Kinesthetic Activity – Human Box and Whisk-ers Plot

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I emphasized that there are 5 syllables so you need 5 points.  I had the students hold up their fists and then count off with their fingers while saying, Box and Whis-kers Plot over and over, and over.

After going over vocabulary and doing some easy examples, I had the students access their own measurement data located in our Google Spreadsheet.  My students always care more (and remember more) about anything if it has something to do with them.

We have two sections of 6th grade.  For homework I assigned the students to make TWO box and whiskers, one for each section of the class.

The next day in class I put students plots up on the Elmo to compare the heights of each class. They love showcasing their work and comparing the two sections.

We then did a kinesthetic activity by making a human box and whiskers plot.

  1. I had all of the students line up from shortest to tallest.
  2. I asked then what points we plotted first (extremes) and had those student step forward.
  3. Then, we found the median and had that student step forward.
  4. I asked the shorter end, “Who are you?” and they yelled, “The lower set of data!” and then we found the lower quartile and had that student step forward.  I did the same thing with the upper quartile.

In one class the numbers worked out and we did not have to average any two students to find the quartiles.  In the other class, it did not, so we had two students stand in a line.  We joked that we added them up and split them into two.  (“I’ll stand on your head.  No, you can stand on my head!”)  It was fun!

Students enjoyed the human box and whiskers plot.  They got to move around plus it was very visual.  With the numbers taken out, I feel like some students really understood what was going on instead of just marking off numbers looking for the median.

Next year… I am going to use something (yarn maybe?) so we can actually “box” the students into their quartiles and make the whiskers.  I could also cut out construction paper “dots” for the students who step forward to hold.  This would also be a cute instructional iMovie starring the students.

Survey Project – Creativity, Collaboration, and Technology

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The “Survey” project is my favorite project of the year because it combines technology, creativity, and collaboration.  This project incorporates three different Google Documents, word, spreadsheet, and presentation (two groups even created a Google Form).  The students create their own survey question and decide how to best display their data.  Students also have the option to work together.  My students love working with each other, being creative, and technology so they are completely engaged throughout the project.

Working individually or in small groups, students created a survey question, then determined their population and their sample.  I created a survey form on Google Docs that they had to duplicate, fill out, and share with me to gain approval for their survey questions.  The Google Document was very useful as I could make suggestions with the “comment” feature while they were working on them.

Once they had approval, they were off to collect data.  I have given them several surveys over the past year using Google Forms and I was very impressed with a couple of groups that created their own Google Form to collect their data.

Students created a Google Spreadsheets to analyze and display their data.  They have used Google spreadsheets in my class before, but have not created their own.  They first made frequency tables and then created a chart of their choice to display their data.

Once their charts were created in a Google Spreadsheet, they inserted them into a Google presentation.  I created a single Google presentation in which they all were to add their charts.  This way, I have all of their results in one place.  I love doing this for two reasons.  Having all of their work in one document is wonderful on presentation day because we do not have to wait for every student to access their own document when it is their turn to present.  It also makes it very easy for me to grade.

 

 A great result of this project is that I now have one amazing and creative document made by the students to teach with not only this year, but also for future years.  I had the current students come up with two math questions relating to their chart(s), and the answers to the questions on the next slide. This year, students will ask the questions of their peers as they present.  Next year I can use this document full of bar graphs, double bar graphs and pie charts to teach other students.  My current students are very excited that I plan to use their projects to teach next year’s students.  And, I believe that my future students will be more interested in the learning about these charts because they were created by students.  Everybody wins!

What I Have Been Doing Instead Of Blogging This Winter

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Woodlawn MIddle School Cheerleaders Party Rock Routine

It’s been a blast and I love coaching these amazing girls!  Our season is over in two weeks though and I’m very anxious to have time to get back to blogging!

My Students were Published in Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School!

