Math Workshop Model

 

I've always wondered about the math workshop model for teaching mathematics in high school.  By definition, the math workshop model is a mix of whole group and small group instruction where the students do most of the math. In addition there is quite a lot of choice for students and they practice talking about their mathematical thoughts and reasoning.  In this model,  teachers operate as facilitators by  asking questions rather than telling them how to do it and students work together, learning how to do it from each other. The teacher has time to work with small groups who need it while conferring with students who just need to touch base. This model focuses on conceptual knowledge rather than procedural knowledge. 

The nice thing about the math workshop model is that it is more student centered rather than teacher centered. The teacher does give a mini-lesson to introduce the concept to all students. After the mini-lesson students are expected to work though multiple differentiated activities designed to engage them while helping them learn the concept. At the end of the lesson, students share what they learned and what strategies they used in learning.

When done correctly, students tend to be more engaged and the math concepts are connected rather than being presented in isolation.  Since students are working together, it helps increase self confidence in both students and teachers.  The different activities address student learning styles and needs while giving students practice in expressing their ideas and thoughts. In addition, it helps build community in the classroom, encourages peer tutoring, and provides more chances of differentiation. In the process, it allows students to take more responsibility for their learning while making the class more student centered.

The format of a math workshop model has certain elements.  First of all, there should be some sort of warm-up to begin the class.  The warm-up should contain problems for material students have already been exposed to so the teacher can assemble data they can use to create small groups and provide the appropriate differentiation.  This is followed by a short mini-lesson lasting from 5 to 15 minutes focused on a specific skill or concept.  After the mini lesson students can then move to various activities such as working on a practice page with manipulatives, participate in small group games or other activity.  This is when teachers conference with individual students, reteach a skill to a small group, observe and make notes on the learners or provide enrichment activities for those who have mastered the skill.

Once the practice section is done, it is time to gather students to review the lesson, let them ask questions or share their thoughts or how they did things.  Then one can have students practice the skill in a math centers while the teacher works with small groups or individuals. At the same time, it is important to include information and practice problem solving techniques and at the very end, a wrap up or exit ticket. 

This site has ten lessons to help you get organized and started including math workshops in your classroom. Although it may have an elementary slant, much of the information can be used in high school quite easily.  The thing is that the math workshop model does not have to be used everyday.  It could easily be used a couple days a week to provide more student centered time.  It is strongly advised that the teacher plan the activities in advance and have everything ready to go before having any math workshop.

This is something that can be implemented into the classroom with a bit of planning but it provides a way of spending time with students who might need a bit more attention.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.

Ideas For Teaching Slope

At some point when you teach math in middle school or high school, you have to cover slope.  Most of the time, the textbooks cover it using a strictly mathematical focus with the definitions and equations but seldom do my students get to approach it from a real life perspective.

When I was in Croatia, I stayed in the old town part of Dubrovnik.  This meant I had to climb steps to get to my apartment everyday.  Going down wasn't that bad but coming back, I got my exercise.  I realized when going up and down all those stairs, I was involved with a real life application of slope.

Think about it slope is rise over run or how far does the step go up over the depth of the step.  What made it more challenging is that the steps were not all uniform so the slope changed from section to section.  Most schools have a nice set of stairs which students can actually measure the rise and the run to determine the slope of the stairs.  Then they can go online to find out if the stairs match the code requirements for slope.  The same can be applied to any ramps on the town to find the slope of the ramps.  It just means, they measure the height at the top of the ramp and the distance to determine the slope of the ramp.  The legal slope of a ramp can be researched on line to see if the ramp meets the legal requirements.  

Although roofs have slope, the slope is generally referred to as pitch. The best slope or pitches is defined as how many inches the roof rises for every 12 inches of depth (run).  So if it has a 6/12 pitch, that means the roof rises 6 inches for every 12 inches in.  Roof pitches can run from 0/12 - a flat roof, to 15/12 which is a tremendously steep roof.  The best pitches for conventional roofs are between 4/12 and 9/12.  Any roof with a pitch of over 9/12 is considered a steep roof and anything 2/12 and below is considered a flat roof and the minimum slope is 1/4/12 because you cannot have a totally flat roof. 

