Support Math Day 4: First Circle Talk and a Number Talk

Day 4:
Today in support math class was our first day talking using the circle format.  We started by writing down 1 word on a note card that represents how we like to be treated.  We then used that as a springboard into creating guidelines we will use for our circle time and class time.  Our guidelines we agreed to are:

1. Respect talking piece
2. What's said in circle stays in circle
3. No fighting
4. Listen to each other
5. Can pass the talking piece without answering
6. Eye contact with speaker
7. Don't talk while others talk
8. Have fun, get work done

We then did a couple rounds of questions to help build people's confidence and the community of the circle.  Those questions were:
1.  If you could be any superhero, who would you be and why?
2.  What was the highlight of the first four days of school?

There might have been another question, but I can't recall it right now.


The second part of class was a number talk.
We used this image and asked
1. What do you notice?
2. What do you wonder?

We talked about what we noticed.  They still didn't wonder to much, but that is really okay at this point.  They noticed how it grew and immediately latched onto the rate of change of 2.  (although not in those words)

I then asked groups of 2-3 to answer the following questions
1. How many cubes in figure 5?
2. How many cubes in figure 10?

After discussing the classes solutions, we then asked about figure 20.

These questions brought out some great misconceptions and things for us to work on the rest of the week.

This week will be about creating the foundation for a good circle community and talking through number talks.

First Week of Support Math Class

My initial goal is to continually blog about how my support math class for 7th and 8th graders is going this year.  This is the first year in a long time I have taught a support math class for junior high and I am pretty excited about it.  I wrote about my 4 pillars for the class last time.

My first week goal, was to get the kids over the dread of having a second math class.  The typical students in support math are not excited to even have 1 math class, much less 2.

Day 1:  Marshmallow Challenge

The students walked in on day 1 and we quickly went over why we were in the class.  Then we quickly went over the 4 class expectations.
   1. No Meanness
   2. Make Mistakes
   3. ...Yet
   4. Ask for Help

I then handed out materials for the marshmallow challenge.  The students were totally engaged.  This is a great problem with a great ending that allows me to again repeat expectation #2 about making mistakes.  It was a great day 1.


Day 2: Bridge Challenge
The second day we reviewed that class goals and expectations then quickly got to another building challenge.  This one involved the following materials for each group:
    12 marshmallows
    20 straws
    1 small cup
   50 pennies

the goal was to build the longest bridge that could hold at least 50 pennies that were sitting in a cup.

Overall the kids were just as engaged as day 1.  We did have  small mishap as one group decided to smash up 5 marshmallows to create a paste to stick the straws to the desk.  (Had to leave 10 minutes at the end of the period for cleanup)   I encouraged creativity, and then taking responsibility for clean up for those decisions as well.


Day 3: Number Talk 1 and Build Challenge 3
On the third day, I threw in our first of many number talks.  I grabbed the first pattern of visualpatterns.org.  (seen below)  I just asked the students 2 questions,
    1)  What do you notice?
    2)  What do you wonder?

For their first time, they handled this pretty well.  They focused more on the noticing, and less on the wondering, but that was expected.  They focused on the number of small squares.  So after some questions about how it is growing, and how many would be in pattern 4, I then asked them to think about how many small squares would be in pattern 10?  They got time to think, and then discuss in small groups.  We then discussed as a class and it went incredibly well for the first number talk. 

We then spent 20 minutes on our third building challenge of the week.  They got spaghetti, straws, tape and string and their job was to build out from the desk as long as possible.  To pick a winner I measured from the edge of the desk out to where there structure stopped horizontal to the floor.  

It was a creative and fun week!  

Next week will see more number talks, and the introduction of circle time.  

My 4 Pillars of Support Math Class

Support Math Class for Junior High Students

This year I get to have a support math class for 7th and 8th graders for the first time in years.  I have learned a lot of different things since the last time I taught this class.  I am trying an entirely new approach this time around.  I am going to build the class around 4 pillars.

1. Computer Program - DreamBox Learning
    This pillar is pretty typical in a support math class.  I choose DreamBox over other computer based programs because it does a pretty good job of focusing on concepts and big ideas over skills.  My own children (7, 11, and 13) used the program over the summer and liked it.  I plan on not even introducing this part of the class for quite a while.