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We are so excited!  My students’ answers to a “Solve It!” were published in the November edition of Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School.  This is a national publication produced by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.  The students collected data about the number of jeans owned by every student in their class.  Working in groups of three or four, they used Google Spreadsheets to compare their class average to the national average and to do further analysis of the data.  They created graphs to visually present their findings.  They also worked collaboratively on a Google word document to write their analysis of the data.  After they came up with conclusions, they created wiki pages to present their findings.  Their wiki pages were creative and beautifully formatted.  They contained uploaded graphs of their data, detailed analyses, and even some pictures they took with their cameras or computers.

We had already covered the unit on averages when the “Solve It!” question came about.  Therefore, I gave few instructions to the students for this project.  I showed them the question in the article and let them work independently in their groups.  I encouraged them to be creative.  They loved this project and they reported that much of their enthusiasm was due to the freedom they were given.

Check out the wiki pages they created  and read the Solve It! Article.

Jeans Solve It Published

I Let Them Grade Their Own Tests – And They Loved It

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Well, most of them loved it.  A few did not.  I got this nifty idea from my great peeps on Twitter (thanks @pamLpatterson and @park_star).  I make them do quiz corrections now, but I noticed they don’t do a very good job.  Often, they have a difficult time correcting the problem.  I offer Work Time and after school help to work on quiz corrections, but not everyone takes me up on that or they are the students that need help with the new material that we are covering.

Enter, Grade Your Own Tests day.  I had them take a test like they usually do, but also had them transpose their final answer (with no work show) onto an answer sheet.  After I took everything up, I graded just the answer sheet right or wrong with no partial credit.

The fun part was when I then handed back ONLY their tests with not a mark on them.  They were confused.  I explained that I had already graded their answer sheets but I only graded them right or wrong, with no partial credit.  They were to grade their own tests in order to earn their partial credit.  I gave them each a colored pencil and a copy of the key with all of the solutions worked out and the possible points for each problem.   They had to check each step against the steps on the key.  For each step they missed, they had to write the correct step in colored pencil.  Then, using a few guidelines I created, they had to decide how many points they missed on each question.  (My guidelines were -1 for losing a negative or making an arithmetic error, and +1 for writing the correct equation but missing the answer).    We worked on it for about 15 minutes in class so I could help guide them and answer questions.  They were to finish grading for their homework that night.

Once they turned their graded papers back in I re-graded every one to make sure they gave themselves the correct credit (and to compare it with their original answer sheet to make sure they stayed honest).  I was very impressed that most of my students did an excellent job of grading their own papers.  I  only had to correct a few papers.  A couple of students turned their papers in with just the answers marked wrong and no corrections.  I gave them back and told them they had to earn their partial credit back by showing all of the corrections.

This was actually a lot more work for me as I had to grade their answer sheets, then guide them through grading their own papers, then check their grading.  But, it seemed like a very valuable exercise.  The funny thing was that a few students thought they were saving me work by grading their own paper for me.  I surveyed the students and an overwhelming majority liked it and wanted to grade their own papers again.  The few that did not enjoy this seemed to be the ones that had a difficult time understanding how to give themselves partial credit or still didn’t understand how to do the problem, even with the key.  If I do this again, I will work more closely with those students at first and offer extra help time to work on the corrections individually with me.

We recently took another equation quiz, and overall their equation solving skills dramatically improved so I feel like they learned from this activity.  I would love to do this again, but would like to know if there is a better way (that is less work for me).  So, if you are doing something similar but better – please share!

Here are the students comments from the survey:

What did you like about grading your own test?

