An Example of Formative Assessment

Formative Assessment

Math 2 Win

2 + 6(9-3) + 27 ÷ 3 =

A.  7.22222....

B.  51

C.  41

D.  75

I love my Smartboard!  The students do as well.  I thing I do with my smartboard is a formative assessment using something I call Math 2 Win (M2W).  M2W is a way I have my students practice prerequisite skills as well as current skills we are working on.   I put one multiple choice question on a notebook screen.  The students write the question, any graphics associated with the question, and the correct answer in their M2W journal.  After selecting the correct answer, the students use the Senteo Response System to record their answer choice.  After all students are through making a selection, I stop the session and we discuss the student answer choices and a circle graph that displays their choice (a little data analysis going on).  This helps me decide whether the all of the students are understanding what we are talking about.  I do this at the beginning of class since it also helps the students settle down quickly after changing classes. 

What do foldables have that I don't?

June 3, 2012

My goal for this coming year is to incorporate more foldables into my lessons.  I think foldables will help my students remember the content better than simply compying items from the smartboard.  Many times as I am going over a lesson I ask about something the students just wrote down and often the students can’t tell me anything about it.  They are just WRITING the information down and not even READING what they are writing but with a foldable I think it will make them read what is being put down on the foldable.  It is just a hypothesis but I am ready to test my theory.  I’ll let you know!

These are some of the things I found this part week blog hopping:

Thanks Melissa: Math Foldable on Angles

http://theenlightenedelephant.blogspot.com/2012/05/math-foldable-on-angle-pairs.html

Thanks Julie: Volume of 3D Shapes with Play-doh

http://ispeakmath.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/volume-of-3d-shapes-with-play-doh/ (I have already been using the play-doh to create 3-D shapes.  Never thought to then have them cut them up to find the volume!)

Thanks Nancy:  Foldables (I agree with Nancy.  I love foldables but I don’t seem to have enough time to do as much as I want to with them!)

http://teachingmyfriends.blogspot.com/2012/02/foldables-and-lapbooks.html

Thanks Guillermo Bautista:  Pythagorean Thereom

http://mathandmultimedia.com/2012/05/21/using-similarity-prove-pythagorean-theorem/

Thanks Erin Klein: MathGameTime.com (They list by grade level!)

http://www.kleinspiration.com/

Thanks Marcia: 3D Shapes Vocabulary Word Search

http://www.classroomfreebies.com/2012/05/three-dimensional-shapes-word-search.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClassroomFreebies+%28Classroom+Freebies%29

Thanks Laura Candler: Free Fraction Spinners

http://corkboardconnections.blogspot.com/2012/02/fraction-spinners-freebie.html

Thanks Stephanie Moorman: Surface Area Concept Lesson

http://teachinginroom6.blogspot.com/2012/02/concept-lesson-explanation-in-pictures.html

Thanks Andrea Kerr: Circumference Freebie

http://www.fortheloveofteachingmath.com/2012/05/28/circumference-packet-freebie/

Thanks Christy: Surface Area Idea

http://croitz.blogspot.com/2012/05/surface-area-tin-man-project.html

Favorite Store and some good posts

May 27, 2012

One of my favorite stores is the Dollar Tree.  If you’ve never been before, you really need to go.  Need new letters for bulletin boards?  Need new bulletin board borders?  Need dice for math stations?  The Dollar Tree has them!  I try to go in there once a week to see what they have and I am usually not disappointed.  Just this week I found a math center kit for a fraction center!  Love me some Dollar Tree!

These are some of the things I found this part week blog hopping:

Thanks James: Spin To Win – Review Game Template from Teachers Love Smartboards

http://teacherslovesmartboards.com/2012/05/spin-to-win.html/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TeachersLoveSmartBoards+%28Teachers+Love+SMART+Boards%29

Thanks Kate: Identifying Triangles Freebie

 http://tothesquareinch.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/triangles-introduction/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Tothesquareinch+%28to+the+square+inch%29

Thanks Maya Khalil: I just love this whole site.  I believe she reads my mind!

http://studentaccessible.com/about

Jena from Caught in the Middle posted some fabulous posters for the seventh grade math common core standards.  Check it out here: 

Welcome to my blog! Here goes nothing:

I love blog hopping!  So many people have so many awesome ideas to share with other people.  My idea for this blog is to compile posts relevant to seventh grade math since that's what I teach in Georgia.  I want to post a list of awesome resources geared toward seventh grade math on a weekly basis.  Maybe something here will help you inspire that "Ah ha!" moment in your students.