Math Chat lead by Students!

Over the past three years, I have learned that getting students to discuss math is sometimes more important than anything else.  I always encourage students in my classroom to talk to each other about WHAT they are thinking and WHY.  Today, in my last math class of the day, it happened and it was a dream come true!

The warm-up on the board was a question about Mr Rey's bank account.  He had a balance of -26.00 and deposited some money and ended up with a balance of 23.00.  I pulled this question from our fall benchmark test and thought I would see how they did.  They had 4 options to choose from.  A. $3 B. $23 C. $43 D. $49.  I instructed the students to justify/prove their answer.  Students talked talking to each other at the table clusters then before I knew it, students were talking to each other across the room!  I made a quick decision, pulled some tables together and made one large 'conference' table as the kids called it.

The things that I noticed that students were doing...
- Speaking up for kids that were too shy to share
- Silent leaders surfacing
- Little to no off task behaviors
- A sense of group and ownership
- Explanations beyond the, "I picked C" solutions
- Students asking other students to explain
- Modeling of real life problems/discussions/solutions

When I felt that they were at a point where they had come to a general consensus, I stepped in and summarized the behaviors I listed above.  Then we went on to present our findings.  This group of 13 kids had 5 different ways to solve this one multiple choice problem!  I was so proud of them and what they had accomplished without even knowing it.   Needless to say, GEMA had to wait but this was too good of a teachable moment to pass up!

Ever have something like this happen?  Till another day!

Katie

Bringing Integers to Life!

When I was in my first year of teaching, I had stumped upon this activity somewhere.  I wish I tracked everything during that time but lets be serious, I was barely keeping my head above water.

The concept behind this integer activity is to get kids out of their seat moving while seeing if they make any connections from adding integers to subtracting integers.  

Directions: 

1. Start on the first number in the problem

2. Face the negative numbers for subtraction and the positive numbers for addition. 

3. Walk forwards for positive number and backwards for negative numbers. 

Check out this short clip.   Kids love this activity!  It isn't perfect so I haven't posted it on TPT yet.  If you would like it, leave a comment and I will send it to you!

This year kids cheered when I rolled out the GIANT number lines.  It really has nothing to do with anything but it sure felt good that they were excited!

Katie 

We've hit Integer Season!

An important topic in 7th grade is integer operations.  This is the first time that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing integers are formally introduced.  I went about it differently this year than 2 years ago.  CMP3 suggested using chips to introduce addition, so that's what I tried!

I really liked it.  I felt that students really grasped the idea of adding integers.  They could see when adding a positive and negative number which had more and that determined the sign of the sum.

I also found that this concept really helped those struggling students.  This is a picture I snapped while helping a student one on one build her confidence in solving. 

After the introduction, I set students on a journey with a partner to answer questions from our online book.  This is where I saw students helping students the most.  They were explaining it in terms that made sense to them.  

The journey through integers is not always easy but I highly suggest using chips.  After using chips, I also taught students how to use the number line to add integers.  I left it up to the students which way of reasoning worked for them and never actually taught a formal way to add integers.  I would say 93% of students are confident in their integer abilities.  The other 7% I am working with daily.  

What are some methods of teaching integers you have tried?  Even if they didn't work, we can always learn from mistakes!

Katie