If you've ever driven up or down a hill or mountain, you'll often see a sign referring to the grade.  Grade is defined as the rise or drop over a specific distance.  For instance, if you see a sign saying it has a 5 % grade, it is telling you that the road rises or falls 5 feet every 100 feet so the 5 feet is the rise and the 100 feet is the run.  Grades are always measured using 100 feet as the run, just like the pitch uses 12 feet.  This site has a lovely explanation on why it is best that the grade not be more than 6% and what happens to trucks if the grade is more than that. It includes a YouTube video to help show the issues and there are links to other articles showing how steep slopes are handled by drivers and bikers.

How about letting students explore the slope associated with high heeled shoes.  Although the slope is usually defined using degrees, there is slope and students can use the regular slope formula of rise over run.  The rise is based on the height of the heels and the run is from the heel at the ground to the center of gravity or toe. This article gives a nice explanation of it.  This is a doable activity since many many women have a set of heals in their closet.  I have several that I could bring in to have students use to find the slope.

These are just four possible activities that can be done in the classroom and it shows students some real life examples of slope itself.  This takes slope from theoretical to reality for them.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear. Have a great day.

Embedded Assessments.

I just got talked about pre-assessments as a way to help plan what to teach and the pacing one should use to teach a topic but we should also look at embedded assessments to see how students are progressing as we cover the material.  

Embedded or ongoing assessment is defined as any activity, assignment, or exercise that is part of the class but which is used to help provide data about a specific learning objective.  It is based on authentic learning because it is ongoing.

Embedded assessments can help provide us with the data necessary to determine what should be taught in the next lesson.  Yes, we have pacing guides, lesson plans, etc but too often we do not determine how much time we should spend on each topic or concept.  These assessments are designed so a student can show their current understanding of the material.  In addition, it is done in such a way that students do not feel as if they are being "tested" because the assessment provides data to show they are learning without the pressure of it being a test and it happens frequently.

Technology is awesome for this because so many programs automatically catch data that teachers can easily monitor to look for the number of students who "got" it and who needs a bit more.  This data can be used to determine which material needs to be retaught or needs to have the time of instruction extended. It also allows you to see how well students are learning during the actual lessons so they can provide real time feedback and make adjustments on the fly.

Nearpod is one such program because it allows you to embed questions in the presentation to check for understanding.  You can incorporate polls, short response questions, and so many other things as embedded assessments.  In addition, it is possible to take previous presentations and use them in Nearpod with a few added questions to make it even more interactive.  There is a free teacher account that is available but if you want more, you can get an upgraded account that allows for more 

Then there is Explain Everything which is one of the programs that can be used to create a screencast on the iPad by students.  You can have students work together to create videos that show their thinking or that could be used as a tutorial by other students.  If students have their own computers, there are other programs they can use to capture a screencast to do the same thing.

Don't forget programs like IXL, Kahoot, Edpuzzle, Desmos, Quizizz or other quiz like program, and others. These programs provide feedback so you can look at individual results or results by the question so you can see who understood and who didn't.  Most of these allow you to choose activities that have already been made or make your own.  

So rather than looking at homework assignments, work turned in that has to be corrected, look more at these interactive embedded assessments to get real time information and whose data can be analyzed later in the day.  Embedded assessment helps you as a teacher teach exactly what they need.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warmup

 

If it takes 3.5 of grapes to make one jar of jelly and each pound of grapes contains about 85 grapes and one cluster of grapes has 100 grapes, how many clusters of grapes are needed to make 5 jars of jelly?

Warmup

 

On average, one grape vine produces 40 cluster with about 100 grapes per cluster. If you planted 352 vines, how many clusters could you expect on average?

Making Digital Pre-assessments.

