MAED 314 Unit Plan: Math 11 Essentials

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AXReLTz_kpKdZGYyNTdzbm1fMjBkbTRranpjYw&hl=en

Two Column Problem Solving

two memorable moments from my short practicum

memorable moment #1:

The first Math 9 class I taught I found out there were some letter designations and consequently some behaviour issues.  One student said to me when I asked him to get back on task was "Only teachers who are strict and can watch me closely can get me to work."  On the last day I taught this class my sponsor teacher left and came back and stood in the doorway.  My class was silent ad working individually o their practice problems, which he said was very surprising!  I guess I proved to this student I was there to teach and manage this class effectively.

memorable moment #2

My second memorable moment was when I was sitting in on a Review Jeopardy class.  I was the "phone a friend" option and a bit rusty on the material.  Almost every time when I was asked, I gave the correct answer and the student would turn around and give an answer different from what I told them and lost their points!  It become a comedy of errors and everyone was getting a kick out of it.  This was definitely a funny moment, and a great ice breaker for the students and me.

Math Poem Reflection

I was really exasperated when I first thought about doing this activity.  I'm not a writer and the only poetry I really know is rhyming poetry.  I did some research on the types of poems that I could try and I ran into some interesting ideas.  I think it's a great idea trying to incorporate other subjects with math, and I don't think you can always please everyone with the ones you decide to use.  I think that including free writing about math does get students to actively think about what they know and are learning.  The poetry writing might allow those students who are very creative in that area to enjoy math more, or it may even help further their understanding.  I do think that it may make math more tedious for others.  I'm not too sure what I would do change or modify this exercise, maybe give a list of the types of poems you could use would make it easier for those who don't have much experience with poetry.  After I figured out how I was going to tackle this assignment I did enjoy it and the chance to do something a little different and had some fun with it.

Division by Zero Poem

Danger in division?

If dividing by a number,

Very often the original is now smaller.

It doesn't always work this way,

Sometimes it can get bigger!

If this is something

On which you are confused

Now lets see what zero will do.

But how could this be?

You may soon be surprised.

Zero and division don't always work out

Every zero divided is zero, 

Reverse this about and we now have a mess!

Oh what do we do with this number?

Kinemalgebratics microteaching reflection

I was very pleased with how our microteaching lesson played out this afternoon.  I think it was fabulous on Mike's part to think of linking physics and math together to create such an interactive lesson.  I was actually quite surprised how willing and enthusiastic everyone was to participate in the lab section of our lesson, which shows that at any age the opportunity to move around and do something active in the classroom is a definite bonus.  

I thought that the structure of our lesson was quite clear as well as the verbal and visual communication by all the group members.  I think we could have made our mathematical ideas a bit more clear, in the sense that it may have been a bit difficult to understand right off that we were learning algebra.  I wasn't able to see Mike teach his part of the lesson so I may be slightly off by saying that.  

I felt that our group did an excellent job in connecting the lesson to other areas of life.  We did not really connect our activities to other areas of math, but we were quite focused on algebra for the time that we did have.

One aspect I feel that we could improve on was managing our time a bit better so that we could connect our two activities better at the end.  Erwin did a great job with the time he was given, but we could have left him more time to better connect our lessons and derive the velocity from out distance and time calculations.

Looking at the reviews other groups gave us, many peers really found the activities fun and engaging.  They liked how we took a real life example and applied it to this math concept.  

Some people found our topic unclear at the beginning, possibly by wacky title created so next time making that more clear may help our lesson go more smooth. 

There was also a comment that suggested we spend more time relating our two activities at the end.  This was a time management issue, and hopefully if this activity was done with more time we would be able to achieve this.

Overall I was pleased with how this activity went.  I found some of the other lessons done interesting, in particular the estimation activity.  This group created a lesson that I would definitely be interested in using for the future.  I especially liked their handouts and group work, as well as a nice introduction and well delivered lesson.

Microteaching BOOPPPS Lesson Plan

INTRODUCTION TO ALGEBRA

BRIDGE:Today in Math we are going to be doing an activity involving a ball and measurements!

TEACHER OBJECTIVES:To teach algebra implicitly using a Kinematics Lab.

STUDENT OBJECTIVES:Basic understanding of algebra and the ability to apply it to real world situations involving simple kinematics (v=d/t).

PRE-TEST:Intentionally none done, as we don't want to "tip our hat".

PARTICIPATION:Two tables.

1)The first table is a "Kinematics Shout-Out", where the students derive the basic Kinematics equations and put them in algebraic notation. We will be using the equation v=d/t and solving for the variables v, d, t using repetition.

2)The second table is a "Mini-Lab" with a ball rolling a set distance against a wall. The students will measure the distance from a line to the wall, and measure the time it takes the ball to get to the wall. This will then later be applied to the equation learned previously.

Required Materials:

• Masking tape
• Measuring tape
• Stop watches
• Balls

POST-TEST:Students will use their measurements and their new equations to calculate the speeds that the balls were rolling using v=d/t

SUMMARY:Surprise... you just learned algebra!

Write down the equation you learned and how you could apply this to another real life situation for next class.