7th Grade Math in MN: Week 1

During the first week, Wed, Thur & Fri, in our district I really try to focus on a couple points.  None of them are using any curriculum except some of YouCubed's Week of Inspirational math tasks.

My Goals of the First Week:
1.  Class Expectations and Routines
2.  Growth Mindset
3.  Group Work Norms
4.  Convince students I care about them

Day 1

Name Tent Feedback
Like many teachers, I start with Sara Van's great Name Tent stuff.  I continue this for the first 3 days.  Since this is the first time I am ever using this, I am not sure about next week.  Although I now curse the name SaraVanderwerf as I was up until midnight on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

Class Expectations
I have 4 simple class expectations.  We go over them in about 5 minutes this first day and we will revisit them many times over the next couple weeks.
1. No Meanness - from Dave Burgess
2. Make Mistakes - Growth Mindset
3. "YET" - Growth Mindset
4. Ask Questions - self-advocacy

100 #s Task
Like many teachers, I also start with Sara Van's great 100 #s task in 7th grade.  As they work, I take some pictures and then we notice and wonder about the pictures.  Great way to start group norms.

Numbers about Me
Then, if we have time, we do a quick group discussion and class discussion about my quick numbers about me quiz.  The kids usually get a kick out of it, and I get to introduce myself a little bit.

A busy and quick day 1, but it hits a little bit on all 4 of my goals.  This first day is super high energy, and I am usually ready for bed around 7:00 that night.

Day 2

Getting to Know Mr. Sieling 
Day 2 starts with ideas from Sara of MathEqualsLove.  I use the Getting to Know You Quiz.  Then the students create their own quiz for me to take.  That was great fun and students really loved it.

Sales Pitch
I have a 3 part sales pitch to the students I give every year about why they will be successful in this math class.  Part one is talking about What is Math and Brain Function.  We use SaraVan's definition that math is really just a "study of patterns."  Then we go into that the brain is made to identify patterns.  We also talk about what we need for the brain to function at its best.  We also talk about Mindset and that we make our brain stronger by doing difficult things and with effort.

Visual Patterns
We then finish up by working on a task from YouCubed's Week of Inspirational Math that is based on Visual Patterns.  After the sales pitch of doing difficult things makes you smarter, and a re-iteration that we expect students to make mistakes, they are usually super willing to give this task a go.

Day 3

We start with the students get their quizzes back from yesterday.  They can't wait to see how I did.  I ask them to mark them right or wrong, mark the correct answer and hand them back so I can study up over the weekend.

Blobs & Lines
Then we go to some movement and an icebreaker called Blobs & Lines.  It gets them moving, laughing and I get to learn a little more about them.
      Link to my Blobs and Lines slides

Sales Pitch
I then go back into Sales Pitch mode.  I quickly review my first part, then launch into my Mindset talk.  We watch this video on YouTube all the way through.  Then we go back through and pause each frame to talk about what it means.  The focus is selling them on effort makes you better.

Witzzle
We finish up the week by trying a Witzzle puzzle.  I have never heard of these until I read this post from MathEqualsLove.  A task that can seem daunting to a 7th grader at first, but when they get into it, they make good progress.  I even had a couple kids tell me they were taking the sheet home to finish this weekend.

All in all, a very successful week to start the year!

Illustrative Math in Minnesota

This year I am implementing a brand new curriculum, Illustrative Mathematics.  I am really excited as they always have had great mathematical tasks on their site. This summer they released their full 6th-8th curriculum.  Understandably so, it was based around the Common Core Math Standards.  However, in Minnesota we do not use the Common Core.  So my excitement was diminished when I realized that a complete re-organization of their units was needed to successfully do this in MN.

So after many hours I have come up with a plan.  It is briefly outlined below for 7th and 8th grade.  I will hopefully blog a little about this as I go.  I am sure changes will be needed, but right now, I am feeling pretty good about getting this done.

While I am excited to be diving into a new curriculum, and excited about all the amazing problems my students will experience this year, I do have a couple concerns.

1. I am trying to plan a curriculum I am only superficially familiar with.  Some of the units are out of the order to help students group ideas and give the class a better flow.  I am worried that some units will reference ideas we have not had a chance to go over yet.

2. 7th grade math in MN is packed to the brim with math.  It is hard to get in all the standards every year.  (I usually fail at this.)  Even with the IM units I have a planned 39 weeks of instruction.  This is too much.  I already know that.  We will see how the timing works out.  Since MN has packed so many standards into 7th grade, and those standards don't align perfectly with Common Core, I have had to grab some 6th grade units and some 8th grade units, while only getting to skip one 7th grade unit (7.7).  So with some of these units I will have to cherry pick the lessons so they flow into the big learning target ideas.

