Author: Jon Orr

Sum It Up! 

by Jon Orr

Here is a small strategy I used for our review day today.

In Advanced Functions we were reviewing average rates of change and instantaneous rates of change.

Instead of just doing problems from the book I organized the rate problems in 4 sets, polynomial, rational, trigonometric, and exponential/logarithmic functions. Each set had 3 problems.

I organized the class in groups of 3 and gave each group a set. They were to complete the problems and check the answers.

The kicker here was that the sum of the 3 answers in a set was written on the board.

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If the group got all questions correct their sum of their answers would match correctly. But…… If one was wrong they had to check all solutions and decide which needed fixing.

First, this small change made all groups work more carefully than usual. And second, when they had to double back, you could see them rationalizing which answers “had” to be correct and which answers were “toss ups”.

It was a great tool for students to self assess and evaluate their own readiness.

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After each group completed a set they would swap with another group… Eventually completing all sets.

Better Questions – Two Truths & One Lie

by Jon Orr

During these last few days of class we have been completing problem after problem to prepare for our exams. I wanted to start class off with a different question than “What problems should we take up?”

I’ve used and played the game Two Truths and One Lie as an ice breaker before (first read about it in Marian Small & Amy Lin’s book More Good Questions)  and it popped into my head when I read this weeks blog post from ExploreMTBos.wordpress.com. Having students develop two truths and one lie about a math concept seemed super intriguing. The openness of this task made me eager to see what they would come up with. It would give my huge insight to what they know and what we would need to work on too.

This image was waiting for my 10th grade class when they came in.

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They worked in pairs as a team to develop the truths and lie. I overheard great discussions on what should be considered truth and how to choose a lie. I loved the variety of what they chose. No two groups had the same.

Here is one:

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After writing their statements on a sticky note they were to trade stickies with another group and identify which statements were true and which was the lie. This was the best part! They were competitive. I overheard groups saying “prove it” or “show why that’s true”. They were demanding each other to see work and evidence. They weren’t accepting guesses! The vocabulary was amazing too. Afterward I had them all write their truths and lies up on the board. We went through each statement discussing the strategies needed to verify.

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I also ran the same activity in my 12th grade Advanced Functions class. Here was their function: Screen Shot 2016-01-25 at 2.34.42 PM

and their stickies:

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Afterward I asked the class what we could do to make the activity better. Here are some suggestions I’ll try next time.

  • A point should be awarded for getting the two truths and a lie correct and not for “stumping” another group.
  • Each group should get their own function to create statements for. Then in each match the opposing team would have to verify everything. Lots of practice and lots more variety.
  • We ended up giving a point to groups who found errors in another groups statements.

Also thinking of putting a question like this on my next assessment/test. Have the student write and indicate which is the truth and which is the lie. Or give 3 statements and have them generate a graph or equation where two statements are true and the other is a lie.

If you have any other suggestions on how to change/modify this activity I’d love to hear about them.

Continue reading about 4 Ways To Use Two Truths & One Lie in ANY Math Class

My Favourite 

by Jon Orr

Let’s start with this one question:

 

For me, I use a set of 4 criteria to evaluate all resources, tools, and lesson ideas. It helps me quickly narrow down whether a tool will help me achieve the desired results I look for in my classroom.

Here are the four criteria.

  1. I want ALL my students to show me their thinking and understanding in interesting ways. I want them to show me what they think first instead of just telling them what to think! I want to open up the questioning that goes on in my room. So I look and create lessons that allow for this.
  2. I want my students to discuss, collaborate, argue, defend, and justify with each other. I believe this helps clarify their learning and understanding so I must make sure that discussion and collaboration happen in my best lessons.
  3. I am always assessing! I’m constantly looking to see who gets what we are doing and who needs help. I need to be able to assess quickly the abilities in my room so I can use that on the fly to decide where to go next. Assessing easily must be apart of my lessons.
  4. Every lesson or activity must have a ratio between the cost of set up and the payoff where the payoff heavily out weighs the set up. Nothing is worse than spending a huge chunk of time, making, cutting, designing and then when you run it the learning outcome wasn’t worth it. The payoff must out weigh the set up.

My favourite all time tool/technique is WHITEBOARDS!! Having my students work in random pairs daily at vertical whiteboards.

Whiteboards fit all of my criteria!

A whiteboard. Students can easily show off their learning. They are quicker to get to writing on a whiteboard than on paper. Especially when the boards on the wall. Students get to defend, argue, justify their thinking with each other. I can easily see if students are understanding and the set up ratio is a no brainer. Here’s a whiteboard, marker….Go!

 

I’ve had students use small personal whiteboards at their desks before, but I couldn’t believe the change in active engagement and cooperation once they were standing. The discussions they were having about the math was much more insightful and meaningful.

Our whiteboard uses usually started as soon as the bell rang. In their random pairs they would put up a few homework questions from the previous day. I could see students looking around verifying their work with their peers. They were self assessing.

We continued to make use of the boards while we worked through our new challenges. Students had no problem leaving their space to go and talk to another group to gain some insight on new strategies. I can easily circulate the room to engage students in conversations and challenge their reasoning.

So….if you can, get some writeable surfaces on those walls of yours. This will be your next My Favourite  post!

[update May 2018] Check out (in Canada) Wipebook.ca and their education pricing! and check out (in US) Wipebook.com and their education pricing!

I found some stick on whiteboards from http://writeyboards.com

I also bought some boards that lean against the wall from Home Depot 

One Best Thing

by Jon Orr

The MTBoS Blogging initiative has begun! Check out the two options to blog about. 

I choose option 1 which is writing about something good that happened during the day.

Week 1: One Good Thing

Today was a good day! In my mailbox was this little package.

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It’s a package created & designed to make students feel amazing!

It’s from Knowledgehook.

Knowledgehook is an ed tech company specializing in  creating “engagement tools to measure and improve student learning“.

My students have been completing practice questions using their Homework product. An added, amazing bonus is when a student completes a mathalon (completing the majority of questions from the course) Knowledgehook sends in the mail a real (heavy duty) medal. Along with it is a pennant we can hang in the room.

Today a student in my class got that medal! We presented it to him in front of the class. IMG_0411
He looked a tad embarrassed, but I could see he was super proud! Big smiles. Later he told me he was going to wear it home to show mom!

That was today’s good thing.