  • that you could go back and see your mistakes and know where you need to improve.
  • that I got to see what and where I went wrong
  • that you could go back and see your mistakes and know where you need to improve.
  • That i could go back with the answers, see what i did wrong and see how to actually do it the day after the test/quiz
  • I got to see clear mistakes that i had and wall able to correct them.
  • What i liked about grading my paper is that i got to learn from my mistakes and get better at what i got wrong because if we got the problem wrong when we are correcting it we are supposed write out and explain what we got wrong. That helps.
  • “knowing exactly what i did and seeing my score
  • “I liked it because you can defiantly see your mistakes.
  • i liked it because u could see what u were doing wrong
  • I liked trying to be A Teacher for the first time
  • I like that i kinda fell better if i get a good grade and i grade it myself i do not know why though.
  • I liked grading my own paper because we got to see what we got and how we were supposed to get it if we didn’t get a problem correct.
  • being able to give myself at least some credit
  • I like to see what kinds of things that i messed up on.
  • I liked being able to see what I messed up on. I looked at it more and got a good understanding of what I got wrong.
  • It was easier to see what mistakes I did make and how to correct them. I thought it was a good way to understand the material better – reworking the problems.
  • It was fun because you could really understand what you did wrong and understand what you needed to do to help fix it.
  • I like that you can see your mistakes and understand completely what and why you got a problem incorrect.
  • I liked it because i could redo what i was missing and look over my paper more.
  • I like being able to see what I did wrong. Seeing my own mistakes helps me learn what to do a little better. If I just got everything right whats the point? You wouldn’t learn anything!
  • I liked being able to correct my own mistakes.  Interacting with what you did wrong helps you learn it for the next time.  Usually you just see what was wrong and you go ok but you never really learn how to fix it unless you do it yourself.
  • I liked getting an idea of what you did wrong when grading it and getting an idea what my grade will be ahead of time before the teacher grades it.
What did you NOT like about grading your own test?
  • knowing how many mistakes you got.
  • Having to face my mistakes
  • seeing how many mistakes you made.
  • ???
  • All the mistakes that i had to correct was embarrassing
  • What i did not like is that i felt bad when i got a answer wrong because of a silly mistake that i made.
  • nada
  • It takes some time to finish grading the paper.
  • i didn’t like that it was a little confusing for some people like me to understand how to do it at first
  • I did not like that i had to see my grade  i think i got wait another day and get my real grade.
  • I didn’t like grading my own paper because it was extra work when instead we could’ve been learning.
  • it was hard and very confusing i didnt understand most of what i was supposed to do.  It was easier when you just graded my tests.
  • I don’t like grading my paper because it makes me really nervous.
  • I wasn’t exactly sure how to grade it, and how many points to take off, but I got it eventually.
  • I wasn’t always 100% how to rework them – even with the answer key. I really liked grading my own paper overall.
  • Nothing.
  • I kind of like that moment when you get your paper back with a grade on it; it’s really exciting and sort of scary. Like a rollercoaster, a little? But a math rollercoaster? I don’t know, it’s just fun.
  • I also thought it was a little harder because I had to find exactly where I got it wrong and felt like it was a little hard.
  • What I didn’t like was how it can tempt you to break the honor code by correcting an answer that you got wrong just to boost your grade.
  • The only thing i didn’t like about grading my own paper was that as i went through the problems it was more pressure because i did not want to have one wrong or correct one wrong.
  • I did not like grading my own paper because I’d rather just get the teachers grade. I get a little aggravated when I’m not sure if this is the grade that I will really get when it is graded by the teacher.

Let’s Get W.I.L.D. – Wiki Independent Learning Day

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Yes, apparently I am obsessed with acronyms this summer.  But, when you can make them fun (WILD) and mean something great I just cannot help myself!

I teach 6th and 7th graders.  Middle school is their transition time.  It is when they begin to grow up and become independent learners.  Becoming an independent learner is a corner stone of our school philosophy.  I know that this takes time and can even be difficult at first, especially for students coming fresh out of elementary school.  My goal is for all of my students to move from being dependent upon me for all of their learning, to becoming independent learners.

To help my students achieve independence in their learning, I am going to have designated WILD days this year.  On these days I will have students start on our student created wiki help pages to access websites to work on different concepts.  They can start with concepts in which they are not proficient.  Students that are proficient in most concepts can work ahead so that they will not be bored reviewing concepts they have already mastered.  They will keep an online WILD Log that they create using a Google Doc spreadsheet.  This GDoc will be shared with me so that I can monitor their progress.

I expect that helping students target what they need to work on and finding the best resources will be high maintenance at first.  Eventually however, I would like the students to learn to tailor their own learning.  I want WILD to be interesting and challenging for students of varying ability levels.