 

Last time, we looked at why one should integrate some sort of pre-assessment regularly in class. Today, we'll explore the different types of assessment tests available and ways to administer them digitally.  

One of the most obvious types of pre-assessment is the pretest at the beginning with a post test at the end of the section to monitor growth. It is possible to become overwhelmed by the amount of information obtained from the pretest and due to Covid interrupting instruction over the past two years, students may have huge gaps in their fundamental knowledge.

Now there are a couple of ways to handle this.  One way is to create the pretest and post test so they have the exact same questions. One major disadvantage to this method is that students will have seen the questions before because you are writing only one test. This does mean both the pretest and post test have exactly the same number of questions and both will take up a large chunk of time in class.  

Another choice is to create a pretest that has similar questions to the post test.  In this variation, one must make two different tests but there is no chance that students will have been exposed to the questions before and it does require students to show they understand the concept or topic.  Again, both tests might end up the same length and take time from class.

Now, a slightly better choice might be targeted mini quizzes that are focused on specific skills or concepts.  These are shorter and provide less data so you are not as overwhelmed. It also provides students with a better chance to show what they really know.  With mini quizzes, you end up administering pre-assessments more often so it is important to think in terms of chunking the material so it all relates. The shorter quizzes give a better feel for who understands and who doesn't understand the material. 

Then there is the tiered pre-assessment that contains questions containing questions for below level, on level, and above level students. This is more of a differentiated assessment and it allows you to test for a range of skills so you know if they've mastered the pre-requisite skills so they are ready to attack the new concepts.  One can look at the standards and skills that are considered the most important.

Now for the types of questions, one can use multiple choice, short answers, or true or false to get different types of information.  One of the best apps to use is Google Forms because it allows you to set the questions up so the program can self grade. No matter which type of test you use, there should be no more than 15 questions to be done.  If you use the mini quiz version of pre-assessments, you can do them a bit more often and with fewer questions so you need no more than 10 questions to provide the information you need.

If you don't like google forms, you can use quizzes or other program. Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Pre-assessments Part 1.

I've always noticed that most textbooks have a pretest to be given at the beginning of every chapter and I know it's important but its something I've never taken much time to do since the administration has always wanted the classes to move through the material. Since COVID happened, pretests and pre-assessments have become so much more important due to the amount of reduced instructional time students have experienced. 

There are some good reasons to consider instituting pre-assessment in the classroom, even if you do not feel as if you have the time.  I never did since I felt like I needed to get through the material, even the basic material while trying to do it at a pace that guaranteed my students would learn.  

Pre-assessment is a way of obtaining information about what a student knows or doesn't know about topics and concepts. In other words, a pre-assessment is a way for students to show what they know and does not need to be used to provide a grade thus making it less stressful.  Although it is often said one should administer a pretest before going into the unit, I've seen recommendations that one should wait till the second or third day to actually give it to give time for their pre knowledge to be activated.  The reason for doing it this way, is simply to give the teacher a more accurate result.

The results from the pre-assessment can be used to help differentiate instruction, tell you if you can skip most of the instruction on a topic or go into more in-depth instruction so you meet the needs of your students.  In addition, it helps students develop a growth mindset because it helps them see what they already know and they see their own growth.

Furthermore, the pre-assessment gives them something to reflect on as they develop understanding for problems they couldn't do on it.  One can use some of the problems from the pre-assessment as warm-ups so they can see the problems they didn't understand how to do, they can now.  In addition, ask students to explain how they solved the problem or how do they know the answer is correct to help them develop critical thinking skills.

When you combine the results of a pretest with the results of post tests, you are able to show that your students are making growth and actually mastering the material. The same data can provide evidence that your students, especially those with IEP's are meeting their learning goals.  Furthermore, if the pretests and post tests are kept, they can be shared with parents during parent teacher conferences to let them see that they are making growth and their needs are being met.