2.  Number Talks
     I think this pillar could really be a whole support math class by itself.   I love number talks.  I use them in every class, just not often enough.  I plan to use Chris Danielson's "Which One Doesn't Belong" to start with.  It has a low enough entry point that most students should be comfortable talking about these problems.  I will then shift math talks, visual patterns, estimation 180 and activities from Pamela Weber Harris' great book.  I envision this as the main pillar of the four.

3. MakerSpace/Hands-on/Genius Hour
     This pillar is kind of a mish-mash approach to getting the students moving and trying to ignite their passion.  I started the first couple days on this pillar.  I envision creating, making and igniting curiosity.  I am worried about resources for this pillar, especially in the MakerSpace part.  Trying to find the right kind of things the students will be curious about seems daunting, especially with no funds.

4. Restorative Justice/Circle Practices
     This portion will be used to create a community feeling in the classroom.  I was a circle volunteer for years in my county in the RJ program.  It was a great way to help and connect with youth and connect youth to the community.  I say in a 4-day training on using RJ in schools this summer. It got me completely excited about bringing this tradition to my classroom.  This article is a nice summary of using the circle process in schools.  Here is also a nice edutopia video about circles.

Trying to get all this together in a cohesive fashion is going to be a challenge.  It is a challenge I look forward to in the upcoming year.  I look forward to the mistakes, the victories and all the in-between.

SBG using 2 Types of Quizzes

For over 5 years I have used a SBG (standards-based grading) system in my room.  It starts with listing out the learning targets and only using assessments on those learning targets for the grade.  No homework, no behaviors, etc...  I have always liked this setup, but I have noticed it shifted my class to a more skill based class.  Math became a series of skills, that though they were connected, it seemed the students were less able to apply them in other situations.

My homework reflected this as well.  I don't give a lot of HW, but for the last couple years I have exclusively used websites like IXL.com and Buzzmath.com for homework.

So I decided something needed to change this year.  Here is my plan.  In both homework and quizzes there will be two categories: Skills and ACE.  Skills HW is from websites and Skill Quizzes are the same as they have been.  They are pretty bare bones and focus on whether or not the student can do the math skill or not.  What I have added is the ACE HW and quizzes.  I took the ACE HW name from my old CMP2 curriculum.  It stands for Applications, Connections and Extensions.  I could think of no better name for what I am trying to get at with this new HW and quizzes.  So I am currently alternating between IXL skills HW and ACE HW.

In both cases I am still allowing student choice.  The Skill IXL homework comes with 3 choices, Level 4, Level 3 and Level 2 HW.  The ACE HW comes with the directions to answer 2 of the questions.  The questions have multiple parts and often involve multiple steps and critical thinking to be properly solved.  I have a variety of Level 4 and Level 3 problems on the ACE HW.  The last ACE HW for 8th grade can be seen here.

The 7th graders just had their first ACE quiz.  It went pretty well.  Most students perfectly applied their knowledge to the problem.  The average score on the Skills quiz was 3.6, while on the ACE quiz it was 3.2. The 3.6 included retakes by numerous students.  The 8th graders will have their first ACE quiz next week.

Grading has stayed mostly the same.  Their grade was always based on their most recent two quizzes. Now their grade for each learning target is based on their most recent Skills quiz and their most recent ACE quiz.  So parents will get a report listing each learning target, their 2 quiz scores and the resulting grade.  A summary of how I go from 2 1-4 scores to a percentage grade can be found HERE.

So far, I am very happy with how this is going.  I hope it will lead to more problem solving, critical thinking, and applying math in various contexts.

Starting My Interactive Notebook Journey

I have decided to do Interactive Notebooks this year for 7th and 8th grade math.  So I have been reading many blogs and posts about INB.  The amazing blogs Math Equals Love and Everybody is a Genius have been my main reading although there have been many more.  Also my great teaching friend Becky over at Sum Math Madness has been amazingly helpful as I start this adventure.

I have been really excited about this adventure, but there have been a couple major sources of stress.  First, the process in class of getting these things made in an efficient manner.  Second, what goes in the first couple pages?  

