Beginning of the Year

The beginning of the year is particularly painful for me.  It isn't because I am missing my short summer vacation or because I have to do the whole shebang all over again. Instead it is because I find it hard to remember that these students that sit before me, are not my students of last year.  They are untrained in my ways as a teacher.  I take for granted that my students last year knew that I would always follow up their response with a question asking them to justify or clarify. They are unsure when I am joking and when I am serious. They push the boundaries and question my decisions, they are the untrained sixth graders that I will take and shape until they are better versions of themselves.  By the time I do this, it is time for them to leave me and move on to another school and other teachers.  I sometimes get glimpses of my work when they come back and visit me or email me to say hi.  But until they are the trained versions that I love, I must remind myself to stay patient.

Mean as a Balance Point

So, if you teach in Virginia you would that the state (and subsequently my county) have once again changed our pacing guide! We have new standards and objectives that we have to teach...and most days it feels like less time...

BUT, one of the new concepts that we have to teach is "mean as a balance point".  This seems like a pretty simple concept...in fact I applaud you whoever came up with this because for once it is a developmentally appropriate concept for 6th graders...

BUT in 5th grade, students are supposed to learn mean/average as a fair share concept...let's face it most of us do not do this.  We just teach the students to do the algorithm by adding them all up and dividing.

BUT, what does this mean??? Why do we do it??  Why does adding them all up and dividing work? I want my students to be able to communicate what mean is. I want them to show me how they can prove it without using the formula, and let's face it I want them to pass the new standardized test that asks them to use the balance point method.

So, while they may understand that mean is another word for average, which can be found by using the "fair share" or "balance point" methods, it is difficult for students to UNLEARN an algorithm   You would think I asked them to solve a 10th grade math problem!  They freak out when I do not allow calculations of any kind.

What I did allow was manipulatives.

Using a word problem from "Navigating through Data Analysis and Probability in Grades 3-5" I asked the students to create a line plot that shows me seven possible scores from a soccer game.  The students have some discussion about what is probable and what they have background knowledge of.  I then ask the students to use the algorithm to find their mean.  The majority of students have different scores.  I then ask them, what if my mean is 2, what could my seven scores be then?  The students continue to use the algorithm to try and solve my problem.  Most of them can find these scores.  We then take a gallery walk to see all the other line plots.  The students start to notice that line plots differ, that the data can be different even if the mean is the same.  I think do my mini-lesson on balance.  I connect it to a balance beam and absolute value (the distance from 0).  From there I ask them to try to find two more line plots that have a balance point of 2.  This took the rest of my 1 hr. long class.  The next day, we used the same line plots and manipulatives to find a line plot that has a balance point of 2:
A. only 1 game had 2 goals
B. Exactly two games had 4 goals
C. One game had an amazing 7 goals!
D. The median of the data set is 3.

This 1 activity took two days, but I am confident and have two tests (1 multiple choice and 1 open ended) to prove their understanding of the topic.  They are able to communicate what "fair share" is, what a "balance point" is, and what does average mean.


I also tied this math concept into our social studies unit about the House of Representatives.  We took a census of how many people live in your household and created a bar graph, table, and line plot from this data. The students had to find the balance point from this data.

She is Why I Teach

The whisperings of burnout
                                            of failure
sulk through my brain
War of Words come out
of my friends.
     I don't think I can do it.
I'm not happy.
                                         I'm not happy.
                                                    failure.
hesitant to turn away

then reminded of why I began
She is why I teach
that quiet girl
        with no belief
in herself or her voice.
that shy girl that is afraid
to succeed
that put down girl
      the one told that she is
     not              smart          enough
not       good                       enough
not enough.
she is why I teach.
I teach to give her a voice.
If she never passes a test
    fine.
Does she believe?
That is my success.

Coordinate Plane Battleship with Flipped Classroom

I have seen this lesson all over the web the last couple of years, but this year I decided to try it out.  If you have ever read my other posts you would know that I am trying to integrate the flipped classroom approach into my math class this year.  Previous to this lesson, I gave the students 2 Google Docs homework assignments that they had a week to complete.  The first assignment asked the students to watch two videos and answer questions about the coordinate plane.  They then had to create a coordinate plane that labeled the x and y axis, the different quadrants, and plot two points.  After this, the second assignment gave them a word problem with a solution.  They had to determine whether to solution was wrong or correct and explain why.  If the students were unable to complete it in the week's time they were given the opportunity during class.  While those students were completing the assignment, my other students played the coordinate plane battleship game.  The weekend before I went to pizza hut, papa john's, and dominoes to gather pizza boxes. I was able to get them for free from all places, but I will say that I got the most (20 boxes) from papa johns.  I then bought a huge bag of skittles. These were the ships.  I explained to the students that whatever they sunk, they got to eat....so they were very motivated by this concept.

I was very happy with how this game turned out.  The students were engaged, excited, and were able to practice plotting points.

Seussland

Seussland

Teacher Directions: You will be creating a Game Board out of your classroom.  The game will have 13 centers that the students will visit in the 2-hour time slot. 

Students will collaborate in pairs to go around to the different centers with.  It isn’t about who wins first, it is about who created the best product at each center.