3. I will still have to supplement some higher end 8th grade material.  In Minnesota, the 8th grade math standards are all the linear parts of algebra 1.  So some things are not currently included in Illustrative Math.  So I plan on using some of my old CMP curriculum to hit these learning targets.  I hope when IM finished their HS curriculum, I can grab some units from there instead.

 

Bottle Flipping & Probability

Like most students, my 7th graders are obsessed with bottle-flipping.  So I thought for a long time on how to use this to my advantage with the 7th grade standards.  I came up with a probability lesson.  The lesson combines experimental probability, writing odds from probabilities, and making predictions from probability.

Lesson Plan
1. I lectured about how to turn odds to probability and back again.  (5 min)
     I used examples from sports odds and various other examples.

2. The class discussed bottle flipping.
      We started by discussing bottle flipping, and followed it up with a discussion of how full the bottle should be for optimal flipping.  I handed a water bottle to each student.  While we downloaded the PDF and discussed the instructions students drank some water to get their optimal level.

3. The students flipped and flipped.
     I allowed 5-7 minutes for students to flip bottles and collect data.

4. Students wrote probabilities and odds from the data.
      Students used their own data, and their groups total data (3-4 students) to write probabilities and odds.

5. Students predicted how many successes from their next 10 flips, then tested their prediction.

Overall a quick, hectic, and very loud day.  However a great success for engagement.  Now tomorrow, we will see if any students remember how to write odds and probability.

The handout can be viewed here.

Support Math Class: Update

It has been a while since I got to post anything.  It has been really busy.  Math team has started (I coach JH and HS).  Robotics is in full swing (I coach HS and JH).  Add in lots of other family commitments and I have barely been able to keep up with teaching, much less blogging.

So here are the updates on how the Junior High Support Math Class is going.

Circle Talks
We now do circle talks on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  We have some kids who go to band or choir during class so they are only in class 2-3 days a week.  So by doing circle talks on these 3 days we guarantee that every kid has circle 3 times every two weeks.  I do have some who are in class every day and they obviously get circle 3 times a week.

On Mondays, we ask about their weekend.  On Fridays, we ask about their week.  I had a breakthrough last Friday as I asked about the "highs" and "lows" of their week.  They suddenly were sharing a great deal about their week instead of just a one- or two-word answer.   We also talk about what they are looking forward to for the upcoming weekend.

We also continue to use the If book.  The book is full of interesting questions to get the students talking.  We give one student the book, another student picks a number from 5-129, and then the student with the book picks a question from that page.  We try to get in a couple rounds of this every time we have circle.

The kids have really begun to enjoy their circle time and ask for it when I am slow to get it going on Monday, Wednesday or Fridays.  They also do ask for it on Tuesday and Thursday.

Number Talks
We continued to use Estimation 180 for number talks for quite a while.  At mid-term we switched to Which One Doesn't Belong.  Another number talk designed to get the students thinking and analyzing.  The kids have really taken to this one and enjoy trying to come up with as many reasons as possible that each object doesn't belong.

We will soon begin our number talks based on calculations.  They will focus on Number Sense.  I plan on using this book by Pamela Weber Harris as the basis for these talks.


DreamBox
We have also begun using the DreamBox online system.  Most of the students really love it.  We are currently under a 3 month trial period.  We can have unlimited students for $300.  When the 3 months is up we are hoping to show growth and convince the district to invest in this program for the math support programs.  Once the trial is over the pricing scheme will go back to a per student cost.

The first week I let the students work on whatever standards they wanted to in a grade level band from 5th-8th.  This week I narrowed their focus to the grade level standard we covered in normal math class this quarter.  I got more questions today about the math, but they still seemed to really enjoy doing DreamBox.  We usually try to get 10-15 minutes in per day.  We are going to set a class goal for lessons completed per week, but we haven't gotten that done yet.

Grade Level Standard Help:
During DreamBox time, I have started pulling small groups of students to work with on their work for their main math class.  This has seemed pretty effective so far for some of the students.  We will definitely continue this to help them achieve their grade level standards.

Overall, things are going really well.  I hope to put together some data to show growth.  Just wondering what data to look at.  I want something besides MCA scores.

Support Math Class: Days 12-13

Friday, Sept 9th
1. Circle Talk
       We just did a quick couple questions about reflecting on the week.  These are their least favorite questions.  I need to figure out how to phrase them differently.  I am still getting mostly 1 word answers.  I know I need to be patient.

