We have finished our Function unit but there are students that still need some practice and have a few misconceptions I need to clear up. I could completely tell this when the students did a formative assessment on Quizizz.com over the basics from the unit. The picture to the left says it all! Too much red! (Shameless plug for Quizizz. I do like it because it has the question and the answer choices on the student device. I also like it because I can turn the timer off for my students that have too much anxiety when time is involved. Oh, and, the results are real time so I can see what students know and don't know right now!)
Back to my review idea ... I knew from this data that students still were struggling with evaluating functions, finding equations from written situations, deciding between independent and dependent variables and many more of the basic pieces of functions.
I decided to do the following for class, and overall, it went very well. I think the reason it went so well was that it was broken up into chunks. I don't know about other 8th graders, but mine don't have the patience, attention span, determination, etc. to stay with one task for too long. Here is what a 55 minute class looked like today. Images of each chunk are displayed in the pictures of the bottom of this post.
Chunk 1: (10 minutes)
Students corrected the test review handout using an answer key posted on Edmodo. When they finsihed correcting the ones they had done (I had only asked students to work for 20 minutes which meant some finished and some didn't), I asked them to work on problems they still needed to finish (or fix). I walked around and helped answer questions until everyone was done correcting.
Chunk 2: (15 minutes)
Students met with their 30 degree partner (explanation of degree partners on p. 8 of this document), and they decided between 4 activities.
#1: Around the Room (activity linked here)
Problems are the bottom half of the paper and answers are on the top of another sheet. The papers are hung up around the room, not in order. Students walk around and match problems and answers. They should end up back where they started if all goes well!
#2: Grid Game (activity linked here)
Student A rolls 2 dice. One goes with the numbers on top of the grid, one goes with the numbers on the side. Student A solves the problem and student B checks the answer with the answer key. If student A has the problem correct, they put their initials in the box. Then they switch roles. If a student doesn't get a problem correct, they can't put their initials in the box. They continue playing until time is up. (You can always give the winners a prize. I usually consider the winner the student who has the most initials on the grid.)
#3: Task Cards (activity linked here)
I just made 20 problems, printed 2 copies on cardstock, cut them out and put them on my "task cards" bulletin board. I put the questions into categories and posted the kind of question in each group above the cards. This helped students pick which kind of problem they needed to work on! I also posted the answer key so students could check as they went along.
#4: Graphing review (linked here)
This was just an old-fashion worksheet. They needed practice plugging in x-values and getting out y-values. #4 really stumped most of them.
Chunk 3: (7 minutes)
I displayed the results from their quizizz.com assessment from the day before and went over questions that as a class were below 70%. I turned off one bank of lights, had students put everything away, and swivel to the front. They were very attentive and asked great questions.
Chunk 4: (15 minutes)
Students met with their 220 degree partner and selected a new activity to do from the list above. A couple wanted to do the same one and since there were many questions in most of the activities, I asked them to try and do different ones if possible. I didn't have anyone just try and use their "work" from the first activity during the second one. They were very focused.
Chunk 5: (5 minutes)
The last few minutes of class I brought them all together and in each hour mentioned one thing I still saw students doing incorrectly. I then re-explained their homework and warned them that I would be collecting ther test review tomorrow before the test.
One thing I liked about this chunking review activity was that students had the chance to work closely with two different people during the hour. Every student understands things a bit differently so they explain things differently too. A struggling student may hear something said just a bit different from how I say it and it may finally click. (That is at least my hope!)
Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas to make this better by adding to the comment section! Enjoy!
Back to my review idea ... I knew from this data that students still were struggling with evaluating functions, finding equations from written situations, deciding between independent and dependent variables and many more of the basic pieces of functions.
I decided to do the following for class, and overall, it went very well. I think the reason it went so well was that it was broken up into chunks. I don't know about other 8th graders, but mine don't have the patience, attention span, determination, etc. to stay with one task for too long. Here is what a 55 minute class looked like today. Images of each chunk are displayed in the pictures of the bottom of this post.
Chunk 1: (10 minutes)
Students corrected the test review handout using an answer key posted on Edmodo. When they finsihed correcting the ones they had done (I had only asked students to work for 20 minutes which meant some finished and some didn't), I asked them to work on problems they still needed to finish (or fix). I walked around and helped answer questions until everyone was done correcting.
Chunk 2: (15 minutes)
Students met with their 30 degree partner (explanation of degree partners on p. 8 of this document), and they decided between 4 activities.
#1: Around the Room (activity linked here)
Problems are the bottom half of the paper and answers are on the top of another sheet. The papers are hung up around the room, not in order. Students walk around and match problems and answers. They should end up back where they started if all goes well!
#2: Grid Game (activity linked here)
Student A rolls 2 dice. One goes with the numbers on top of the grid, one goes with the numbers on the side. Student A solves the problem and student B checks the answer with the answer key. If student A has the problem correct, they put their initials in the box. Then they switch roles. If a student doesn't get a problem correct, they can't put their initials in the box. They continue playing until time is up. (You can always give the winners a prize. I usually consider the winner the student who has the most initials on the grid.)
#3: Task Cards (activity linked here)
I just made 20 problems, printed 2 copies on cardstock, cut them out and put them on my "task cards" bulletin board. I put the questions into categories and posted the kind of question in each group above the cards. This helped students pick which kind of problem they needed to work on! I also posted the answer key so students could check as they went along.
#4: Graphing review (linked here)
This was just an old-fashion worksheet. They needed practice plugging in x-values and getting out y-values. #4 really stumped most of them.
Chunk 3: (7 minutes)
I displayed the results from their quizizz.com assessment from the day before and went over questions that as a class were below 70%. I turned off one bank of lights, had students put everything away, and swivel to the front. They were very attentive and asked great questions.
Chunk 4: (15 minutes)
Students met with their 220 degree partner and selected a new activity to do from the list above. A couple wanted to do the same one and since there were many questions in most of the activities, I asked them to try and do different ones if possible. I didn't have anyone just try and use their "work" from the first activity during the second one. They were very focused.
Chunk 5: (5 minutes)
The last few minutes of class I brought them all together and in each hour mentioned one thing I still saw students doing incorrectly. I then re-explained their homework and warned them that I would be collecting ther test review tomorrow before the test.
One thing I liked about this chunking review activity was that students had the chance to work closely with two different people during the hour. Every student understands things a bit differently so they explain things differently too. A struggling student may hear something said just a bit different from how I say it and it may finally click. (That is at least my hope!)
Please let me know if you have any questions or ideas to make this better by adding to the comment section! Enjoy!
Below is a short video of what class looked like first hour. Different students, doing different things, but ALL working on math!