I Don't Read Directions

My first day, walk in the door activity was the classic Directions Quiz:



My teachers did this to me in elementary and being the OCD person I am, I actually did read all of the directions and sat back watching my classmates do silly things. This one is  less silly since high schoolers aren't very willing to take risks in class in front of their peers.

It really set the tone for the year and in my supply sheet I handed out, I informed them that I do not read directions for them. So far, so good.



As you can see, I also asked students to text my Remind101 app to subscribe to my classes so I can send mass messages while protecting everyone's privacy. I encouraged students to sign up and didn't receive a great response. So I sent out a text asking them to write down a math problem and bring it to me for candy. Interest seemed to increase but ironically, no one else has subscribed.

I have small classes and a good mixture of students I've had before and new students. Even after the first week they are still super quiet and kind of stare at me awkwardly when I talk to them.

More first week activities to come!

First Days 2013-2014

As one of my first week activities, I used the Marshmallow Challenge.

The website explains it all but basically students are in groups of 4 and have to build the tallest freestanding structure with a marshmallow on top out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, 1 yard of tape, and 1 yard of string in 18 minutes.

I thought this would be a great way to get them feeling more comfortable working in groups and I was right. They were all engaged and no groups quit when their towers fell over. They naturally fell into group roles which will make our next activity of creating those group roles a lot easier.

My tallest tower of the day was 21.5 inches. The average is 20 inches and the all time record is 39 inches. There is a TED talk that sums everything up but basically kids do better than adults because they play and build prototypes and use the marshmallow the whole time. Adults spend most of the time planning and use the marshmallow at the end which leaves them no time to fix it when it falls.

After the video I asked the students why they thought I chose to do this activity in a math class and I was happy with their responses: to make them think, team work, to help them communicate, help them be independent, to problem solve, etc.

I felt like it a was a great representation of the things I try to accomplish in my classroom throughout the year. It took up about 40 minutes and it was fun.

I got to be hands off while the students got to be hands on.

Bell Ringers (The Other 4/5)

In my last post I linked to my pacing guides. Those are for me. This is what I give the students:







They are called Math to Know Sheets and they list everything I hope to teach my students written in student friendly language. The rows shaded a light gray are my priorities and are the concepts that will appear on the end of course exam.

Every Friday I will randomly choose 5 concepts from these priorities to quiz students over. I've already made a powerpoint of problems that corresponds to my priority concepts.





 
Students will answer the questions and graph their results individually as well as a whole class and track our improvements from week to week. The three columns next to the concepts on the Math to Know sheets are where students will write a + if they got the problem correct or a - if they did not. The idea is that the students will be exposed to the priority concepts three times through the year as an informal cumulative review. We will celebrate 'all time best' scores for students and class periods.

This is called L to J if it is something you are familiar with- the idea that in the beginning the graphs will look like L shaped bell curves and over time progress to a J shaped bell curve. No longer is the bell curve acceptable but we push towards a J curve as we constantly compare ourselves only to ourselves and the progress we've made individually. That is 2/5 of my bell ringer plan (see the first 1/5 here).

Now for the other three days, I'm being a little more flexible. Referring back to my Survivor Games post, I plan to have my students seated in teams that compete all year long. Monday and Friday bell ringer activities are done on an individual basis. So that means the other three days are team time!

I've decided to use my pre-algebra bell ringer powerpoint from last year to begin with but I will present it differently.



This year I will print out each slide, one per team. I will put it in a page protector so I can reuse it for different periods. As a team, students will work the bell ringer problem(s) and write their answer on the board. The team with the most bell ringer problems answered correctly at the end of the week (in each class period) will get to draw a game piece.

I'm using a new textbook series that the publishers sent as samples- they have some good activities and vocab exercises that would also make good bell ringer activities. But the presentation will be the same.

I think there will be more buy in to work together with a team, especially if it might advance their team in the competition. Last year I noticed a big difference when I asked students for their answer and wrote all of them on the board. I'm borrowing off that idea and channeling it into team mode.

Obviously I had to create all of this stuff but at least it is already created. That means no prep work for me other than make a few copies. Students will have a pencil bag zip tied to their desk with a dry erase marker and eraser so they can work on the desk and erase.

Less paper = less waste

Less prep = happy teacher

=)

Vocabulary Homework

I posted a while back about my Homework Brainstorm and converting homework to be more about writing and vocabulary.

At the end of the school year I made my pacing guides for next year and included essential questions, vocabulary, and CCSS math practice standards.

Here is mine for Algebra 1, Algebra 2, and Geometry.

It was great to have my vocab words all laid out but what to do with them?

I stumbled on this post on Pinterest last night and I think this is what I want to do. (Go to her post to download the template!)  I'm going to borrow her picture so you can see:

 

I like her idea on the right where the bottom is folded up and fits 6 on a page. Right now I'm going through and typing my vocab words from each unit in my pacing guide into the glossary template. I'm also numbering them. 

I'm thinking that I will pass out all the templates for the unit at the beginning of the unit.  They can cut them out, fold them, and paste them on paper. My students will all have binders and at first I thought I would have the vocab be a section of their binder. But after thinking about it, I want the binders to stay in the classroom at all times. 

So now I'm thinking I will ask them to have a vocab notebook. If my whole vocab idea is homework then I kind of need them to be able to take it....well, home.

I'm thinking it will be my anorexic version of an INB. I'll have students to paste the vocab words on the left hand page only and then the right hand page will be where I can ask them deeper questions or things that relate to the unit essential questions. 