Each center will have an end product that will be judged.  Whoever wins at that center will get a prize (TBA). 

Each center will have a bag with the directions and the Dr. Seuss book that it is based upon (if applicable).  Multiple groups can be there at the same time, but there is a limit of 3 groups per center at 1 time.  The students will roll a dice to see which center they will visit next.  If they land on a center they have already been at, they roll again.

Student Directions: 

Center 1 (with computers)

Options:  You may gather information about his life from Wikipedia, read his books on MYON, or reanalyze the Dr. Seuss books that you have previously read.

Center 2:  Fox in Socks (computer)

Directions:  Create a video in Smart Notebook of you reading the book “Fox in Socks.”

Click the video camera button at the top

Once you click the red button, you must start recording.  It will record every movement you make on your computer screen and your voice.  When you are done, push stop.

*Make sure to save to the your drive.

Center 3: Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!

Directions:  Think about all of the teachers that you have had in your school career.  Write a rhyming Seuss-like poem to describe two of those teachers.  Make sure to draw a picture!  (Yes, it can be stick figures).  For extra credit, you can make up your own teacher to describe.

Center 4:  Oh! The Places You Will Go!

Directions:  I was given this book on my last day of High School.  My stepfather thought it was the perfect book to send me away in.  I love the message in this book.  It helps me remember that I can achieve things.  Write a letter to an upcoming 6^th grader that encourages them to achieve great things in 6^th grade.  (It does not have to rhyme).

Center 5:  Horton Hatches the Egg

Directions:  Take the story and turn it into a two-person play.  A two-person play is a play that only has two actors.  The actors can play more than 1 role. Be prepared to act it out!

Center 6: The Cat in the Hat Comes Back

Directions:  Create your own Cat in the Hat Comes Back comic strip with new events.  It must rhyme!

Center 7: Horton Hears a Who!

Directions:  Summarize this book into a short poem.  Make sure to include all of the important details, and it must rhyme!

Center 8:  Guest Reader

Center 9: Green Eggs and Ham

Directions:  Write a persuasive paper that convinces someone either to hate green eggs and ham or to love green eggs and ham.  It must have three reasons why you would love/hate green eggs and ham. 

Center 10:  Create a game that celebrates Dr. Seuss. Use these questions and answers as guiding information. 

Center 11: Seussteller

Directions:  Create the given Suessteller, then create your own based upon Dr. Seuss’s books you have read.

Center 12: Write your own Dr. Seuss book!

Directions:  With a partner, create your own Dr. Seuss book.  Think about every Dr. Seuss book you have read.  They all have certain things in common.  They all have some made up words to make it rhyme.  They all have pictures that show the story.  Plus, they all have an important message.  Create your own rhyming picture book that gives an important message.  BE CREATIVE!

Inspiration

I loved this video so much I am going to buy the book!

Making Measurement Meaningful

 I have recently begun the 4-week long measurement unit that is always painful and frustrating.  I find it this way, because students have been learning about measurement for years, and it should be a simple and quick topic, yet students often struggle with it.  I find they have no real concept of what a cup, a liter, a mile is.  They are able to quote facts about how many cups are in a gallon and how many inches are in a foot, but they struggle with answering questions like what would you use to measure how much water will fit into a pool or how many steps he took to walk to school that day.  Knowing this, and wishing to have a less frustrating unit, I decided to take my students down the path of experiments.  They are able to quote facts, but with these experiments, they must prove it to me.  The pictures you see here are three experiments that I did for our volume and capacity mini-unit.  

I began with having the students fill different amounts of water and pour them into both customary and metric containers.  This allowed the students to see which amount is bigger liters or gallons, cups or pints, milliliters or cups, liters or quarts.  The students were then asked to reflect and answer a couple standardized test questions to see if they could transfer their knowledge.  So far, they seem to have a better understanding but we will see if they retain it. My next lesson involved surface area and volume of rectangular prisms.  Using linker cubes, I wanted to show students that you have different shapes with the same amount of volume, but the surface area may not be the same.  This experiment also allowed them the chance to use the formula sheet that is provided on the standardized tests.  I have seen students never look at the formula sheet on the day of the test because they have no experience with it, and don't know what it means.  The last experiment was inspired by a pin I saw on pinterest. The students were given the task of making a box that would contain popcorn.  I gave them the challenge: The bigger the volume of your box the more amount of popcorn you will get.  In partners, they have to make a box out of 8 1/2 by 11 in. paper and calculate the volume and surface area of their container.  For my higher-level students, I then challenged them to create a container with a different shape.  They still had to find the volume and surface area using their formula sheet.  

If the students are able to retain this information, I will definitely do these experiments again.  In three 1-hour blocks, I have seen my students work collaboratively while using mathematical vocabulary, ask questions that furthered their understanding, and reflect on what their strengths and weaknesses are.  The students have been able to learn my objectives in a hands-on way that did not require me to lecture or create a PowerPoint presentation.  Instead, the only thing I had to do was get containers for the water, buy popcorn for the containers, and copy the handouts.  Not a bad deal, if it means my student is loving math, understanding the objectives, and retaining the information for longer than a week.