MEL3E – Day 21

by Jon Orr

Warm up today was a Two Truths & One Lie:

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  • After taxes a $20 bill will cover paying for this.
  • Before taxes it costs about $0.06 per ml.
  • There are 46 teaspoon doses in the bottle.
I had two groups at the opposite end of the spectrum on working on these statements. The first worked on each statement and verified which was true and which was false! The other needed guidance for every statement.
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Next up we are venturing into credit card land. I wanted to see how much they knew about credit cards beforehand so I put together this Knowledgehook Gameshow. Play along!

You can save this gameshow to run with your class here. You’ll need to have an account (they’re free) and then bookmark the gameshow.

Each question gave us some items to discuss about credit cards. We talked about best ways to manage them, what interest was, and budgeting.

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If you’re new to Knowledgehook’s Gameshow you can create and run your own gameshows….but also access many pre-built gameshows ranging from grade 3 – grade 10 — All Ontario math curriculum.

I displayed an image of a credit card bill on our big sceren. We went through what different parts of the bill were for. I had a copy of some Visa Card statements I had used way back that were a pretty good resource. Each scenario had missing sections of the bill and the students have to fill them in. As a class we walked through problem 1.

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Tomorrow we’ll work on the remaining problems.

MEL3E Day 20

by Jon Orr

Since it’s October I picked a candy theme estimate from Estimation180. We chatted for the first 5 minutes about our favourite Halloween candy.

After some Too high, too low, and best guesses we revealed the answer:

If you teach MEL3E you may know that regular attendance from some students is an issue. There always seems to be a few students you only see once or maybe twice a week. Years ago I used to give these kids hassle when they came to class. I would give them a lecture about attending regularly….and if you think of all the adult interactions that kid had that day most likely none of them were positive. And I contributed to that. Even though they made the decision to come to class that day. And you know what….most likely that kid wouldn’t be back for some time.

Now….with this group,  all interactions are positive. I want that student who comes only on Thursday to have at least one positive interaction with an adult that day. I want them walking out after the class thinking that my room is “good” place. I feel they will be more likely to come back to school even if it’s just for math class. If they are there some good will happen.

So, with different kids being absent on different days it becomes tough to get every kid the practice and learning they need. The mastery days and spiralling works well to address this. If a kid is away all week they won’t necessarily miss the whole banking unit. We’ll hit this again next cycle. Mastery days will allow kids to work on what they need.

Today wasn’t technically a mastery day, but the day was broken into a few tasks.

  1. Some students finished (or started) the transaction activity from yesterday.
  2. Some students practiced more with updating their account balances from transactions.
  3. Some students worked on past work (timezones, best deals, tax problems).

Tomorrow we’re on to credit cards.

MEL3E – Day 19

by Jon Orr

Our warm up today was on making change:

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This one was an easy Monday morning warm up. We had a discussion on getting change back and rounding to the nearest nickel since we eliminated pennies.

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I then presented this picture and asked “Tell me something you notice”

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Students noticed:

  • parts are blacked out.
  • the date and time
  • the location
  • it was a withdrawal of $200.

We guessed at the bank balance and then revealed….

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Whoa!! We talked about what we could buy with that much money!

We did this all over again with this image:

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They noticed the same things as before but with the addition of the $3 charge. Most knew that this was possibly a charge for withdrawing money from an ATM that is not from your bank. I say most, because I have one 17 year old that does not have or ever had a bank account. Everyday is in complete amazement….and frustration.

We looked at the balance:

screen-shot-2016-10-03-at-11-52-46-amWe talked about negative balance and overdraft. We came to the conclusion that we don’t want this to happen to us….which led us into today’s goal: Keeping track of transactions and updating our balance.

I borrowed elements of this activity from an iTunes U course called Consumer Mathematics. The course has lots of activities that overlap with our MEL3E course! If you have an iOS device you can subscribe to get the resources.

I modified the activity slightly.

I handed out a copy of the transaction recording sheet.

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Click to grab the PDF

I placed 18 numbered scenarios around the room (I hid one in a hard to find place!). We completed scenario 1 and 2 together as a class as examples. Next, each student rolled 3 dice. The total sum on the dice told them what transaction to go to next.

