Every year I pledge to get students to understand slope better than the year before. So, I pay close attention to exactly what makes slope tricky for students. One thing I’ve noticed over time is that it seems like they get the concept behind slope better than the abstract idea of slope. Also, there are 5 representations that we use for slope, and each one of those has its own details. It’s a lot for students to grasp. Then, they have to hold on to that newfound knowledge and apply it in unfamiliar situations. So, how do we teach unit rate and slope in a way that sticks? Today I’ll share with the way I break down this topic with students, and how I use their interactive notebooks to help them get a solid foundation with slope and unit rate. [Read more…] about How to teach unit rate and slope with interactive notebooks
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Teaching Scatter Plots and Bivariate Data with Interactive Notebooks
Students come into my math class with some sort of background with scatter plots. They generally have an understanding of how graphs work, so identifying if the graph has a positive, negative, or no correlation is pretty simple for them to figure out. It probably helps that we teach this topic after they’ve had an extensive introduction to slope. Overall, interpreting scatter plot graphs may be the easiest topic that we teach all year. It’s fairly intuitive, and builds naturally on the slope concepts students study in 8th grade. In this post I’ll break down all of the notes I use to teach students to read and interpret scatter plots and bivariate data in our interactive notebooks. [Read more…] about Teaching Scatter Plots and Bivariate Data with Interactive Notebooks
7 Thanksgiving Math Activities To Add some Spice to Your Class
The month of November can seem to fly by when it comes to teaching, and Thanksgiving sometimes doesn’t get any attention in the math classroom. This year I’ve decided to add a little bit more Thanksgiving cheer to my class, and I want to share some of the ideas with you. This time of year is a time of reflection and gratitude, so I thought my students might be thankful to have some Thanksgiving fun. Also, I am going to have them do some reflection on why they should be thankful for specific math topics. [Read more…] about 7 Thanksgiving Math Activities To Add some Spice to Your Class
9 Awesome Activities for Writing Equations in Slope Intercept Form
After teaching students the concepts of slope and y-intercept year after year, there’s one thing I know for sure. They can’t get enough practice. We learn about slope for a week, and then we work with y-intercept for a week. Next, we spend two weeks comparing functions and then go into a unit about writing linear equations in slope intercept form. Along with all that, students also have to be able to look at a function and explain the situation it represents. [Read more…] about 9 Awesome Activities for Writing Equations in Slope Intercept Form
10 Greatest Common Factor Activities that Rock
Fractions and factors can seem intimidating for many students. I’m sure you’ve seen it- the look of fear and panic in students’ eyes when they’re asked to do new things with fractions. Some of this stems from our own relationship with fractions and the way we present, or frame, learning about them. If we show a lack of enthusiasm when we teach about the greatest common factors, students pick up on that.
The teacher who taught me fractions treated them like any other numbers. She didn’t say anything about how tough fractions are, or how some kids really struggle with them. As a result, we just learned them without being afraid of them. Today I want to share with you 10 activities that make finding the greatest common factors of fractions fun for both students and teachers.
[Read more…] about 10 Greatest Common Factor Activities that Rock