Powerpoint Math

It has been a couple of crazy weeks as we wind down to Christmas.  I have been trying to keep the students as engaged as possible.  In math the other day I decided to teach the lesson and then divide the class into groups.  Rather than have them do a worksheet, I put the questions on PowerPoint (1 question per slide) and I gave the groups chart paper, mini white boards and markers.  They were in groups of three or four so each person had something to write on and write with.  I gave the groups 5-10 minutes per question, depending on the difficulty of the question, and once I figured the majority of the class had it figured out I moved on to the next slide.  We went through nine questions that I had just pulled from the textbook.  Once we had gone through all the questions I had one person from each group do question #1 on the board, we then discussed and corrected the answers.  Then a different student from the group had to come to do the next question, so on and so forth.  Doing this at the end put accountability on each student to be involved throughout the PowerPoint work.  I made sure that I knew which questions my at-risk student understood how to do, and volunteered him for that particular question(s) before anyone else in his group could volunteer.

Learning about ratios with hands on

This morning I taught my ratios lesson on the floor with my class sitting in a circle each with a piece of paper and a pencil.  We started by discussing what ratios were and using the class, boys to girls, as our starting point.  I wrote a few points on the board as we were discussing and they copied them down.  Once I felt they had the idea, I took a box of Halloween mixed chocolate bars and dumped them on the floor in the middle of the circle.  At that point I put six different scenarios on the board (kit-kat - smarties, coffee crisp- aero, kit-kat to all chocolate bars) and asked them to write the ratios in different forms on their paper.  The were practising part-part ratios, part-whole ratios, and 3-term ratios.  They were also practising converting fractions, decimals and percents.  They were discussing and problem solving individually and as groups. Once they completed it on their paper, I had volunteers write their answers on the board and we would then compare and discuss as a class.   All the students were interested and very involved in the lesson. 

Groups and Movement seems to be working

Yesterday I had finished teaching a lesson on solving percent problems and today I had them practice these types of problems.  So instead of giving them the textbook assignment, I made up 9 question cards and had them taped up around the room.  I taped them on the blackboards, the windows and on tables.  I then split the class into 7 groups of 3.  I have noticed the importance of me doing the grouping to make these tasks successful.  I always try to group them with a mixed level of ability and I make sure there is one definite leader in each group.  I gave them each a station to start at and they were to solve the problem on the blackboard, or the window, or the poster paper.  They were to record their final answer on a piece of paper that they would take with them from station to station.  Once they thought they had the correct answer they were to check with me.  If it was correct they erased their work so the other groups couldn't copy the answer and they were allowed to move on to another question.  If not, they had to try again.  They were not allowed to move to the next station until they got the answer correct.  They did not have to move in any order, the task was just to complete all 9 questions.  Competition drives my class, so of course, this was a race to see who could get all 9 questions done correctly first.  This was quite a success.  This works well for those that are struggling.  Even if they themselves cannot answer the question, at least they are there listening and watching to see how to solve the problem rather than blankly staring at their textbook.

Sticky Note Success

Monday morning always seems to be a struggle for my students to get motivated, especially in math.  So I am really focusing on Monday mornings and how I can get them engaged right off the bat.  This Monday I tired a little activity with Sticky Notes.  We are working with fractions, decimals and percents.  I wanted them to be able to convert a fraction into a decimal, or a decimal into a fraction, etc.  and understand what the values actually meant.  I split the class into 6 groups of 4 and gave each group sticky notes.  I then wrote 14 different values in the board (.0067, 75%, 3/5, etc) and had them write one value on one sticky note.  I then gave each group a section of blackboard and their task was to place their values in ascending order on the board.  I made it a competition to see who could complete the task first.  Those were the only instructions I gave them.  In order for them to do this, they first had to recognize that it would be easiest to convert them all to the same type (either all fractions, all decimals, or all percents), and then order.  So it was very interesting to watch.  All the students were very engaged and discussing with their group about how to go about the task.  A few of the groups converted all to percent and a few converted all to decimals and then ordered them.  Once they thought they had it correct they would call me over and I would simply say "error" if there was one and they would all go crazy and try again.  Once they had all figured it out I had each group pick a representative to share the approach their group took to solve the problem.  Then to top it off, no group had converted to fractions, so I had another race to see which group could now convert all the values to fractions first. Overall, I would say it was very successful, and the students had a much clearer understanding than they did at the beginning of the class.

Reflecting in stations

After the long weekend, I figured my students would have forgotten anything they learned the previous week as we had just started a new unit.  I decided I would review with them using different stations.  I split the class into 8 groups and gave them each 4 questions on the same topic (percents, fractions and decimals).  I had 4 stations (back board, windows, front board and table (with poster paper and markers).  It worked really well, all the students were engaged and wanting to take their turn to write out the answer.  My at-risk student was partcipating well, however, he is embarrased about his written output so he was not involved in writing out the answer at any of the stations.  Any suggestions on how I could change that for him?  Drawing is not really an option when you need to convert 32% into a decimal and fraction.  I have a video, which I will attach if I can figure it out.

Projects vs. Tests a week later

My at-risk student changed his mind to do a project rather than a test after seeing the review he was asked to complete before writing the test, so I was happy about that.  He still needs to be constantly prompted to get to work, but he is taking more of a lead in the project than his partner, so that is good to see.  I will report back next week to see how the final project turns out.

Projects vs. Tests

I just finished teaching 6 different organ systems and now I am looking at having the students show what they know.  So we have given them 6 choices (TV show, powerpoint, poster, life-size cut out, etc.) and the last choice was to write the test.  Well interestingly enough, my at risk student chose the test.  He was planning on working with another student, who he has been sitting with and working well with this past week.  However, the other student is much more of a "test-writer" and I am pretty sure the only reason my at-risk student is choosing the test is because this other student is.  We just got started yesterday, so we will see if he changes his mind next week.  But I thought it was an interesting point.

Games worked well

For the first 15 minutes of every science class this week, I had one of the groups present their games to the class.  With some help from me in getting the class organized, the games they came up with have been quite creative.  We are just getting a sneak peak of them within 15 minutes, but I will definitely use some of their games again in the future.  We will bring them out again at the end of the unit as a review.  We are playing the games as one big class, but in the future they will play them in smaller groups and I think they will learn a lot by playing the games.  So overall, I would say it was a success.

First Try!

I am trying something with the vocabulary list for Ch.2 & 3 in Science.  First I had the class work in pairs to create cue cards for the words.  I then had them get in groups of 4 to create a game to help them and the class learn the vocab words.  They had a class and a half to create the game and then next week they will all present the game to the class.  We will start every science class next week with one of the groups presenting their game and getting the class to play it.  Today it seemed like they had some good ideas.  We'll see how it goes next week.