The data from pre-assessments can be used to help differentiate instruction so those who need to can move onto more complex material while those who need extra remediation and time to master the concepts have it.  In addition, this same data can help you develop the proper pacing for all the lessons and units. This way, you don't waste time on concepts your students have already mastered or you can take them a step further and you can spend more time on the areas, they need it. 

Finally, pre-assessments provide information on student misconceptions.  This material comes from student explanations of how to solve certain problems. In fact, you can design lessons around their misconceptions so as to help them get rid of the misconceptions and learn the material properly. In the next blog, I'll talk about the types of pre-assessment and how to make digital ones.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Sometimes, Always, or Never.

 

I have occasionally run across activities involving statements that students classify as sometimes, always, or never true.  In other words, is the mathematical statement always true, only true some of the time, or never true.  An example might be "A cube has the same length for all edges."  This is always true.  

They were always interesting but I wondered why one should use an activity such as this.  It turns out, there are good reasons to use this type of activity, especially for assessing student knowledge, especially  when students are expected to provide justification for their answers.

First of all, this activity is a good way to determine if a student is over generalizing or under generalizing a mathematical concept based on their justifications.  It also provides them the opportunity to think about their own understanding. In addition, this activity can help students improve their understanding of various concepts. 

When students have to come up with examples or counter examples as they try to prove their answer, it encourages mathematical thinking.  If this is done in a small groups, students have to use mathematical conversation when explaining their choices. 

The sometimes, always, or never can be used at the beginning of a concept to establish how much students know about the topic, or it can be used later on after they've had a chance to learn the material to see how much they really understand about the concept.  If the activity is used before, look at statements that focus on the concepts that will be taught.  If used after the lessons, choose statements that focus on what they learned.

One of the best ways to do this is to give students access to the statements so they can answer the questions individually.  Then place them in small groups so students can discuss their answers using the conversation to come to a consensus on the answers of always, sometimes, never.  Finally, go to a whole group so the students can discuss the statements as a group, sharing their examples and counter examples.

Another way to use sometimes, always, or never is to use it as part of journaling in math. Provide the statement for students to determine if it is always true, sometimes true, or never true.  Let them write their answer in their journal but it must include examples and or counter examples to explain their thinking.

Where the sometimes, always, or never activity offers itself as a better choice over true or false activities because there always seems to be the concept or topic that shows up is sometimes true so its hard to determine whether you want to use true or false.  

It is possible to find or develop statements for all levels and types of mathematics.  It might cover properties, the application of definitions, patterns, and so much more.  This activity is one that can be done as needed and is a wonderful way of having students practice mathematical thinking and mathematical conversation.  In addition, it helps students learn to express their thinking in an understandable way.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warm up

 

If a tree has 150,000 leaves on it and each leaf weighs .1 gram, how many kilograms is that?

Warm-up

 

If 300 leaves are in a pound, how much does each leaf weigh?

What Is The Best Way To Group Students - Mathematically

 It had to be a couple of mathematicians who applied group theory to determine the best way to group students to produce the maximum amount of learning.  They looked at the question of dividing 30 students into two groups so they can practice skills while working with their coach with the end result of improving their ability to play soccer.  

There are two ways they can divide the students up.  One way is to group them by skill level with those who have the highest skill level in one group and those who are not as skilled are in the other group.  The second group is dividing the groups into mixed groups with each group having both those players who have a high skill level and those who are not as good.

We know that as far as sports and reading go, most places group students who have similar skills end up in the same groups whereas most math and social studies classes are divided more along the lines of placing students of differing abilities into groups unless you include the honors type classes.  

They evaluated both methods using mathematical principals and equations. This was really the first time, mathematics was applied to determine an answer to this age old question.  They did make certain assumptions including the fact that there would be multiple groups, the students would have different skill levels, the best teaching situation would be teaching students at a level that matches their skill level, and the groups would provide maximum benefit for the whole group. What they discovered is the students who were group according to similar skill levels received the maximum benefits from instruction.