For the first concern, I created little baskets of materials for each group.  They contain things they may need each day as we create materials for the INB.  Scissors, tape, glue sticks, markers, colored pencils, and calculators.  I found these super cute little baskets at Target for really cheap.  I am also going to spray paint some ice cream buckets to use as trash baskets for each group.

For my second concern, I finally got it hammered out last night and created some templates in word to create some basic INB pages.  I decided to start with a table of contents, then small individual version of this amazing bulletin board, and finally classroom information.



I have been a big standards-based grader for years now.  This has led to my creating a 1-4 rubric for each of the learning targets of the class.  This year I cut them down to 24 for each 7th and 8th grade math.  So I wanted to figure out a way to include the rubrics in the INB.  I am pretty sure I figured out a format to do this pretty efficiently.  We will see how it works out.  I will probably have to adjust multiple times as I go.  I just have to remember that I will not get everything perfect this year.

Getting students to think about Brain Function in Math

As we get ready to start another school year, I am really thinking about my first week of school.  My first week has  couple major goals:

• Get to know students' names
• Convince students they can do math
• Discuss Multiple Intelligences
• Discuss how a teenagers brain works
• Discuss Growth Mindset and Fixed Mindset

I usually don't start any of my official "learning targets" until the second week.  I have used numerous approaches for this each year.  This year I am going to try to use the youcubed material for "A Week of Inspirational Math."  I am pretty excited about this approach this year.  It seems to cover most of my major goals while simultaneously getting into some interesting math.  

During the week I am going to slowly go through my first week Prezi presentation about the goals as well.  I am going to use this instead of the youcubed videos on various days.  

When talking about how the brain can get better at math by "doing math" I have used a road analogy in the past.  This year I am going to add some visuals to this analogy to hopefully help it sink in.  

Image 1: Grassy Field

The road to math starts as a grassy field that is slow and hard to cross.  It takes a lot of effort to do math but it can be done.  

Image 2: Small Dirt Path
As you do more math, the brain upgrades the path a little bit to do math.  Now when a student does math the thinking goes a little better because of the repetitive use of that part of the brain.

Image 3: Dirt Road
The brain upgrades again to you can do harder math and it comes a little faster.

Image 4: Tarred Road
The brain keeps upgrading those connections to math knowledge.  The more often you work on math, the better the pathway to math gets so you can learn more complicated math.

Image 5: Interstate Highway
The brain keeps upgrading the connections for harder math problems.

Hopefully these images combined with the messages from YouCubed will help convince students that if they keep on trying in math, they will improve their math skills.  

We're Going on a Square Hunt: Simplifying Radicals

The class spent a week exploring the Pythagorean Theorem.  After creating a need with the students to handle square roots, on Friay we went over how to simplify them.  This topic has always been a bit dry and never quite landed with the students.  I have always talked about trying to find perfect squares and use those to break down the number.

The previous night was parent-teacher conferences.  I had some free time and the other math teacher and I started talking about the very topic of simplifying radicals.  He said he just went over it with one of his HS classes.  He used a factor tree approach and was very successful.  So this ignited a crazy idea for the lesson....

So as the class entered today I played this video of Michael Rosen acting out the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt.  The kids looked at me and screen like I was crazy.  They stared in a silent weirdness at the board for the first minute.  Then a crazier thing happened...they started singing along.  They all remember this book.  They started laughing and getting really into it.  It was really fun.

After the video, I showed them a couple slides.  I used images from the book but changed the words.

We're going on a square hunt.  

We're gonna catch a big one.

What a beautiful day.

Were not scared.

Oh no, a radical. 

A big, scary radical.

We can't square root it.

We can't go around it.

We have to go through it.

My mini-version of the story ended with a picture and the square root of 28.
We then broke down 28 by using a factor tree.  We ended up with Sqrt(2x2x7).

I then talked about how we are now starting the "square hunt."  We went looking for a length and a width that would make a square.  We found the 2x2 to make a square.  However, the 7 had no pair to make a square so we left it in the cave.  Then we rewrote it as....2 Sqrt(7).

We went through another example or too like this.  The students really caught on to the method. I am hoping that at some point some students find the shortcut during the method.  Even if they don't, this method easily gets exapnded to variables, cube roots, and higher.

Anyway it was a really fun day and the students learned something.  All in all a great day!