that is the thought of a 14 year old?

   I think they might be thinking more like this:  "I am going to get the same credit if I take Honors or Accelerated, then why would I bother with Accelerated?"  "Oh, you tell me that I will get to AP Calculus.  Gee, that is like 3 years away.  I am only worried about getting through 9th grade."

   And, why should a student receive an "A" in Honors class and receive more credit than the student who is busting his butt to manage a "B" in Accelerated?  Guess who is getting more credit towards their GPA?  The easy A kid. 

   Yep, it makes sense.  Must be talking about public education.

    

10 more days baby!

How Stamps saved the Lesson and an Eraser almost ruined the day...

My last post was about how awesome my C2 Algebra I students did with watching some videos on Mario Cart and Angry Birds to learn about vocabulary to get us started with quadratics.  We were on a roll.  We did graphing and some solving for two weeks and quiz time came.  Granted it was 1000 degrees in my classroom and last period on a Friday, but they tanked it.  They couldn't even tell me if the parabola opened up or down.  Yikes.  This signaled to me that it was time to slow down and reteach (even though we are nearing the end of the year with not much time left).  So, I broke it down as basic as I could.  I came up with 14 pages of "Quadratic Patterns".  They are included here:  Quadratic Patterns

My plan was to put a little bit about each on the board and then have the kids do 1 page at a time, checking in with me before they went onto the next page.  Yes, 14 boring worksheets.  Well, I found this stamps in my drawer from about 3 years ago that I had never used:

Amazing!  My favorite was "Please Correct and Return".  The first worksheet was standard form and identify a, b, and c.  They struggled with this and most got this stamp.  They quickly learned they didn't want that stamped on their paper, so they worked a little harder to get it right the first time instead of just hurrying through the worksheet.  When they came back with their work correct, they got a better stamp and moved on to the next sheet.  Out of the 14 sheets, I think the furthest a student got was page 5 but there is always tomorrow.  I had them do two pages for homework tonight.  They are also being allowed to do quiz corrections which I haven't done with them before but I really feel they need to get this.

Thank you to my stamps for bringing the class to life and motivating them to actually try to make sense of these quadratics.

My next class was an Honors Algebra II class.  One boy asked if I had a big eraser.  I gave him a normal sized eraser but as he walked away, I told him I did have a giant eraser and I took it from my desk drawer and held it up to show him, only to quickly remember why I put it away a year ago as some sweet angel drew a man part on it and that was what I was showing the students.  Blush.  They got a good chuckle, so the day wasn't really ruined.

Intro to Quadratics - using technology

With the new Common Core Algebra I, we teach polynomials first then go into quadratics.  The idea is good - it gets them to factor first and hopefully make the Quadratic chapter easier.  We shall see.  They weren't so strong with factoring.
    Anyways, we had an Early Release day due to prom and had wrapped up the Polynomial lesson the day before, so I figured it was a great time to use their laptops and dive into Quadratics.  I uploaded four different short videos to www.edmodo.com for the students to watch and answer questions about.  They could pause or rewind as needed.  The first one was about Nintendo's Mario.  After the polynomial test, I had them plot points that connected into a parabola, so that would get them thinking.  I asked how Mario might be connected to this shape.  "His jump!"  Ahhh, they were on the right path.  I told them the second video was about Angry Birds - why?  Oh, they fire the birds in this shape as well.  And, the last two were about swings - a swing through the forest and a swing on a swingset.  They could see it.  They were interested...and they were off.
    Well, after they found or borrowed earbuds.  They are supposed to bring them every day.  They are supposed to bring a pencil every day too and that often doesn't happen.  It is May, we are still working on the small things.
    Mario is on youtube and its description says it is a "good culminating assignment".  I liked the idea of starting with it because it might grab the students and I think it did.  It had them looking at the shape of the graph, if it opened up or down, how it gets compressed or stretched, and the vertex.  So, they should be ready to go with some important vocabulary for tomorrow's class.
   The Angry Birds video talks about the zeros of the graph.  I am hoping the students might see the connection between the factoring we have been doing for weeks and the zeros of the graph.  It is a big "jump" for them but I will cross my fingers.
    And, the last two, have the students watch and graph the swinging process.  It will be interesting to see what their graphs will look like.
    When I first handed out the graphing homework after the Polynomial test, they said "Oh, graphing, we haven't done this in a long time.  This looks easy."  Okay, so if I can bring all this together - factoring and graphing, maybe it will be a good way to wrap up our Algebra I year.  
 