Here is what I have for the GDocs WILD Log, but I would love more ideas on how to make the Log (or anything else) better.

If The Earth Contained 100 People

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I discovered the books, “If the World Were A Village” by David Smith at a local math conference two years ago.  I would love to explore the math in this books with my class but have not come up with a good lesson for it yet.  I am posting about this now to get my links together, inspire myself, and maybe get some ideas from the amazing math teachers that read my blog.

If you have lessons or activities surrounding this concept, please share them in the comments with me!  Once I get something together, I will tell you all about it.

Links I like about 100:

Please share links if you have any.

FLAG – Fix Learning And Grow

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Addressing the needs of students when they struggle haunts me.  I am not only talking about students who may be working below grade, but any student who begins to stumble on a concept.  At times even my best students have trouble on new topics.  Currently, I use a Concepts Checklist, which is an altered version of SBG (Standards Based Grading) to identify this.  However, I would ideally like to give additional support to students when they FIRST begin to have trouble, instead of trying to remediate when they are already behind or completely lost.

I read about using “red flags” in Robyn Jackson’s book “How To Support Struggling Students” while doing a book study with my amazing PLN (Professional Learning Network) of mathematics educators on Twitter.  I immediately loved the idea of the red flag, but was worried about the negative connotation of a student receiving a “red flag”.  I do not want the flag to be seen as a negative, a sign that a student is “not good” at math or “in trouble”.  To give the flag a positive connotation, I decided to come up with a positive acronym for FLAG.  Thanks to @fourkatie via Twitter, Fix Learning And Grow was born.

I do not plan to use FLAGs for purely academic reasons.  I would like to give students a FLAG in any area where they can “Fix and Grow”.  I plan on handing out flags for incomplete or missing homework, recurring misunderstandings in class, sloppy/incomplete notebooks, and excessive absences and tardies if they are having trouble making up the work.

UPDATE:  I originally included disruptive behavior, but after some insightful comments, I rethought that and will NOT be including disruptive behavior in the FLAG system.  I want to FLAG to focus on academics.

As teachers we do not have much time to implement an exhaustive new program.  It must require low maintenance from me in order for it to be long-lasting.  Thus, I am organizing the FLAG program to encourage independent learning.  When I identify a need, I will place a flag on a students paper (or notebook).  I will write the name of the FLAG on the flag.  It is then the students responsibility to address their FLAG.  The student will visit the FLAG page on our Wiki to read about their FLAG and see the steps they need to follow.  The FLAGs are only temporary, and once they have addressed their need, their FLAG can be “waived”.

I think that this will save me time because a FLAG is quick and easy to write and hand out (post-it flags).  I do not have to worry if an issue is serious enough to warrant a “talk” with a student or initiate a parent contact.  I do not have to come up with “fixes” for the problem each time I do talk to a student.  FLAG is a system that is already in place and ready to address many student needs, from the minor to the major.

I am still developing this idea and the overall FLAG system so I would LOVE any thoughts and feedback.  Read more on my FLAG page on the wiki.  Please help me make FLAGs better!

Google Docs Spreadsheet “Word Cloud” to Analyze Student Survey

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I have always thought that Wordles (or word clouds) were fun and interesting.  However, I have never thought of them as “useful” until today when I read Becky’s Wordle Post.  Inspired, I scoured the net and found out from Free Technology For Teachers that you can create Wordle-like word clouds inside Google Document Spreadsheets!  Google Documents has a “Word Cloud Gadget” that will turn your entire page, or even just select cells, into a word cloud.  You can pick any words that you want to exclude and even chose the number of word that you want to use for your word cloud.

I instantly thought of the anonymous student survey that I gave to my 6th grade class.  I loved reading their thoughts and meant to summarize their answers but did not get around to it.  The Word Cloud was a perfect visual summary of how my students felt about their math class.

Since you can pick any cell in your Google Spreadsheet, I decided to focus on one question, “Please tell me something (or things) that you enjoy that we do in this math class.”  Here is the Word Cloud generated from that question.

