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

A Math Problem is Born!

It has been a crazy winter this year and with all the craziness came a few extra days off of school.  Sure it was wonderful not to have to set an alarm clock on a Monday OR Tuesday but being home bound for an additional two days was starting to make me crazy in the head!   After it warmed up a few degrees(like 20 or so) I ventured out into the single digit temps to get some fresh air.  It was being outside and seeing the shadows that were being casted by the houses, fences, garages, myself and everything else, it came to me.  A math problem would be born.   At that time, we had been studying the Pythagorean Theorem in class and this was the perfect opportunity so bring a problem to life.  I trucked it out to the ally and dug wood poles out of the garbage can.  These wood poles were previously a decorative detail in our stairway which resembled jail bars to me.  They looked much better stuck in the snow!

So once they were in,  I grabbed the tape measure, measured and ran inside to write the measurements down.  I ended up measure two lengths in inches and the other in feet because it was easier to remember.  This added a little extra thinking to the problem which ended up being a good thing.  As you can see below,  this is what students walked in and saw on the board the next day.

I added a little extra drama to the introduction which students seemed to appreciate.  The biggest question they had was, "Is that your garage?" To which I replied...."Of course not!  Do you think I would  actually take a picture of my own backyard and show everyone?"  They believed me but really,  would I actually go through the trouble of doing this in someone else's backyard?  Silly kids,  just another reason why I love middle schoolers...