This is because teachers when they teach the material to students of about the same ability level, they are not presenting material that is too advanced or too trivial for the group. Thus there is less chance of students being bored with the material or lost due to not having enough of a foundation.  This was predicted upon the idea of most collective benefit for all of the students.

The results of this study has applications to education, economics, music, sports, and medicine.  In addition, the authors suggest we rephrase the question of "how do we raise everyone's score" to "How do we set up a situation where all the students benefit the most?" This gives us a first step towards meeting the needs of all of our students.  

One last thing, the authors realize their conclusions may be considered controversial but on the other hand they were specifically looking at skill based groups versus mixed groups rather than random, flexible, or other grouping.  It is possible, this might be one way to help students regain ground they lost during the pandemic.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Interesting Mathematical Facts About Food.

 

While I researched how people discovered how long one should dip a Oreo cookie in milk for maximum enjoyment, I came across another fact or two on the cookie that spiked my interest.  This lead to looking for other facts about foods in general that were interesting so today, I'm sharing them with you just because they could make a really interesting warm-up, or way to catch student attention as you transition.

Lets start with the Oreo cookies. They were sold on March 6, 1912. Since that date, enough cookies have been made so if they were stacked one on top of another, the stack would reach the moon. Currently, over 40 billion a year are being produced.  On the other hand, if you layed them out so they were stacked  on top of each other, around the earth, the 40 billion cookies could wrap around the circumference of the earth 5 times.  Side note here: There have been over 50 flavors of Oreo produced since its initial release including one shaped as a football.

Remember the last time you ate cake?  The sides started to dry out once you began cutting it? Some one figured out how to cut it so this wouldn't happen but it was done back in 1906.  The suggested method is that instead of cutting the round cake into 8 to 12 slices, you cut a slice out of the middle the length of the diameter and then squish the two sides together so there is no cake surface exposed to air, only the frosting sides. This protects the inside and when you are ready for more cake, you slice a bit from both sides so the cut runs along the diameter and squish what is left of the cake together.  

Have you struggled with getting a new bottle of ketchup to start flowing.  You know the routine where you bound on the bottom, or stick a knife in it and suddenly it flows - all over everything.  The problem with ketchup is that it is a non-Newtonian fluid.  In other words, it sometimes acts as a solid and other times it acts as a fluid.  Those who make ketchup has made it so it is supposed to flow only at 147.84 feet per minute or about 2.464 feet per minute.  The best way to get the ketchup flowing is to shake the bottle for a bit, turn it upside down to get the ketchup in the neck, take the lid off, place the bottle at a 45 degree angle, tap the bottle with increasing strength until it flows.  

Do you always cut the bagel in half?  Did you know that one person figured out how to cut his bagel so it formed two interlinked parts and even made a YouTube video showing how to do it? It was absolutely fascinating to see how he did it but it would take a few tries to get it right. There is another video in which a mathematics professor of applied mathematics shows how to cut a bagel into a Möbius strip.  She points out that you only need to put cream cheese on one side of the bagel.  For those who want a video showing the two rings method (normal), two interlinked and the morbius, then check here.

Leave it to the British to figure out the mathematical formula to determine the best way to dunk biscuits into a cup of tea without having any crumbs in the bottom of the cup when done.  Basically you do not dunk the biscuit in sideways, rather you dunk it so the broad side goes into the tea.  Then when it's damp or wet, take it out and flip the biscuit 180 degrees so the wet side is on top and the dry side on the bottom. This allows the dry side to support the wet side.

Leave it to mathematicians to figure out how to cut a round pizza into 12 equal sided pieces where some have the crust edge and others don't.  The idea is that you cut the pizza end to end using a curved path three times to produce 6 pieces.  Then you cut each piece in half and you have 12 equal sized pieces. The cutting method is based on a monohedral disc tilling formula. 

If you want to take a more scientific method of making a grilled cheese on toast you are in luck.  Back in 2013, the Royal Society of Chemistry partnered with the British Cheese board to create the perfect formula for this.  They discovered that one should melt 50 grams of a hard cheese such as cheddar on one slice of white bread that is 10 millimeters thick.  It should be placed under a grill precisely 18 centimeters below the heating element for four minutes. 

