A different conversation

Parent teacher conferences were last night. While the tone of the conversations was the same, the information I was able to convey to parents was very different.

In the past, when students were struggling, I’d say something along the lines of “they need to complete their homework and come in for help”. This year my comments were more focused, “She is having difficulty solving word problems involving percents” or “He is struggling with solving systems of equations.”

While I’ve always thought I knew my students relatively well, I now feel that I better know on what specific skills they need to work.

And I’ve been trying to figure out why. I haven’t (yet) gone to a skills based assessment system. I’m not doing things too differently than I have in the past. I’ve always worked with backwards design – what do I want them to be able to do at the end of this unit and how will I know if they know it. I think I’m finally to a point where I have a very specific goal in mind for each lesson. I then adjust the next day’s lesson based upon what they were able to do (or not do) today. This means I do a lot of work each night preparing for the next day. While I plan ahead for the week, it is definitely done in pencil.

What would you have done?

Yesterday I had a sub for my last two classes of the day. My lesson plans were for the most part the same as they would have been had I been in class – a form of “In your groups compare your results from last night’s assignment and then begin working on the new task”. The only difference was that I held off on the whole class discussions until today.

So, today each group was assigned one problem to present to the class. This went well, the kids explained their work. Other kids asked questions. Others shared alternate methods. I asked a few clarifying questions – of both the people presenting and the people in the audience.

Then a strange thing happened 8th period. As a student is explaining both the math and the thought process behind each step, he is pointing to the screen. This isn’t the strange part. What I found strange were “… and then she…” and “… here she wrote… “. Finally I had to stop him.

“Who is this “she” you keep referring to?”

He points to one of his group members.

“Why are we looking at her paper?”

He states that her work is easier to follow.

“Humor me and toss your paper up there.“

He does.

Blank.

When Sketchpad is Wrong

Last week we went into the lab to play do an investigation with Sketchpad. The task was to create various polygons, measure the angles in each, and calculate the sum of the interior angles. They were then to formulate a “rule” for the sum of the angles as a function of the number of sides.

Then Sketchpad made a mistake.

“Mrs. B, I know this thing is supposed to be 360. Sketchpad isn’t working.”

I know they’ve “learned” how to name angles in middle school. We talked about it before we went into the lab. Doesn’t matter. I think they think math teachers are just really picky and it doesn’t truly matter.

Then Sketchpad is “wrong”. Then I get to have great discussions with a few individual students.

Then these students get to help those working next to them.

I love Sketchpad.

Formative Assessment?

We were recently going to do an activity that involved finding the formula for the sum of the interior angles in a polygon.

This required that they know that a few terms beforehand. I wanted a quick way to check their prior knowledge. I didn’t want to do a worksheet. I didn’t want to give a quiz.

So we played Simon Says.

Simon says stand up and face the front of the room.

Turn 90 degrees to the right.

Gotcha, I didn’t say Simon Says.

Simon says turn 180 degrees.

Okay, now face the front of the room (only got one or two that time).

Simon says turn an obtuse angle.

… you get the idea. Toss a few fun things in there too. Like: Simon says hop on your left foot.

We laughed. They moved around a bit. And I knew exactly which terms I needed to review prior to beginning our activity.