Archive for March 2015

Monday, March 30, 2015
by

A Penny for your Thoughts on Curriculum

I'm interested in what Math curriculum you guys use.

I dream of a day where there exists a completely inquiry-based-social-justice curriculum (and honestly, could see myself working as a curriculum developer in the future). Not because I'm an amazingly creative curriculum creator (I'm lucky if I make enough copies for the day), but because it's just something that I would love to focus on and put all of my energy into.



I have used 2 curriculums thus far in my career: Connected Mathematics Project 2 (CMP2) and Go Math!

Here are my thoughts on these two:

Connected Mathematics Project (CMP2) 
To be honest, I really loved this curriculum. Perfect? No. But the best that I have come into contact with. We used this curriculum at my old school, and I miss it dearly.

PROS: 
  • Inquiry-based and student driven
  • Units make sense and flow. They are broken up into "Investigations" that guide students through concepts while increasing in difficulty. 
  • Rich problems rooted in real-life (easily adaptable to social justice) 
  • Each unit has it's own paper back instead of one giant text books for kids to drag around
  • Backed by the NSF
CONS:
  • Little procedural practice (seems crazy to list this as a con, hah. But in my opinion, this is very easily supplemented if you miss it)
  • ....Sometimes the 

Go Math! Common Core Edition
We have been "piloting" Go Math this year at my current school. I have gone back and forth with this curriculum all year. I initially didn't like it and decided not to use it at all. I then saw that Edward Burger was an author, and decided to give it another go. I tried to really understand it's approach and embrace it in our daily lessons. I quickly became bored with this curriculum and decided to abandon it again, with the exception of using pages for homework. 

PROS:
  • Lessons are aligned to CCSS.
  • Great differentiated resources. Quizzes come in 3 levels of differentiation, as well as practice sheets for each lesson in 3 levels. I also love that each chapter has a "Challenge" page to go along with it to really push your higher students into more complex math. 
  • Textbook is also a workbook, so students can write in it and rip pages out. 
  • Real world videos with each Module (read: chapter)
  • "Math in Careers" section with each unit so students get more exposure to how math is used in careers
CONS:
  • Focus is very much on procedural learning. Gives students exact methods for solving problems, step-by-step.
  • Assessments are very long and procedural; lower-level thinking. 
  • Lessons are segregated and not very engaging


Clearly, my bias leans strongly towards CMP. I found myself and my students much more engaged with CMP, than I do now with Go Math. Go Math has a lot of fluff. At the surface it seems like rich curriculum, but is really a traditional curriculum in disguise. 

And so, the search continues. What do you guys think? What curriculum have you used? Which do you like/love/hate? 
Saturday, March 28, 2015
by

SBG Posters

As I continue to implement Standards Based Grading in my classroom, I've been looking for my resources for students to help them understand the system.

I found these wonderful posters at "Everybody Is A Genius" blog, but they didn't really work with my own system. I am trying to stick to Marzano's philosophy of a 4-point scale, where 3 represents meeting the standard and 4 represents going beyond the standard. I like this idea because it encourages and challenges students to exceed the standard.

So, I took Sarah's posters and tweaked them to fit my system. I changed the level scale to a 4-point scale, and reworded the descriptions.


I also made a minor tweak to the process poster: adding an arrow from "Quiz on the Skill" to "Demonstrate Mastery" because after all, the ideal situation would be for students to master the skill the first time around! 


Big thanks again to Sarah at "Everybody is a Genius" for the inspiration! 




Monday, March 2, 2015
by

To be or not to be a Pencil Nazi...

"Pencil only."

Two words I have said, been told, and heard others say repeatedly throughout my life as a student and a teacher. In Math class especially, you use pencil. Pen is not acceptable. Nope, no markers either. Colored pencils? You've crossed the line.


The problem is, I cannot decide where I stand on this issue. I have heard some arguments, valid ones, from either side of this debate, but I'm still a total swayer when it comes to the Pencil v. Pen debate.

This past year I have even gone through a bit of a roller coaster on this issue. I started the year off with, "No pens! Only pencils allowed!" Then, after a few months of having a significant number of students each day without pencils and having gone through my stash of 50+ pencils to give to kids it became, "You must give me collateral in order to borrow a pencil!" (Turns out collateral for a 13-year-old often involves a shoe). When I was tired of the ever growing pile of Jordan's on my desk, I switched to "Fine! You may use a pen, but your work must be neat! No scratch outs!" I thought, sure this will teach them! They'll learn on their own that a pen is not an effective tool for work which breeds mistakes and backtracking...But, of course, they continued to use pen and scratch mistakes out anyway, so now my rule is a very strict "Bleh, whatever, just turn it in."

I've questioned myself on the pencil stance: Is this a rule I'm enforcing simply because it's the norm? Do they really need to use a pencil in order to be successful?

Yes and no.

I have a few students who are a mobile Office Depot; meaning that they have with them, at all times, no less than 30 colored pens, highlighters galore, stickies of all sizes and white out. They label and color-code absolutely everything and if when they make a mistake, they white it out as if it never happened. These are the students that spit in the face of the Pencil Nazi.

Here's what I know...

  1. Neat, organized work is important. Especially when doing multi-step, complex problems.
  2. Scratching work out directly competes with neatness. 
  3. Sharpies, just, no.
So what is the solution?

I don't want to devalue the hard work a student has done by returning or not accepting the work simply because of scratches, but I want to encourage neatness and organization. 
I also don't want to continue to go through 100+ pencils in giveaways each year.
Is this just something I need to let go? 

Where do you stand on the pencil debate? What do you do if kids come to class without a pencil?

UPDATE: MARCH 28, 2015
I found a semi-solution that has definitely been working. It is so simple, and I'm kind of kicking myself for not having thought of this. The solution? Do not provide them with a pencil.

 Now when students ask me if I have a pencil for them, my response is simply, "Nope."

And guess what?! They manage to find a pencil!!

Such a simple thing, tapping into students' resourcefulness. When they know that I am not going to provide a pencil for them, they look more thoroughly through their materials, ask one of the 25 other kids in class, etc. Point is, they get their pencil.

Now to find a way to get them to bring a pencil in the first place...