Double Number Line
This year, I'm trying to remedy that. We still need to move quickly, but I'm trying to incorporate lots of strategies at one time and how they relate to each other.
Today, we started with a ratio problem using a double number line. I wrote up my plan to implement it here.
I used dry erase tents that I created by putting strips of packing tape on construction paper. They worked pretty well!
Round the World
Here are my thoughts...
- I honestly don't know if this is a good or bad strategy in math. I love the idea of students looking at other people's work, trying to decipher it and then continuing it...but I don't know if the time limit in this case is harmful. I don't feel like it is because they get to come back to the poster later and see what the results were.
- For this class, I think 3.5 minutes was too much time (at least for the problems that were presented...most were DOK 1 & 2.) . Almost all groups were able to solve the problems in the time allowed with time to spare.
- At the start of the activity, some groups spent very little time looking at the other strategies and just wanted to solve the problem their way...even if it meant duplicating a method that was already on the paper. Hopefully if we do this again, they'll have a better idea of what is expected.
- I think it's just because this is an "advanced level" class, but the posters were all very arithmetic heavy...it was the last session and a group was trying to come up with a new strategy and I heard someone say, "No one did any pictures." I was like, "No! They didn't! You should do that!" Unfortunately they didn't have time to finish, but at least we got to see that that method COULD solve that problem!
- I gave them time at the end to walk around to all the posters and see the methods others used to solve the problems. This allowed me to get an idea of what they know how to do as well as give the students some new ideas for how to solve these types of problems. Overall, I fell like it was a success.