Now that I have finished my first whole unit of Algebra 1 interactive notebooks I am so ready to talk about them, share pictures and all my newly gained knowledge on what works and what does NOT work when trying to have 30 high school freshman follow directions.
The first lesson we did was about translating expressions. We spent an entire class period and a half on this because it shows up over and over again in the curriculum. We started the unit by doing a card sort, where I put students in groups of 3 or 4, and gave them about 30 words on cards to sort into 8 different categories. The eight categories were:
Addition
Subtraction
Multiplication
Division
Exponents
Grouping
Questions
Answers
The only instructions that I gave them were to sort them into the categories and that there were some words that could go into more than one category. I also told them that if I was walking around and asking about their words, they should be able to have an example of why they put each word in the different categories. This was the first time that some of my students had an activity where there was no one correct answer. It was very hard for them to wrap their heads around that idea. Once we got past that, it took them about 15 minutes to sort the words and there was a lot of good conversations going on in the groups. (okay, not EVERY group, but most of them were doing what I was asking!) After they were done, I had each group write their words for one of the categories on big chart paper, this was perfect because I knew from the beginning I needed 6 groups (I made one group do questions and answers, and one do exponents and grouping) and I gave each group a different colored marker to write their answers. After each group wrote their initial words, I made them go around in a group (1 person wrote, the others told them what to write and helped decide about the words) and put a check mark next to the words they agreed belonged under the category, circle the words they disagreed with (this gets rid of the ugly "x" marks) and put a question mark next to the ones they aren't sure what they mean. This worked well in 3 out of my 4 classes. The last class just had one person from each group walk around and the rest stayed seated, even when I told them over and over and OVER to have all group members standing and walking. Once they were done marking them up, we went through each word individually and decided where they should go. I asked for examples for all words to get students thinking about what the words meant and how they would see them in a math classroom. This also helped me to learn their names because I was calling on students, instead of letting them volunteer. When we were done deciding where each word went and with examples, we wrote it down in our foldable organizer. I referred to this as their "math dictionary" and constantly reminded them that you cannot learn a new language in one day. It takes time, so it's going to take time to get down "math language" too, but that's why we made a dictionary. After pasting it in our notebooks, we did about 10 practice problems below to practice going from verbal to algebraic expressions and vice versa.
The practice problems was where I learned a WHOLE lot about what we can and cannot put in our notebooks. For one thing, I make them keep their notebooks in my classroom in fun colored crates ($2.47 at Walmart!) in the back, labeled with their period. I thought that this would eliminate the "oh I forgot my notebook at home today, I can't take notes" and losing notes. So far, it's worked wonderfully to cut back on this, and I am so happy I made this decision from the beginning. I have had a few misplaced in the wrong crate, but now even if they can't remember what period it is, they know the color of the crate it needs to go into. Anyways, back to the whole example dilemma. For my first period "guinea pigs" (I tell them every time we do an interactive notebook lesson that they are my guinea pigs for how it's going to go with the rest of my classes) we had our 10 examples that we cut out on individual rectangles, wrote the answers on the back and then put them in a pocket in our notebooks. Simple enough right? WRONG. This was a complete DISASTER. This is what I felt like:
Except for instead of watermelons all over my classroom, I had tiny pieces of paper with those all important examples all over my classroom. The examples went well and the cutting and the pocket all got put together wonderfully. I knew it was going too well. When they went to go put away their notebooks, all the examples came falling out, or later when they had to pick them up the next day, again all the examples came falling out and the bottom of their class' crate looked like this:
Whoops. Not good.
What I decided to do with my other classes was to use the same examples, except write them in the notebooks instead of cutting them out and using a pocket. This went much better. The students learned more from having to write the words, they didn't run out of space on the back of the tiny rectangles, overall, much better this way. Here are the pictures of how my notebook turned out. (I'll add pictures of student notebooks later, they have the same exact examples, just written out instead of in my "examples" pocket)
After last year, I've decided to change almost everything that I've done in my classroom. My organization and materials were not horrible, but I'm excited to make them better now.
I've recently gotten into making a TON of activities to use in my classroom. Anything to get my students up and moving, instead of sitting at their desk for the full 90 minute class period. I've been lucky enough to be able to try some of these activities out in Summer School and try some different approaches to the same activities. My kids this summer have been great guinea pigs, even though they don't know that they have been.
This post will be detailing everything I have learned about creating and executing the perfect, well okay, the best so far (still learning!) scavenger hunt.
{ONE}
Smaller teams, smaller disruptions
I've had a few scavenger hunts done in both "day" school and summer school and I've found that the smaller the groups or teams that are working together, the more work actually gets done. This may seem like a no-brainer, and it took me approximately one scavenger hunt or around the room activity to figure this out. ;) I've had to add some stations or improvise on the rules for a couple scavenger hunts in order to make sure this works.
{TWO}
Copy the problem, work at your seat
It's worked best for me to have students copy the problem while standing, then go back to their desks or group of desks to do the actual work. This cuts down on the standing traffic and having more than one group at a question chatting instead of working. This also helps me to see who is working, instead of pretending to work standing in a group. I've also found that when students are sitting down, their handwriting for their work gets exponentially better than when they are standing and trying to find a flat surface to write on.
{THREE}
Everybody does every problem
While sometimes it is beneficial to let students work in groups, I've found that if all students have to show all work, the more students learn. Whenever we do groupwork and I only require one work sheet to be handed in per group, only one person does all the work while the rest of the students in the group watch. This way, even if they copy (my students would never do that!) they are at least learning and doing something rather than just watching.
That's what I have for now. I've got so many ideas and things I want to share its hard for me to find a starting point! If you want to see any of the scavenger hunts I've done, you can find them on my Teachers Pay Teachers store, here.
Let me know if you have any other great ideas for using scavenger hunts in the classroom!
Well here goes nothing...
I have decided that to better prepare myself for this new year of teaching, I will chronicle everything that I decide to do and how it works. That way, when this time next year rolls around and I am looking back to tweak and revamp things, I won't be stuck where I am now. I remember having all these great ideas at the end of the year last year and throughout the year of things I would like to try, but I can't remember the ACTUAL details. So here is my remedy. Create a blog. And hopefully remember to update/actually blog every once and awhile so that I have these great ideas to look back on.
Since this is the first post on this blog, I'll start by sharing a little about myself. I am about to be a second year teacher at a high school in Northern Virginia. This past year I taught Algebra 1, Algebra 1, Part 1 and AFDA (Algebra, Functions & Data Analysis). One Algebra 1 class and my part 1 class were team-taught ESOL classes. My favorite class by far was Algebra 1. I had 3 sections of it and my students were great. Luckily I feel that way, because this year, I will be teaching 4 sections of Algebra 1 and tackling a brand new subject (to teach, at least) Algebra 2. I am so stoked to have all Algebra classes this year, even if they are all SOL classes. In order to prepare myself for the SOL classes, I have already started to stock up on my $0.15 folders at Staples, much to the dismay of my husband who thinks I am obsessed with school supplies. (He may have a valid reason or twenty to feel that way!)
So there you have it. A little about me, a little about my journey and a lot of math to be excited about! I am so excited to start a new school year with a new outlook and a completely different take on classroom management. It looks a little like this:
But more on that later... Thanks for sticking with me and learning with me as I prepare and begin for my second year of teaching!
