Slope matching actvity

     In Algebra we are working on Slope-Intercept Form. I'm trying to flip my two Algebra classes, but it is not as easy as it sounds to do this. My two classes are very different from each other. Actually they are polar opposites! My one class does all of the work I give them with only two students that I need to follow up with. My other Algebra class has about 3/4 of the class that do not do the work required and it is a daily struggle to keep them motivated and up to date on their work. They have been watching videos and completing their notes at home then we are doing activities to reinforce what they learned. What I am finding is that they may copy the notes but they don't read them for understanding. This is going to be a process but I'm going to continue until the end of the year. It is something that I've always wanted to try, so we will see how it goes.

     Today we started this slope-intercept matching activity from Math Giraffe at teacherspayteachers.com. How I love teacherspayteachers.com. I can make great foldables but not these activities. This one is well worth the price. Students match graphs, slope and y-intercepts and equations. The only thing I added to this activity was to number the graphs from 1-10 so they could put the first ten in order to make it easier for grading. Everyone was talking and working hard today and that makes it a good day.

I don't know why they will not clear their desks off so they have room to work. Why????

 I prefer to have partners for this but when there is an odd number we have one 

group of three. Great collaboration with this group.

There is a template included for the pieces to be glued to but 

I had extra colored paper I needed to use. 

.

Deep concentration here. I love it:)

     This is a short quick post but I am trying to stay to my three post per week. So far I'm on track for this week. YES!!! I am having so much fun this quarter and my students are loving this too. I'm hoping that the videos and notes get better. This quarter is flying by. Wow.

Til next time,

Jan

Combining Like Terms and Distributive Property Interactive Notebook Pages

   
     Last week, in my Pre-Algebra classes we learned about like and unlike terms. We completed this foldable from Sarah at everybody is a genius  on combining like terms. All of the foldables on this page require no prep work. The students do all the cutting, writing and folding.

     These are pages I have used with my students in the past. I spruced them up a bit to look better. I like how this page turned out. These are matchbook foldables and I love them because they are small and we use up lots of my leftover bits of paper.

We completed the foldable below from Sarah at everybody is a genius  combining like terms. I like how Sarah has the students place lines before all of the + and - signs to separate the terms. This is such a great visual for my students and really helps my struggling students. 

Then we did a work page for the other side of our interactive notebooks. I did this as a guided practice with them. The problems are all a little different so there was lots of review for them over integer rules and like and unlike terms. We places the lines in front of all the + and - signs like in the foldable. They understood it!

The next day we learned about the distributive property. We wrote a Frayer Model vocabulary model, did several problems together practicing the steps. On the third day we completed our distributive property foldable where we added combining like terms. Love this page:)

I'm sure you can come up with a better Frayer Model than this.

 I think I could improve the definition and facts.

This page was great. My students always get so mad at me because I MAKE them write down the distributive property the long way and not just using arrows. I find it helps them to make less mistakes on signs when they write it all out. 

I saw a foldable like this somewhere and I never made one like this before. Of course, I had to make it. It took awhile but finally everything lined up and it turned out great.

The problems increase in difficulty as you go and the kids did a great job on this. I'm doing the happy dance because they never can understand the types of problems on the bottom and this year they did!

Hope your are enjoying my last semester journey with me. 

70 days to go til retirement.

Download files here:

Like Terms work page

Go to my teachers pay teachers store for 

Distributive Property Foldable and Graphic Organizer pages

 Til next time,

Jan

Similar Figures Foldable, Matching Activity and a Rally Coach structure

      I made a goal to write a post everyday until the end of the school year. Well, that lasted for a total of one day. It amazes me that people can do that! I just can't find the time. Now my new more realistic goal is three times a week. They may be short posts or they might be all pictures but I will post them.  
     In 8th grade Pre-Algebra we finished studying Similarity. I'm pleased with how well my students are working on their interactive notebooks. Being able to cut, color, tape and assemble our foldables is such a wonderful sensory activity. It benefits so many of my students who are hands on learners and many of my ADHD kids.  Then there are my creative girls who come to class with big smiles and pencil cases full of colored pencils and markers ready to begin class. I provide colored pencils and markers for them but these girls love to add special touches with their supplies. On my foldables I've been adding area that they can color in if they like. This is great for those who can copy quickly as they can color while they wait a minute for some other students to finish copying. If you haven't tried using foldables as part of your instruction I strongly encourage you to try some. It will take the kids time to get use to cutting quickly but they get much better at this skill as the year goes on. Also adding some fast music in the background helps them to cut and work faster as well. I always put on Twist and Shout, they want rap but I tell them they have to listen to my music. They like it.
     Here is the foldable that we did on Similar Figures. I like how it turned out. Maybe a few more word problems but we had a work page of word problems that we put next to this foldable. I can't tell you where this work page is from. I've had it forever and love it.

   Next, we went over some vocabulary and some basic problems. I reviewed proportions with them as well as one step equations. 

Then we went discussed shapes that had to be rotated 

to find the corresponding sides.  

(Uh oh, I forgot to finish a problem. UGH!)

Coloring the corresponding sides helped many of my students 

who struggle with this concept.

   Then in groups the students did this matching activity that is free at teachers pay teachers by Mrs. Slick. They had fun with this activity. I had each group work with me at the table for a few minutes. I started with my lowest group so I knew that they understood what to do. Then I walked around and watched the fun.
    
       I was thrilled to find the resources in the link below from Utah Education Network. I used the Rally Coach activity on similar triangles from them. See previous post on how to use a rally coach structure in your classroom. Kagan Structures are different from how the Utah site explains it. I thought it would be easy for them, but as they did the activity it became obvious that my kids needed easier problems. I would go back and redo it for the kids I teach. There are lots of great resources at this site. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to use more of them.

Downloads and Links:

 Similar Figures foldable

Work page four word problems

Similar Figures - Rally Coach, Utah Education Network

Til next time, (Hopefully tomorrow.)

Jan