Here's the plan:

At the beginning of the unit I pass out the vocab templates for all the words in that unit. Students cut apart, fold and paste on the LHP of the vocab notebook.

Each day at the end of the lesson, I will assign them the 'vocab homework". That will be to fill out the vocab templates, using their notes, oh dang...if they have to use their notes then it still can't be homework. Unless they take their binders home. Ugh.

And they will probably just copy.

Well crap. I thought I had a great plan.

To be continued.

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Ok I'm back.

Thank God for mothers!

Mom suggested I give them a handout to take home with definitions on them. They can use the handout to complete the vocab template and then toss it. I don't have to worry about them bringing it back or turning it in and theoretically it's something I could make ahead of time.

I kind of hate the idea of giving them a handout with the definition on it and having them just rewrite it. I wanted them to use their notes to form their own definitions. I know rewriting it isn't the best idea but I think having to develop their own examples and non-examples will be the true test of understanding the definition.

So then should I go ahead and type in the definitions? I wouldn't have to create a handout if the definition is already there. Then the only thing they have to write is the examples and non-examples. Is that enough?

Or should I give them the definition with blanks in it? They have to fill in the blanks and write examples and non-examples?

Please comment and give me your opinion!!


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Ok I'm back. Again.

Thank God for instructional coaches!

Here's my best plan:

 At the beginning of the unit I pass out the vocab templates for all the words in that unit. Students cut apart, fold and paste on the LHP of the vocab notebook.

As we go through daily lessons, I will have a cute little glossary graphic in our notes. Whenever we see those, we stop and go to our glossary and develop our definition- as a class, in class.

Their homework will be to then go home and create the examples and non-examples on the LHP. On the RHP, I will have a slide with 2-3 questions that they will have to answer that takes them more in depth. 

I will stop early enough that they can copy the questions down into their notebook. That will help me stay on track and the questions can help be a closing.

I will collect notebooks once a week to grade. We have early dismissal every Monday for students so I think I will collect them on Mondays. That gives students the whole week and weekend to complete all the vocab assignments.

Grading: I think I will give them one point for each example and non-example they write and 2-3 points for each question they answer. They will have a weekly vocab grade but the amount of points will be different each week.

The questions will help feed into the unit essential questions which I hope to give as a summative assessment and have students help create a grading rubric.

Ta-da!!

The End

Classroom Motivation: Survivor Games

I've been thinking of ways to motivate students who do not care about grades. This is foreign to me because I always care about grades. Always.

What students do care about is competition, winning, and beating their friends. How can I incorporate this into our every day classroom life?

I give you....

Here are my thoughts so far:

Students are put into tribes/districts that will last the school year. Everything they do matters to the tribe. The tribe will decorate a flag/banner to represent their tribe. How can I hang this somewhere as a marker where students can't advance themselves unfairly?

Each quiz will have three levels of questions: easy, medium, hard. Each member that gets the easy question correct gets to pull a game piece out of the food/drink category. Medium earns you a weapon. Hard earns you a luxury item. So I would literally make game pieces on three different colors of paper and have three containers for students to draw from.
 
Once a week there is a scenario from the faceless society/trial council/capitol such as "There is an extreme drop in temperature. All tribe members must relinquish a parka." Tribes where all members turn in the piece advance while teams who can't stay in place.

So everything that normally happens in the classroom: group work, discussion, problem solving, quizzes, tests, neatness, homework, good questions, good behavior, good attendance, etc is now a chance to win game pieces.

There could be a theme for any given time 1/2/3 weeks where we focus on one thing like 'asks good questions', 'perseveres in problem solving', 'perfect tribe attendance', 'no referrals', etc to earn luxury items.

Logistically, I need some type of game board for students to move along whether physical or technological. Something everyone can see but no one can touch. Ideas?

@heather_kohn suggested an immunity necklace for individual honors. That student may win no homework, honor of tribal leader, immunity from a scenario, sitting in the teacher, chance to randomly advance their team (dice) etc.

I haven't decided if students should move up certain levels like health levels (since I don't want any team to die out on purpose) or move around a map of perilous places (more like The Hunger Games, literally).  Or both.

@TJTerryJo suggested 'extra energy' days where students could do work to catch up and advance their tribes...sounds like reassessing in SBG right?

I also thought I could incorporate bell ringers. Give one problem to each tribe each day and the tribe with most points at the end of the week gets to choose a tool/weapon?

Is this something feasible to keep going for the whole year? I've thought of possible monthly prizes such as: go to lunch early for one week, eat lunch outside for one week, team t-shirts, free snacks for a week, lunch of their choice with the teacher, etc.

But what can I use to motivate students to last through the year? If I give monthly prizes then I have to have an end of year prize. If I don't give monthly prizes, will the idea of winning be enough to make them last the school year?

I'm teaching mostly sophomores and juniors, 15-17 year olds. I'm teaching Algebra II and Geometry. Should all tribes compete against each other regardless of class? Or should Geometry compete only with other Geometry classes and Algebra II with Algebra II? Should I hold out for one overall winner or one from each period? Each class?

I think if I plan enough to last the first semester that suggestions will naturally happen along the way and I can use student input to improve it for the second semester.

I could also offer extra credit like interesting problems for students to solve outside of class in order to earn a luxury item or advance their team.

Overall, I want to promote team work, asking good questions, and persevering in problem solving for students who don't care about grades or doing well in school.

What do you think?



Note: Some ideas came from coolmath's Survivor Algebra.