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Individually they visited the transactions and updated their balance. I voiced “Who will be the first to run out of money?” while they moved around. If they rolled the same number as one they visited already they HAD to do that one again. It added some riskiness to the activity…..You would be wiped out if you had station 13 come up more than once. But if you had station 6 come up more than once you were jumping for joy! Everyone had to do 12 transactions and then fill out the bottom part of the sheet.

As a group they wouldn’t say out loud that they were excited to get up….but I think they appreciated moving around the room instead of just sitting at a desk.

The original task from the iTunes U course had them scan a QR code that would send them to Google’s Dice Roller to “roll the dice”. I opted out of that today since our internet hasn’t been reliable at all this semester…..We had enough dice to share around.

Tomorrow we’ll practice some more transactions!

More on Compound Interest, Financial Literacy and More

If you are interested in finding more ways to bring out financial literacy concepts in your classroom, consider subscribing to my podcast called Invested Teacher on Apple, Spotify, YouTube and other platforms. While we focus on how we as educators can better manage and invest our money, we also have episodes where we chat about how we can share that financial learning with our students, too.

Pentomino Puzzles

by Jon Orr

A few years ago I was introduced to a series of activities (through my then districts math consultant) that builds a driving need for students to createscreen-shot-2016-09-30-at-8-14-39-am, simplify, and solve linear equations. I used the activity for a few years in a row while I taught grade 9 academic. Since then I had forgotten all about it (funny how that goes) UNTIL NOW!

The activity ran as a series of challenge puzzles around Pentominoes and a giant hundred grid chart.

Activity 1: Explore

Ask students in groups to choose this tile and place it on the hundreds chart so that it covers a sum of 135. The task seems so simple to start but unpacks some great math.

Allow them to determine this sum anyway they like.

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I circulate and listen to their strategies. I give them very little feedback at this point. After a few minutes I choose some of those groups I heard interesting strategies to share..then let any other group share out their strategy.

img_2198Activity 2: Keep Exploring

I have them use the same tile and try again. Place the tile so that it covers a sum of 420. Listen to those strategies! Most groups that didn’t have a strategy before will try to adopt a strategy they heard last round. At this point most students will catch the strategy “If I divide the sum by 5, being like the average then I should have the middle number in the shape.”

This is where I stop and have a formal discussion as to why dividing by 5 here works? Will this always work? Will this always work with other shapes? What other shapes will this work with then?

We formalize the strategy.

Our big problem to start is not knowing where to place the tile. Let’s say I label the middle square n. What will the square immediately to the right of n always be? The left? The top? The bottom? Have them check this out by placing the tile repeatedly back on the grid.

Now let’s add all of those expressions up

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The middle square must be a multiple of 5!!! I have them try this strategy out by throwing out another sum and have them place the tile.

Look at another tile!

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We go back and outline that we could have chosen a different square to label n. Which results in a new equation and solves for different value…..but results in the same placement of the tile!!

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We continue by me having them select different tiles, giving them sums, having them create equations and solving them. I love how hands-on this lesson is. Holding the tiles adds some “realness” which I feel drives the need to solve these equations.

However,

this year when I remembered this activity I wasn’t sure I still had the tiles kicking around (I found them later). I immediately made a digital version with Explain Everything.

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The digital version gives each student their own copy and while working in groups can chat about what strategy worked and what didn’t. Before on the paper version….only one student could hold the tile. Also, when students have to voice their strategy through Explain Everything they have to have careful thought. They think about the words they want to use. We this careful thought they get to make their thinking visible for me!

One new addition to the activity I get to make here is that they can create their own pentomino…..and then their own puzzle to share with their classmates.

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Since then I also created the activity with some help from the team over at Desmos

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Click to access and rune the teacher.desmos.com activity

I love their new conversation tools….I get to pause the class and discuss when needed!

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Students can even sketch their new tile and create an expression to match! screen-shot-2016-09-30-at-9-24-03-am

 

Desmos even added some nice extension questions. Love it! screen-shot-2016-09-30-at-9-24-23-am

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In the future the next time I explore this lesson I see a blend of hands on tiles with digital support. I think having the best of both worlds here can pack a powerful 1-2-3-4-5 punch!

Pick your favourite!

Download the Explain Everything Pentomino Puzzles .xpl file. 

Access the Desmos Activity