In the math department I work in we use CPM (College Predatory Mathematics). We use the book and relate the standards to each chapter. As a department we felt that the book does a great job of spiraling the material and relating the standards to the curriculum was the best way to implement standard based testing. In my math program we have a hand full of resources. We have math tiles, multiple class sets of graphing calculators, and access to ipads. All these tools are used on a daily bases to implement the material and concepts from the book.
My math department does not use the district or its resources to teach or implement math concepts in the classroom.
As a math department we take time to walk students through the CPM website at the beginning of the year. The purpose of this is to show students that their is other forms of information that can help them practice the material they are learning in class. The book website also has a large amount of supplemental information that our department adds in to help students understand the material. There are a few other virtual materials my math department uses and that is teacher blogs. On these blogs the teachers lay out the material covered in class and class projects.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Video of Closure component
In this lesson the class was working on noticing quadratics that could be factored multiple times. For my closure I tried to relate factoring to laundry. You have to sort the dark's and the lights before you separate into load sizes. The point I was trying to get across was to notice that sometimes you have to sort or factor a few times to get it to the smallest product. It could be as clear as mud, but it seemed like a few kids that were lost got a hold of the concept.
Strengths- I think the volume of my voice, relationships with my students, and trying to relate the concept to a real life scenario are my strengths in this closure. The volume of your voice can be a great tool when your trying to get students attention. I also believe when I related this concept to real life you could see the students start to get excited and wake up. I know they may not all have been talking about math but they were discussing laundry and all I can hope is that the concept of factoring more than once stuck in their head or at least next time we talk about it they can relate it to the laundry.
Evidence of learning- Being in the class when I taught the lesson I could see that students were getting it because they were excited to explain to me why one problem worked and another didn't. From watching the video I can see the excitement in the students rise when I related it to something they knew. You can see students writing down the information and talking about it which builds their understanding of the concepts.
Engagement- I think a few times in the video I had 100% engagement. It didn't last long but I tried my best to prompt those students back on task. I would have to say it was the best I have see all year.
Varied abilities- I knew that if I just talked about laundry I would lose about 1/3 of my class. That's why I decided to draw the horrible pictures on the board to give a visual representation of what I was talking about. I know some of my students learn better with a visual prompt.
Supporting learning- After I related the concept to the laundry I walked around the class to help any students who were still not understanding the material.
Challenge- I may not have done a great job of describing how the two ideas really connected. In my mind it made perfect sense. I just don't know if I was able to portray that clearly. I also had thought about that all kids have not done their own laundry, but I felt safe with the idea that they have seen laundry done. Another challenge was keeping the kids on task when they wanted to talk solely about the different laundry styles. But overall very small challenges.
Revise- The only thing I would do differently would be to take a deep breath and make sure I was connecting the two concepts correctly. I got really excited and I think I rambled a little. More practice would be another revision.
Algebra Closure from Anna Haley on Vimeo.
Strengths- I think the volume of my voice, relationships with my students, and trying to relate the concept to a real life scenario are my strengths in this closure. The volume of your voice can be a great tool when your trying to get students attention. I also believe when I related this concept to real life you could see the students start to get excited and wake up. I know they may not all have been talking about math but they were discussing laundry and all I can hope is that the concept of factoring more than once stuck in their head or at least next time we talk about it they can relate it to the laundry.
Evidence of learning- Being in the class when I taught the lesson I could see that students were getting it because they were excited to explain to me why one problem worked and another didn't. From watching the video I can see the excitement in the students rise when I related it to something they knew. You can see students writing down the information and talking about it which builds their understanding of the concepts.
Engagement- I think a few times in the video I had 100% engagement. It didn't last long but I tried my best to prompt those students back on task. I would have to say it was the best I have see all year.
Varied abilities- I knew that if I just talked about laundry I would lose about 1/3 of my class. That's why I decided to draw the horrible pictures on the board to give a visual representation of what I was talking about. I know some of my students learn better with a visual prompt.
Supporting learning- After I related the concept to the laundry I walked around the class to help any students who were still not understanding the material.
Challenge- I may not have done a great job of describing how the two ideas really connected. In my mind it made perfect sense. I just don't know if I was able to portray that clearly. I also had thought about that all kids have not done their own laundry, but I felt safe with the idea that they have seen laundry done. Another challenge was keeping the kids on task when they wanted to talk solely about the different laundry styles. But overall very small challenges.
Revise- The only thing I would do differently would be to take a deep breath and make sure I was connecting the two concepts correctly. I got really excited and I think I rambled a little. More practice would be another revision.
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