2. Number Talk
       As we do everyday, we did a number talk.  This was the final bowl of cereal estimate from estimation 180.  The students have really been explaining their thinking process well this week.    We will continue to use these estimation 180 problems to continue to encourage their mathy communication.

3. 15 game
       We have been using Friday as fun math game day so far.  This little adding game was a pretty big hit.  They started off thinking this game was too elementary for them.  Then they realized the strategies involved and were doing lots of number sense thinking.  A big hit.  

Monday, Sept 12th

1. Circle Talk

       A check-in round from the weekend.  A quick question about what they are looking forward to this week.  (it always breaks my heart when they say nothing).  Then a couple what-if questions.  A good circle day with laughter and good stories.  

2. Number Talk 1

     An estimation 180 problem.  Since I am picking the new problems I estimate answers as well with the class and do not know the answers before we go over them.  Today, it was a "how fast will Mr. Stadel walk" and we all underestimated his walking speed.  Only 1 groups minimum was low enough.  Led to a good point about making good ranges.  

3. Number Talk 2

    We used this pattern and found out how many in figure 5 and 10, then went for a general rule.  We used this as a springboard into their 1st learning target of SHOW WORK.  We talked about examples of 4, 3, 2 and 1 on the Show Work rubric.  Then we had each group write up their answer and then the class graded it together.  

Tomorrow we will go over learning target 2, asking for help.  We will see how that one flies.  

Support Math Class: Days 8-11

Coming off Labor Day over the break, the class is going well.

Last Friday - Day 8
Circle Talk
We reflected on the week.  The highlight for me was when I asked "what was your highlight of the week" and two students said the support math class.  First major victory of the year!
Number Talk
The students are tiring of number talks.  However, the thinking is so good for them.
Sprouts Game
I taught the class Sprouts and it was a really good time.  They took to it and were engaged the whole time.

Tuesday - Day 9
Circle Talk
Just questions about their weekend and prepping for the week.  They requested some more would you rather questions as well.  Those are always a good time.
Number Talk
Switched it up to some estimation 180 questions.  We did the first cereal estimation task.  The students struggled trying to explain their reasoning for their estimations.  Getting them beyond, "I don't know I just guessed" is hard.  I made them write down 3 numbers.  Too high, too low and their best guess.
Number Talk 2
We did another pattern to review their math from regular math class on linear relationships and proportional relationships.

Wednesday - Day 10
Our football team won 66-12 the week before.  So I took Dan Meyers 3-act problem "Bucky the Badger" and used our stats instead.  Our cheerleaders do jumping jacks after every score.  So we estimated and calculated how many they did for the entire game.  A good thinking problem on our early out day with 30-minute classes.

Thursday - Day 11
Number Talk
We did the second cereal estimation problem from Estimation 180.  Today went better than Tuesday.  The students, working in groups of 2, estimated the solution.  Each group then explained their reasoning and did quite well.
Number Talk 2
Another visual pattern to help review linear patterns and writing equations.

Practice Time

We have not set up our DreamBox accounts yet.  I am still trying to recruit so we can have enough for the 40 minimum students required for a school account.  So I sadly used the IXL program for practice.  The 7th graders identified proportional relationships, and the 8th graders identified linear relationships.  It went fine.  Hopefully, it built some confidence for their upcoming quiz.  

All in all a good few days.  Tomorrow will bring back some circle talk to help reflect on the week.  Then we will review for the quiz.  

Support Math Class Day 7: Circle Talk, Number Talk and Sprouts

Circle talk again opened JH support math class today.  First question was "what are two words that describe how you are doing today?"  Sample answers:
        "Good, very good."
        "Good, great."
        "Fun, funions."
So I will have to try another strategy to get longer answers on that opening round.
Other questions from today:
1. What is your favorite junk food?
2. If you knew you could not fail, what would you do?
      (inspired from my amazing 6th grade teacher neighbors)
3. What does the best case scenario of school look like to you for this year?



I also included a summary of the talking pieces I have used so far this week.  Trying to change it up and see what sticks with the kids.  These are all just things around my desk so far.

The R2D2 thing is actually an eraser.  Which allowed me to explain to the kids that I love Star Wars, and I love fixing mistakes.

The number talk went really well.  They are getting closer and closer to coming up with rules for the patterns.  Again the pattern came from Visual Patterns.  

We finished up the pattern a little early, so inspired by Sarah Carter's great #teach180 tweets, we learned how to play the game sprouts.  They were totally engaged and loving it.
Here is a quick YouTube video explaining the game.  

A great week so far!