So have fun sharing these tidbits with your students as a way of showing them that math is everywhere. Who knows, maybe one day you can have a bagel in class and show it in either the two rings or the Möbius strip to grab their attention.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Oreos And Math

I read various sites and came across a really interesting article about Oreos.  It seems as if Oreos make it into the news for an assortment of topics.  Over time, Oreos have made the news for ratios, fillings, and so much more but the latest thing I came across had to do with the perfect length of time one needs to dunk an Oreo cookie in milk. 

Apparently the perfect dunk lasts between 3 and 4 seconds but again that depends on how you like your cookie.  Do you like it crisp with a bit of milk, or do you like it mushy?

Apparently, a professor of physics ran some experiments back in the 1990's at the University of Bristol.  He created a controversy when he stated that he could use the mathematical formula for capillary action to determine the answer to the question of dunking Oreos in milk. In case you are a bit rusty, water molecules have the ability to stick to solid surfaces. When water enters small tubes, it can seem to crawl up the tube as seen in straws or in paint brushes. 

In other words, its the capillary action which helps milk spread through the small holes in cookies. As a matter of fact, an American scientist created the formula for this as applied to milk.  Basically, it states that the distance the milk must travel is equal to the surface tension of milk times the average diameter all divided by four times the viscosity of milk.  

Originally, the scientist applied the formula to ink and how fast it spread in ink blots but it was the British gentleman who applied the same formula to baked goods. After he determined which numbers were best for the variables, he rewrote the equation to solve for time since the question referred to the time you dunked a cookie.  He actually used a standard British cookie and discovered the time ran between 3.5 and 5 seconds but he didn't use Oreos at all.

In 2016, another group decided to test Oreos using the formula along with Chips Ahoy, Nutter Butters, and Graham Crackers. They collected data by dunking each brand halfway into 2 percent milk for times ranging from half a second to seven seconds.  They discovered that Oreos absorbed 50 percent of their potential liquid weight in one second, 80 percent in two seconds and by the fourth second, it reached it maximum and could not absorb any more. They concluded that after 5 seconds, the cookies were unable to absorb any more milk.

Then this same lab dunked each brand of cookie into water for six seconds and then hung them up to see how long it was before they collapsed.  Graham Crackers only lasted eight seconds while Oreos lasted a full five minutes. Their final conclusion on the Oreos was that the optimum dunking time is at three seconds for maximum saturation and if you dunk more than four seconds, there is no additional benefit.  

However, there is one more factor in this scenario.  If you change the amount of fat in the milk, it could change the conclusion because the fat in the milk can slow down the absorption of milk.  Furthermore, the sugar in the milk can also effect the absorption rate so be aware of that.  So there you are, the mathematics behind the conclusion of why the ideal dunking time is between three to four seconds.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Warmup

If the plane leaves Chicago at 2:35 pm which means it is leaving at 9:35 pm Madrid time, how many hours difference is it from Chicago to Madrid?

Warm-up

If it is 4200 miles from Chicago, IL to Madrid Spain and it takes 8 hours and 5 minutes to get there, how fast was the airplane traveling.

More On Google Forms In Math

I decided to talk more about using Google Forms more in Math since it has so many possibilities and can be used in a variety of ways.  In addition, there are some add-ons that make it easier to use in math to make forms more useful.  

There are several add-ons depending on which browser you are using.  If you use the Chrome browser, you can add-on EquitI0 which allows students to provide mathematical answers that might have radicals, exponents, or complex fractions.  It also has a feature that allows students to verbally give an answer for the program to write down.  

If you use the Safari browser, there are several math editor add-ons you can choose from.  I've used the EquatIO so I'm most familiar with those.  

