What we did

I’m a big fan of checking out Aleda Klassen’s Twitter posts about what her #mth1w class is doing. I’m going to try to capture ours in a similar way here. Maybe I’ll be more consistent?

We started out reviewing addition of integers by trying these Kakuro puzzles. Lots of engagement!

We followed this up by me modeling Multiplication of integers using a combo of Nat Banting’s bucket of zero and hot/cold cubes activities. Students seemed to really connect with content. Why have I never started with models for this before? Oh, because models are often less familiar to me. Must keep working to fix!

We had a few more minutes, during which students added notes to their future forgetful selves.

Which tee-shirt company?

We started our math block with an Esti-Mystery. I had them write down their estimations in their journal as the clues came up. They loved it so much, they asked to do more (we didn’t have time, so I promised them we would do more another day).

I pulled all the students in to a board and asked them how much their grad hoodies cost. I reminded them that they were warned that they needed to submit their orders in time, because if they ordered late, they would have to pay a special fee for the company to set up the stencil again.

I explained the scenario. As a fundraiser, we want to do a tee-shirt order, but we had to pick a printing company. One company just charges per shirt – $15. The second company charges $50 to set up the printer, and then $10 per shirt. How do we know who to order from?

“No, we don’t know how many people will want to order shirts yet, sorry!”

Off they went. Interestingly, most groups jumped straight to 10 shirts being the same cost, writing this out with words. “Prove it to me!” I prompted.

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This is what they came up with. Sadly, I only noticed how one of the groups wrote out formulas as I was taking the photos. They students were crowded so close during the activity, I couldn’t see that part! I wish I had seen it. It would have been great for consolidation.

I had noticed that despite prompting, some kids had a hard time giving up the marker, so this time, I set my watch to time 2 minutes and established a rotation of job of writer. It definitely prompted some arguments amongst the students (“She SAID to switch the marker. Pass it over!”) but also some great check-ins (“Do you know why I told you to write this? Do you understand what’s happening?”)

I did have one group misunderstand and assume that one company would charge $60 per shirt, but they generated some great questions about it before I spotted it.

After consolidation, the students took notes and we did individual whiteboard practice to help us all see what they might need to add to their notes to their future forgetful selves. A common confusion was what to write for the coefficient or constant term when it’s not explicitly shown in the expression.

Rush rush rush!

It’s likely because I have a student teacher, combined with the fact that there are so many interruptions in September and October AND the fact that Grade 7s have to complete FSAs, but I always feel so rushed to get lessons and activities in!

After my last post, I had students complete a Biography of 24 in their journals. Lots of great stuff – and many equations, of course. I’ve included pictures of the first three on my pile of journals, since I forgot to take pictures as I was reading.

We also explored multiplication strategies. I handed out a copy of Multiplication Workout 1 (again from Lessons and Activities for Building Powerful Numeracy, Pam Harris) and asked students to complete and analyze the strategies in groups.

The next class, we did our practice FSA. Since it was practice, I had no problem with the students talking to each other. I loved hearing them explain their strategies to each other. I wish I knew how much of a role our group work played in how easily they asked for help or noticed a peer struggling – maybe they would have done it before unprompted, maybe not. Either way, it was fantastic to hear things like, “Oh, well, if you need to find 15%, I like to start with 10% because that’s easier, then I can figure out 5% from that.”

The students then spend a day working on collaborative group notes, followed by an exploration of ratio tables. Unfortunately, I was away that day, so I couldn’t see that lightbulb moment that some people can have (LIKE ME!) when you see how relationships between numbers can help us solve problems.

You have to go slow to go fast, part 2

Honest moment: last year, I attempted interleaving my curriculum. The students were exposed to everything I needed to teach, but I still don’t call the first attempt a win. There are definitely elements that I need to tweak and one was note-taking. Note-taking was not a featured thing, and because we moved from topic to topic, it should have been a super key part.

I put together a simple note-taking template and copies galore. The plan is start with one per section in our math binder (numeracy, fractions and proportions, patterns and algebra, probability and data analysis, geometry and measurement). As we spiral through content, we can always add to our notes (and, likely, more and more templates).

I knew that I needed to launch carefully to help students take good notes. It’s not a easy skill! Elementary students don’t have a lot of experience taking notes, and it usually consists of students frantically writing down whatever the teacher writes, word for word. “Wait!” they’d cry in past years, “I’m not done yet!”

I handed out the organizer and explained that I wanted students to work in groups to fill in the sections based on the addition strategies we’ve been looking at – but on the whiteboards. Playing cards were distributed, students went off to their groups, and off they went.

As they started, I noticed them writing things like, “Counting on fingers”, “Using manipulatives”, “Lining up numbers” and was baffled. What? Where did this come from? They were so off topic! Didn’t I say that this was supposed to be about the strategies we explored?

I called them back in, clarified and ended with “If I gave you a quiz about addition strategies that we looked at, would these notes be any use?” After a resounding “NO!” I urged them to make changes so that they were useful.

They obligingly went back to their boards and added a lot more. We did a quick consolidation and then I asked students to write down notes on their own sheets of paper, urging them to borrow anything they thought was helpful from any board – and adding more if they felt it was necessary.

The bell rang, and the students left for recess. I slumped down in my chair, feeling defeated. How were they so off base? Were my explanations that bad? (It should be added that I had not had a good night’s sleep the night before, combined with slight blahs from the rainy day, likely contributing to my despair.)

Wait!

When I sent the students to their visibly random groups (VRGs), they started trying to think of anything about addition they could recall. They were trying to create more content than I had given them. They were thinking! AND… I could see that they weren’t getting at what I hoped for because they were writing on vertical surfaces. One slow turn around the room was enough for me to catch that. I would have completely missed it if they were working on horizontal surfaces, especially if I had asked them to start taking notes on their own!

So maybe this wasn’t a misstep. This wasn’t a waste of time. This was their first attempt at note-taking in a building classroom. And yeah, building our note-taking is going to take a while, but we’ll get there. We have to go slow to go fast.