I enjoyed seeing the words love, math, and projects.  The projects jumped right out at me!  This is my first time teaching in a project intensive school.  This Word Cloud zeros in the fact that students are feeing a love of math in my class, and it is because of the projects that I have created.  Since my goal is for all students to love math, I obviously need to get busy and create more projects.

My goal for this summer has been to create interesting projects for each unit.  It has been a hectic summer, and I haven’t gotten as far as I would have hoped.  However, I am determined to develop at least one interesting project per unit.  If you have any great projects from 6th grade – algebra I, please include the link in the comments or email me.  After this word cloud, projects are my new number one summer priority.

Google+ (Google Plus) for the Classroom

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Last week Twitter was a flutter with talk of Google+.  Via invite (thanks Kate!) math tweeps from around the country were able to sign-up, add circles, and connect.

I am a technology junkie, so I love exploring new technology as soon as I can get my hands on it!  Google+ has potential.  The two things that appealed to me the most were the circles and the “Hangout” features.

The circles allow you to categorize your GooglePlus friends.  This solves the problem of friending your students.  Friend away, because with circles you can specify exactly who will (and who will NOT) see every post that you share.  You can pick a circle to send a message to, or even just one person.  This is similar to the private messaging in Facebook, but it is rolled into the front page.  You don’t have to go to a separate place to send a message, you just type it right into your stream (status) and then pick who you want to see it.

The Google Hangout is Skype-like as it uses your webcam and mic for interaction.  You see who you are talking to on a large center image.  However you can also see all of the people “hanging out” in your room at the bottom of the screen.  The neatest feature is that when a person talks, the large image automatically shifts to the person talking.  It does this via sound.  So, even when no one was talking, the screen would shift to the person making any noise (like a dog barking in the background).  Reportedly, up to 10 people can “Hangout” at a time.  We had 6 or 7 last week so I haven’t tested this limit yet.  In Hangouts you can also chat and watch YouTube’s together.  I pushed every button in every box to try it all out.

An advantage of using Google+ in my classroom is that my students will not have to sign up for another new account.  Since I use Google Docs daily in my classroom, all of my students already have Google accounts.  My students currently sign up for my MathReuls wiki, Google Docs, and use an online book.  I like that they will not have to sign up for any additional accounts.

Once Google+ opens up and allows everyone to join, I can envision this as my new “Homework Hotline” in the evenings.  I use a Google Document for my current “Homework Hotline”, but it is cumbersome explaining problems to students by just typing.  Too much gets lost in translation.  It is confusing.  I tried Scribblar, but my students had to create new accounts to use it so I decided against it (update below).  I like that I can talk, Skype-like, to students.  Each student can talk and it will switch to their face so I can see who is asking the question.  We can also type in the chat as we talk.  A disadvantage of Google+ as a Homework Hotline is that currently there is no “interactive whiteboard” feature to draw or upload images into yet.  However, you can just write something on paper and hold it up to your webcam for students to see.  Think old school meets new technology.  I actually may like this better for now as every student you are working with online will need to write down the problem and work on it for you to see instead of all drawing on the same interactive whiteboard page.

Until Google+ becomes readily available for all, I will continue to search for an easy to use, feature rich site for my Homework Hotline for the fall.  I am currently experimenting with Dabbleboard with my fabulous math teachers Tweeps.  There is no required sign-up, so my students can just click the link and join right in.  It has an interactive whiteboard, image uploading, and a chat feature with webcam.  However, the webcam was unreliable at best.  We could either hear voices and see no picture, or see the picture and hear no voices.  And then, the voices kept freezing.  Frustrating.  So, this only be useful as an interactive whiteboard, sans voice.  So I will keep searching this summer!  If you have something great that you use, I would love to know about it.

UPDATE:

It turns out that students do NOT need to create an account to join a room on Scribblar.  They do need to “sign in” but they do this as a guest so they do not need to create an account or a password, they simply type their name.  Their name shows up inside the room so I will know who I am talking to.  Scribblar has more features than Dabbleboard and uses Latex so I will be using that for my students until we are all on G+.