Last time, I discussed using it for a spiral review but it could also be used to build quizzes in the same manner using either multiple choice or short answer questions.  For multiple choice questions, you choose the correct answer when you build the answer key.  You can also put in answers for the short answers but if the answer in the key does not match the one the student gives, it may not mark it correct.  What I means is that you write x = 3 with spaces and the student types in x=3 so you need to put both in.  The form automatically grades but if you do not want the students to immediate see their scores, you can set it up to mail the results at a later time.  I sometimes do it this way so I can double check the short answers just in case they wrote the answer in a form the answer key does not recognize.

There is also a choice to have a paragraph answer which I like because I can have students explain their thinking in regard to solving a problem, the steps they took to solve a problem, how they translated a word problem into an equation, or explain what is wrong with the way an equation was solved so they find the mistake.  This allows more space for students to record their responses so they don't run out of room in the short answer.  The other advantage to use paragraph form rather than having students write out their answers on paper is that you can actually read what has been submitted.

Google forms are great for bell ringers or warmups so students can start working on it as soon as they get into class and you have the results immediately so you can see where they need reteaching or support.  Forms is also great as exit tickets since the students answer the question and they are ready to go.  Both ways provides data you can use to meet the needs of your students.

If you need to do a pretest to see what they know before you start the new unit, forms is a great way to do this because of the data it provides.  It is much easier than trying to make copies, pass them out, collect, grade, and try to remember who didn't take it.  The results from this allow you to teach what your students need rather than just following the book.

Forms is also great for end of section tests since you can write problems,  include diagrams, pictures, and so much more.  In addition, you can set the form to shuffle questions so everyone gets questions in a  slightly different order.  You can also let students see which questions they missed and the correct answers but only after the results are released for the whole class.  Furthermore, you can set point values if you want so students know what each question is worth.

One of the tasks teachers often must do in the first day or two is gather parent contact information.  This can easily be done using Google Forms and then forms drops all the information into a spread sheet so you don't have to add it all in.  Yes, I know that many folks use a system where you can look it up but sometimes it is not as well organized or things like phone numbers change.

Google forms are a great thing to use in the classroom to help make your life easier so you can spend a bit more time caring for yourself while getting all the assessments done so you have better data for lesson planning.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.

Spiral Reviews Part 2 - How To Do It With Google Forms

Last Friday, I discussed spiral reviews.  I looked at what they were, what the best ways of including spiral reviews into daily instruction.  This time, I'm going to look at providing digital versions of spiral reviews because many of us use platforms such as google classroom and it's easy to incorporate problems so students get to practice what they've learned.

Before you begin creating a digital spiral review, you need to determine which problems you should be using.  Look at the problems carefully to see which ones have students practicing a specific skill.  

Types of problems chosen for the spiral reviews can be problems students would have done in class or as part of the homework assignment.  It might be a new problem done in the same style they've seen before or slightly rearranged such as instead of x + 2 = 7, it is written as 7 = x + 2 or even 2 + x = 7.  This way they get used to seeing problems in multiple formats.

One way to create a digital spiral review is to use google forms because you can set it up so students receive immediate feedback on their answers if one uses multiple choice questions.  If you choose a short answer question, it will not provide the immediate feedback.  In addition, google forms will provide the teacher with data to see what they know or don't know. 

Google forms is quite easy to set up.  Begin by bringing up forms and hit the create a new from + button.  

When you see the first question, it will be an unlabeled form.  Just double click on the words "Untitled Form" and come up with a title.  It might be review, or exit ticket but put something on it to identify it with more detail such as the date.

It always shows a place for the first question.  Multiple choice is a good one for this type of review because students know at least one answer is correct and they can use that to help them look at their answer to compare it with all the possibilities.

Then you type the question into the spot that says Untitled questions.  For this I made sure type of question next to it was labeled multiple choice.

In the spot that says option 1, I wrote one answer.  then I clicked on add option so I could type in another answer.  I continue until I have all the answers.  If you need a picture, you can click on the photo icon to the right and use that to install a illustration.  

