Tag: go to

Posted on

Challenges

It’s May.

There’s a month left of school. We just went through a round of testing. And we’re all a little fried.

And so, I was sitting in my office a few classes ago, with a topic (functions),  no particular lesson plan inspiration, and a textbook with a nice series of activities that checked all the boxes (mixed question/task types, at the right level, moving smoothly up Blooms…) I’ll be honest,  “Class, please complete the exercises on pages __ to ___” was a tempting plan.

Except

It’s May. The students are fried, they’ve worked hard all year and focusing on a textbook for a big chunk of class now was just not going to work.  They’re good, they’d try, but who could blame them for losing interest?

But was a nice series of activities, and I’m fried enough myself that I didn’t want to waste a perfectly good set of learning materials.

 

Solution: Envelopes.  Scissors. Some re-framing.

 

I made copies and started cutting and sorting. Those vocab words? A tiny matching activity, in an envelope. A big #1 on the front.  That exercise identifying functions? Cut apart and stuck in an envelope, it’s a card sort. With a big #2 on the front. That other exercise? I just stuck it in an envelope. Add a graph, ask for a sentence, envelope, envelope.

With a few additions and some cutting and editing, I soon had a few copies each of six enveloped tasks. I called them challenges and handed out the envelopes with that big #1 on the front. I told my students when they had completed the first challenge, they could exchange it for #2.

And it worked.

The mystery of the envelopes, the challenge, the sense of accomplishment and progress as they exchanged one envelope for the next added enough interest that they worked hard and stayed engaged the whole class.

In May.

When we’re all fried.   (Did I mention that fact?)

 

I love that they worked hard and learned.

But, I also love that I got a new tool in my teacher-kit.

Cut it up, put it in envelopes, set up a challenge – that’s a transferable skill-set for the next time I’m contemplating “please complete the exercises on page…”

Posted on

Go To: Concentration Cards

Go-to’s: My go to activities: flexible, easy to prep and explain, engaging for students and their brains.  (Inspired by one of those ‘so what do you do …’ conversations with another teacher)

Activity: Card game, matching pairs based on “Concentration” (aka Memory)

Theory:  We need a break from worksheets.  Mostly: I find my students struggle with equivalence and recognizing two items in different formats as the same value, concentration focuses them on these relationships.

Example: We’re easing in to a new term with a word problem review, so I made Concentration cards. Once half of each pair was an expression in English (5 less than 16, the sum of 2 and 7…), its pair was either a mathematical expression (16-5) or a final value (9).

Prep: 

Fold a piece of paper into small squares (8ths or 12ths work for me) to hand write or use a template to type (Next time I’m using a blank business card template – they’re a nice size and should print just fine without the fancy paper)

You want pairs of cards, blank on the back.  I like values that are equivalent but not equal, so an expression and an answer, a definition and vocab word etc. I find 10 – 15 pairs (20 to 30 cards) is a nice level of challenge.

Print and cut out a deck per student-group.

Pro tips/Learned it the hard way

Use card stock or dark-colored paper – I’ve had crafty students figure out how to read through my lighter paper versions.

Use a different color for each deck of cards so you don’t spend forever reuniting lost/scrambled/mis-placed cards.

 

In class:

Remind students how to play. (I’m always surprised that people don’t know or have forgotten this game)  

In short: The cards go face down on the table. Each student takes a turn trying to make a pair by turning over two cards and looking for a match. Winner is the player with the most pairs at the end.

Here are  full instructions

I like groups of 2 or 3. Any larger and there’s too much downtime.  Groups play until all of the cards have been paired or until a set time has elapsed.

Pro tips/Learned it the hard way

A reminder to return cards to their original places is valuable. There’s always one group that inadvertently ups the difficulty level by rearranging the cards.

Extension Possibilities

Students create a new pair or pairs of cards with their own examples.

 

Works for:

  • Vocab (word on one card, definition on the other)
  • Conversions (e.g. 1 foot = 12 inches)
  • Equivalent values (e.g. equivalent fractions, simplified and expanded expressions)
  • The math equivalent of sight words, those things you want them to recognize quickly (e.g. perfect squares)
  • Really, pretty much anything….