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March 17
Journal:
This week in math class we have been working on evaluating one step and two
step algebraic equations (ex: 3 + x = 7; 4x 2 = 22). In order to teach these concepts
and make them more comprehensible I have been using counters as manipulatives and
drawings. A problem such as 3 + x = 7 is not difficult for students to solve since they
really have learned those concepts in prior years, it just looked like 3 + ___ = 7. In order
to teach this concept and tie it into algebra with variables I used counters and popsicle
sticks, red counters represented negative integers, yellow counters represented positive
integers, and popsicle sticks represented the number of variables. On the left hand side
of the equation I had 3 yellow counters representing a positive number and a single
popsicle stick representing the one variable. Then I drew a line below the equal sign to
represent the equal sign and on the right hand side of the equal sign I placed 7 positive
counters to represent the positive number. I explained to students that our task is to find
what the variable, x, equaled. In that case we had to get rid of the positive 3 on the left
hand side, which in order to do this we had to add negatives since negatives and
positives cancel each other out. I further explained that in adding 3 red counters to the
left hand side it would get rid of the 3 positive counters in order to get the variable, x,
alone. However, if we add the red counters to the equation on the right hand side we
have to add the same to the right hand side of the equal sign because it has to remain
balanced (I later showed students how it would lead to an incorrect answer for the
variable if it was not balanced). Then I modeled how 3 of the 7 yellow counters were
canceled out due to the 3 red counters added. In the end this led to having the variable,
x, on the left hand side equaling 4 yellow counters on the right hand side; so x = 4 in the
equation 3 + x = 7. Students were each given mats and counters to do practice
problems with me to practice how to solve for variables. I really liked this activity
because it helped my students understand why we were canceling numbers out and
taking them away when we got to the straight algebraic computation. Deijah was one
student that really benefited from the model and drawing and used it on her quiz.
This week we also continued to work on point of
view. In one of the activities we did we observed a
picture with a scene and characters. Based off that we
then had to identify the perspectives found in the picture
and write a short scene and character description from
first person point of view and second person point of
view. The first image that I used to show teacher
thinking and modeling was of a school bus driver with
children crossing out in front. There were two
perspectives displayed in the image, one was of the bus
driver and the second was of two children crossing.
With those two perspective in mind I modeled how the
bus driver and children each had their own point of view
in first person based off of how they felt and thought of
the situation. After writing a first person point of view example, I modeled how to turn
that scene into third person point of view. Once the modeling was done I had the
students do the activity together in pairs with a different image. The image was of a man
sitting down in a chair getting a drink of water while the a few kids in the background
were painting the fence. As my kids were working on the activity I walked around to
ensure they were ontask and writing correctly in the point of view. During my
observations I noticed that my kids were grasping the concept and were using correct
pronouns as they wrote. One thing that was nice to see is that one pair got confused on
the pronoun usage, instead of writing in first person for the children’s perspective they
were writing in third, and another pair helped them by clarifying the difference and gave
them clear examples as well.
Goals:
My goal for next week is to add a spiral review for science. There were a few
areas that students scores were low on the benchmark testing. In order to review and
practice skills our schools instructional coach shared the idea that we could take the first
5 minutes of our science block to review past science questions. Another idea shared
was to use transition times throughout the day as a time to review a question as well. I
plan on giving my students a chapter 8 test in math next week on Wednesday. A goal I
have is to find other interactive and hands on activities to teach the proceeding chapter
in math. I found it very beneficial in this last chapter to use counters and I want to make
math understandable to everyone and really show them the why math problems are
solved a certain way through manipulatives, drawings, and models before jumping into
straight forward computation.