Twitter Math Camp 2014 SPIRALING THROUGH THE CURRICULUM MARYBOURASSA.BLOGSPOT.CA

AL’S STORY – ACTIVITY BASED TEACHING  Frustrated by the lack of engagement of our at-risk learners  Something had to change!  Opportunity to collaborate to rethink our approach and make significant changes

SPIRALING DEEPER WITH ACTIVITY-BASED TEACHING  Curriculum is spiraled within the course  Focus on teaching through engaging activities  Activities on a daily basis. No more units!  Activities that cover more than one overall expectation are better (but not necessary)  Skills developed in the “context” of the activities

SPIRALING ACTIVITIES /TASKS Teacher-directed, scaffolded activities Investigations with greater complexity Connections built on prior knowledge Open-ended, student-directed, rich learning tasks Start End Co-created criteria for quality questions, communication and thinking.

GRADE 10 APPLIED MATHEMATICS

 I blogged the whole course here: GRADE 10 APPLIED MATHEMATICS

Every day & on all evaluations Graphing Technology Algebra Tiles Manipulatives Pennies …anything that helps!

BENEFITS  Repeated opportunities as the students do activities (for assessment, for gap filling, for retention of curriculum)  Multiple entry points for all students  Natural opportunities for differentiated instruction  Collaborative learning environment

BENEFITS  Increase in accountable talk  Improved long-term retention of course material “Students know what they know”  Fewer discipline problems  Increased student engagement  Math concepts are explored through the context of the activity

BENEFITS  Activities are high interest, hands-on and contextual  Increased opportunity for critical thinking  Connections to the curriculum and within the curriculum are made naturally  Lots of time to get through the course

BENEFITS

26 SQUARES

BARBIE BUNGEE

EVER INCREASING DOMINOES

Cube-a- Links for Expanding and Factoring

EQUAL CUP STACKS

ROPES

PAPER CLIP CHALLENGE

GROWING DINOSAURS

OPEN STRATEGY CUP STACKING

What Questions come to mind? ‘How many cups does it take to make Mr. O’s height?’ ‘In cups, what is the width of Mr. Overwijk?’ ‘Is there a reason you are standing next to a cup?’ ‘If Mr. O was chopped up,how many cups would he fill?’ The most frequently asked question…… ‘How many cups does it take to make Mr. O’s height?’ OPEN STRATEGY CUP STACKING

The Anchor Chart  Title  Group members names  Diagram of stacking plan  Different representations (table, graph, equation)  Calculation of number of cups needed (multiple ways if possible)

OPEN STRATEGY CUP STACKING

Describe what you learned todayAfter Today’s Activity what are you still unsure about or wondering about? ‘That the result can change depending on how you stack them’ ‘I am still kinda confused about equations’ ‘I learned how to create proper graphs for this’ ‘If the result will change if different cups were used (bigger width)’ ‘I learned proper graphing skills and when to use linear regression’ ‘I’m wondering how you would begin to go about the same activity if you do not know the height of the person’ ‘Stacking cups, teamwork, sharing’‘What was the point of this, will this save my life one day stacking cups’ ‘I’ve learned that there are many ways to find the same answer’ ‘That why can one point change the whole equation’ ‘I learned that with every sample of data, an equation and graph are required. ‘ ‘I am wondering how many cups would it take to reach my height’ ‘I learned that Mr. Overwijk’s height in cups is 16.2 cups’ ‘Is it possible to switch x and y?’ OPEN STRATEGY CUP STACKING

Testimonials: “I really liked the activity approach because it put math into realistic, understandable situations.” “ I took this course last year, but this year it was so much easier to understand. The ideas stuck in my head longer.” “ Pretty sick. I understood it way more than last year. I like reviewing everything over and over again. Not just doing it once and it being on the exam

Testimonials: “The different things we learned were constantly brought up instead of being put into several units. I liked the activities because it was easier to work on my own with the worksheets after the activity.” “ The lessons were very simplistic and the fact that we rotated through the different lessons was very practical and we didn’t forget the lessons we learned at the start of the course before the exam.” “ We did a lot of activities with props, which helped me understand the lessons better. The fact that we did the paper clip challenge that no other class was able to do was exciting. The more activities we did the more it helped me to understand. We should play more games than work on worksheets.”