Warm-Up System

Posted in algebra I, pre-algebra by

For the past few years, I’ve relied on Daily Math Practice, Grades 6+ for the Math 7 warm-ups and it has worked well for both the 6th and 7th graders. I would make copies for each 9 weeks and put them in folders with fasteners for each student. This worked pretty well, as the students learned to get their folder first thing and work on the warm-up for the first 3 or so minutes of class (as soon as the bell rings, I hit the timer on the SmartBoard). In algebra I, I would just come up with some review questions to post on the board and the students would write their answers on lined paper in their folders.

The first year I did all that, I tried to grade the folders every week, which was tedious. I’ve stopped grading warm-ups, but the students still do them.

This year, since I’m teaching pre-algebra, I don’t want to use the Daily Math Practice because it’s too elementary. So, I went about searching for a new system. There aren’t any good warm-up books for either pre-algebra or algebra I, as far as I can tell. But, I came across Fawn Nguyen’s post, which inspired me to work on something for pre-algebra, and then when I read Matt Vaudrey’s tweet, I decided to keep going for a real system for algebra I.

The first thing in all of the warm-up folders this year will be the schedule:

Pre-Algebra Warm-Up Schedule

(Fonts used are Sketch College, Raditad, Organic Fridays (Lined), Bradley Hand ITC, Matura MT Script Capitals, MV Boli, and Segoe Script)

So, pre-algebra’s warm-up schedule is borrowed heavily from Fawn. Monday uses patterns from What’s Next. Tuesday (choosing 3 of the 5 problems) and Wednesday use the Grade 8 Week by Week Essentials provided by North Carolina. On Thursday, I decided to use questions from the Would You Rather? blog. Finally, Fridays will be the Fun Facts, available on Fawn’s blog, and review questions related to that day’s quiz.

I plan on printing everything out and assembling it in order beforehand, to put in the folders. So, to keep the students organized, I’ve made a template for Thursday’s and Friday’s responses.

For algebra I’s schedule, I wanted to increase the rigor a bit and also have it be different enough from pre-algebra that students that have me twice won’t be bored.

Algebra I Warm-Up Schedule

On Monday, students will be given 5 mental math problems; I’m using the ones from AEA 267. On Tuesday, I’m going to show one video from Graphing Stories for the students to practice graphing. On Wednesday, the students will complete the form from Visual Patterns on one pattern. On Thursday, students will answer the algebraic sense problem from this daily problem solving doc and will complete a KenKen puzzle (starting the year with 3 x 3). Finally, on Friday, it’ll be Fun Facts & Review, just like in pre-algebra. I also made a template for the algebra I warm-up, which includes writing space for all 5 days.

I’m feeling really great about having figured the warm-ups out for both classes. This is my last day “off” before going back to work tomorrow (meetings all day!), but I’m riding this wave of productivity as long as I can.

One Unit Down, 9 to Go

Posted in pre-algebra by

I have one week left until I go back to work and I’m finally feeling good about my first unit for pre-algebra. I’ve never taught this class before, but since I’ve taught the ones immediately preceding and immediately following, I think I’ll be okay. The curriculum map I got originally was a bit of a mess, but I think I’ve figured out a pretty good system for the year.

The first unit is called Algebraic Expressions and the five skills of focus are: verbal translations, evaluating expressions, identity/inverse/zero properties, the distributive property, and associative/commutative properties. I finally have exit tickets prepared for all the skills as well as the entire homework/vocabulary packet complete.

The part I’m giddiest about is the class website. I’ve been using Google Sites for the past few years for each class and really like it. It makes it so easy to update and organize.

The home page has the Google calendar, which will actually have each day’s plans on it once September arrives.

Website_Calendar

Each unit will have its own page and the homework file will be included in case anyone loses the original. I actually already have the Unit Organizer prepared and posted for the first unit:

Website_Organizer

And… the best part of all is that I’ve actually updated all the skills for Unit 1 so that the SOL is posted as well as helpful YouTube videos for review and attachments of notes at the bottom.

Website_Skill

Of course, I’m going to have to make myself keep doing this for the other 9 units. The good thing is that this is fun for me! Maybe I can use this next week to get Unit 2 done…

Homework Template

Posted in general by

One month to go and I’m procrastinating on the two priority items I’ve marked for myself: exit tickets and homework for Pre-Algebra. All last year, I was excited because I’d finished creating all the homework packets for Math 7 and Algebra I, thinking that this summer I wouldn’t have to do anything with homework but edit some typos. However, since my Math 7 classes have been shifted to someone else and I’ve been given Pre-Algebra, I have to work on that curriculum.

I’ve struggled with how to deal with homework before. My first year, I worked kinda out of the book and kinda with whatever handouts I could find. However, the book is terrible, especially now that Virginia has adapted new SOL. So, in coming across this comment on Dan’s blog, I developed a template for homework.

Homework Template

Each skill gets its own page (or several, if it’s something like integer operations), followed by relevant vocabulary. When that homework is due, I project the key via the doc cam, with one warning: there is one intentional mistake in the key (and sometimes accidental ones, too) and the students are supposed to find it. I’ve really found that students have been much more willing to ask questions this way, at least as opposed to showing a key with no mistakes.

So, what I’m supposed to be doing right now, is creating the homework pages for each skill and then compiling them by unit and saving them as a pdf. I post the pdf version on the class website so that any student who has lost the original copy may download and print another one.

For the past couple of years, I haven’t generally graded each homework individually. I walk around to see who is checking/copying/lost. I’ve collected the unit packets for a grade (all homework/notebook grades make up 5% of the overall average), which is a quick effort grade, but I always feel a little dirty for messing up sbg.