Idea Galaxy

Adventures in Junior High and Mathematics

interactive notebooks

How to Make Teaching Simple Probability Easy

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I love probability. I can’t really explain why, but I find it so easy to understand and applicable to real life. My students, on the other hand, don’t seem to really know much about it. When we start our probability unit, it becomes clear that some students have never even heard of it. I used to get so surprised when kids didn’t know anything about a topic. Now, I just realize that there’s simply a lot to learn about in the world, and I love the chance to be the one to share something for the first time with them. The probability unit is not only fun, it also uses some concepts that we have focused on this year like proportions and rates.

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Using I Can Statements in a Math Interactive Notebook

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When Common Core became the standards a few years ago I was also introduced to I Can statements. I was taking some graduate classes at that time for instructional design and we were learning about lesson objectives. The common wisdom is that lesson objectives should have what students would be able to do at the end of the lesson and be measurable. Then, I heard about I Can statements. What struck me as important was how they were written from the point of view of the student. This was very intriguing to me, but I didn’t know what to do with it.

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