In order to set the questions so you can identify the correct answer, you need to go to settings and click on Make this a quiz.  This allows you to identify the answer by clicking on the blue words answer key that appears in the lower left corner of each question.  

When you click on answer key, you click on the correct answer so that it allows you to place a check mark on correct answer.  You do this for every question on the quiz.

When you have the proper answer identified, you click on the done button and move on to the next question. When students finish the quiz, they submit it and they get an immediate feedback telling them what they got right and which ones they missed.

 If you go back on the settings page, you can collect e-mail addresses so you can provide your own feedback.  

In the middle tab, you can look at all the student responses so you can see how they did.  You can see responses by question, by individual, or an overall summary that can be downloaded.

Although this can be done in something like Google slides, I usually use Google Forms but Google slides does allow students to show their work.  It all depends on what you are after.  On the other hand, if you choose the short answer question, you can have students show their work step by step or explain their thoughts.  

Hope this is enough to get you started.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.  

Happy Labor Day

 

Warm-up

 

If twenty four trees are needed to make 200,000 sheets of paper, how many reams of paper is that if each ream is made up of 500 sheets?

Warm-up

One acre of land can grow 450 trees.  If one tree produces 16.67 reams of paper, how many reams of paper does one acre of land produce? 

Spiral Reviews Part 1.

 

One of the hardest things to do is to remember to include spiral reviews as part of the classroom routine.  Some books include a small spiral review section but it doesn't always focus on previously learned material. Instead, it focuses on materials learned several grades ago.  A spiral review is defined as giving students problems of topics they have learned for the rest of the year as a way of moving the learning from short term to long term memory. 

I took a professional development class that talked about including spiral review as part of class instruction.  The idea was simply after students have learned the material, you include problems for them to do so they continue practicing the material. In some districts, it is mandated while in other places, some teachers choose to do it.  Fortunately, this class made some practical suggestions to implement it but they didn't tell you when you should no longer focus on certain topics.

If you begin a spiral review at the beginning of the year, it doesn't take long before you have so many concepts and topics that you won't have time to teach a lesson introducing new material.  Since the goal behind spiral reviews is so students have a chance to master the material so it is important to base what you include in the spiral review on data you have gathered.  Data can be used to see what topics students have to master and which ones they've become experts on.  As they master topics, you can switch to asking questions on that topic once a week, or one every couple of weeks.

Since research indicates students are only able to focus for 8 to 10 minutes at a time, it is important to keep the spiral review short if it is done in class.  If you are doing it in class as part of the warm up, ask between 3 and 5 questions so students finish before they lose their focus.  If you place the spiral review in the homework, you'll slip a few questions into the whole assignment so they get practice that way.

It is important to make the spiral review a part of the class routine because the more time we spend on task, the more students learn.  When it is part of the routine, you don't lose time explaining how to do things or transitioning once you've taught students how to do it and when it will be done, it becomes automatic.  If the spiral routine is done correctly, it will only take 3 to 5 minutes of your class time while providing you data so you can determine if they've mastered the skill or they need a bit more instruction.

Sometimes, you might hear folks who talk about spiral reviews and spiral instruction as if they are the same.  They are not. Spiral instruction is when the skills and concepts are broken up and taught across the school year so they are introduced to new facets or components of the topic across the year.  While spiral review refers to give students the opportunity to practice skills they've already learned across the year.  

Spiral reviews are an excellent way to assess what they've mastered and what they still need practice on.  In fact, it can be used to provide the data you need to see where they are so you don't have to wait till the end of the section to find out what they need.

For the best use of spiral reviews, make sure you are indeed have students practice problems of material they've been taught rather than trying to teach them.  Keep the number of questions to between three and five so the review is short and can be done within 5 minutes.  Make it a part of your daily routine so it becomes automatic. 

On Wednesday, I'll discuss ways to do spiral reviews digitally so you don't increase the number of papers you have around and can reach all your students.  Let me know what you think, I"d love to hear.  Have a great day.