Prior night graphing homework:  Graphing Parabolas - Intro homework

Mario: Mario Parabolas

Angry Birds:  Angry Birds Video

Swings on graphing stories:  Graphing Stories - 2 swing videos

My worksheet for the 4 graphs:  4 videos for intro to Quadratics

Stations - Up and Moving around the room

I love having the kids do stations.  It is a lot of work up front for me to create, organize, and plan, but it really seems to pay off.  The kids like to get up and move around and work together with friends.  I like to listen to their math conversations.  And, it gives me time one-on-one with a student if they are really stuck.

I combined a few ideas for stations for our review of polynomials.  I will include it here:  Station Review for Polynomials 

I read on someone's blog about letting the kids write on the windows.  Well, I have three big windows in my room and it really worked.  The kids thought it was pretty cool.  And, they got to write the problems twice.  I had them work it out on the window, then record the work on their papers as well.  Here are some pictures:
   

I had them working on the back white board: 

They did some multiplying with colored polynomials and made up their own problems given the classification.  For example, multiply a quadratic binomial by a linear binomial.

These boys are working on adding and subtracting polynomials.  I have small white boards (from Target) on which I wrote different polynomials.  The kids each picked two and then flipped a coin with a plus or minus to create their own addition or subtraction problem:

  

And, here are the girls:

These are what the small white boards look like: 

And, finally, a full class view of everyone engaged and learning.  The test was today and I still need to correct them.  They finished rather quickly which always makes me nervous.  They either knew it all or didn't know anything.  Hmm.....

On Friday, we will start our unit on Quadratics and again, I have mashed together different ideas from blogs I read to have the kids watch short videos before I even teach it.  I will share that in a blog over the weekend.  I think it will be a hit!

Good job!  Off to correct those tests!

Math vs Sports Practice

I first read about this on Fawn's blog:  Fawn Nguyen's Blog in response to Dan Meyer's response to Sal Khan's post about math practice vs wrestling.  She did a little survey, so I did a little survey.  I surveyed my Accelerated Algebra I class (freshmen) and my Honors Algebra II classes (sophomores).

Here is what happened:

Some of their explanations included:
 Girls who picked math:

• Math is year round
• I am not good at sports, so I will pick math
• Math is easier
• I love repetition

Boys who picked math:

• School comes before sports
• I am not athletic, so math
• I want to be successful and I know I will need math

Girls who picked sports:

• Math is too repetitive
• Sports are interactive and interesting
• You can work towards results you can see
• Sports is doing, math is thinking

Boys who picked sports:

• Sports are social 
• Sports are more fun.  
• You are outside, active, healthy.
• I rather do hard physical vs hard mental exercising (from a freshman)
• I feel pressure at math but at sports I can be me

NOTE:  I will try to get kids more active.  Now, how to do it.

Word cloud of my blog, using Tagxedo

I am taking a technology class and needed to make a word cloud.  I thought I would send it out to my kids on edmodo.com and ask them to reply on edmodo or tweet there answer as to what a quadratic is at #aquadis  One student did it.  Thanks Penelope!

So, I decided to check out a new word cloud site called Tagxedo and you can make one of your own blog site.  Let's see what I have been talking about:  (I think it came out pretty :)  )

Compare Linear, Quad, and Exponential

This is a sorting/matching activity to compare linear, quadratics, and exponential - equations, graphs, table of values, and domain and range.  I created it with the help of desmos.com graphs.  Here is the link:  Compare Graphs Activity

The students cut out the six different graphs, six different equations, etc. working in groups.  Then they have a discussion and sort them and match them.  Previously, I hadn't been a fan of matching but it really is a great way to see and experience students' thought processes, especially while working in a group.  In a group, they are forced to speak and you can "hear" them working.

Some kids started with all the graphs and matched from there.  Some started with the equations.  Most left the domain and range for last.  Some used the y-intercept to help them match up.  I thought it was great.  Then, I had each group take one of the 4 group pieces and bring them up in front of the class under the document camera and present their process.  This was the whole class got to hear their thought process.  It was a fun opening activity and I think the kids really got it.

Bonus is when my teaching partner tried the same activity and was raving about it.  It is always great to get positive feedback.  She loved it and her kids did well with it too.