My trial in Standard Based Grading

I have jumped into the deep end with Standard Based Grading. I was am new to this. It has been about 4 weeks and here are my thoughts:
1. You and your students need to be organized (big mess for middle school students)
2. Students struggle to grasp the concept of SBG until we start taking quizzes
3. I don't know how to make this easy and quick for grading and record keeping (so far, I have printed out a chart with student's names and skill numbers, separate of my grade book. Then I will put one grade in for the chapter)
4. My students have not taken advantage of learning on their own. Although we have discussed, introduced, and practiced all the skills in class, they refuse to take an extra step outside of class after taking the quiz.
5. I am not sure how I want to work retakes. So far, I have made new quizzes for retakes. This, my friend, is a lot of work.
6. Quizstar (do a search for it) can be a useful tool though can be difficult for math. You can use html for the questions (meaning you can write fractions and exponents) but not for answers if you choose to use multiple choice (which I did for some because the site grades them for you! I just always add a "none of the above" answer for each one).
7. Only two students asked for time outside of class. This makes me sad.

Feel free to give your advice.

Checking and/or correcting homework

Checking homework can be a painful experience. It can waste time and get the class off to a slow start. However, I have a few different ways that I think are useful and present student-centered learning opportunities.

I will share one way with you today.
1. Using the cooperation challenge from Sean Layne's Tableau, I split the class into two equal halves.
2. Split the homework problems in half and assign them to specific halves.
3. Each group is responsible for correcting their assigned problems. Everyone in the group must be able to explain how to come to the correct answer. (I continue to use Layne's Tableau ideas throughout this lesson. About how you are responsible for the person next to you, etc.)
4. Walk around during this discussion time. Ask good questions and check their final answers.
5. Once each group is ready, I go back to the cooperation challenge and have the students partner up with someone from the opposite group.
6. Check the other half of your homework with student's new partner.

This activity allows students to move, talk, and most importantly explain. Conversation is so important in our learning, yet we hardly practice this in school. This also puts the pressure on students to do their homework because if they did not do it, they let their group down. It is also quick to see who did not do their homework from their discussion in their groups.

Kids should answer their own questions.

I believe that everyone "learns" better when they find the answer to their own question. Why is school not set up like that?

In other news,  I have had two interesting things happen this week.

The first: 7th grade students have discovered, by patterns, what any number to the 0 power is.

I then asked, "what is zero to the zero power?" We spent a good 15 minutes discussing this and what our options might be. I went as far as to show why was cannot divide by zero and my students were still not agreeing on one answer. Therefore, that was their homework last night. Prove what zero to the zero power is.
Today, I let them work in groups that had the same answer to put their "proof" on the board.
I saw: 0^0 = 0 because 0^1= 0, 0^2 = 0, ... the pattern is that the answer will always be 0, therefore 0 ^0 = 0
and
0^0 = 1, because any number to the zero power is 1. 2^4= 16, 2 ^3 = 8, 2^2 = 4, 2 ^1 = 2, 2^0 = 1 (divide by 2 each time). Therefore 0^0 = 1
and
0^0 = undefined. Zero has no value, and you cannot divide nothing by nothing (paraphrasing my students' work).
I went through each proof and demonstrated why it was right or wrong. I was happy with all of their answers. I enjoyed seeing how my students are starting to notice patterns and are able to think more like mathematicians.

The other interesting thing was when a student said to me, "Why don't you teach us?"

What a great teachable moment and a loaded question. I am interested to hear how others would respond before I give my answer. Of course, this requires people to be reading my blog...is anyone out there?

(un)Hear it?

I found this site today: unhearit.com
It brings up the age old question of why some songs get stuck in our head. Think about the music lessons that could be attached to this! I am excited with the possibilities and look forward to hearing ideas.

FOIL'ed again

Trying to teach FOIL, without just telling them.

I wanted my kids to discover it and to fight with the idea. Trying to make this topic apply to a "lab" or the real world was difficult for me. So, I stole the ol' adding areas of rectangles together.
1. Add two different colored slips of paper onto a normal sheet of paper

2. Find the total area

3. It was helpful to draw an example on the board as well (if my students had their own white boards, I could imagine this could be a great activity, or even better cutting their own paper).

4. Let them ask the questions, fill in the information, and teacher help guide questions

5. When the quest arrises about the 4th rectangle, I added a little red rectangle to our model.

6. We got to the total area by adding all of the rectangles, but now what is the total measurement of the L and W?

7. Write that as two binomials multiplied together.

8. Set that equal to our total area

9. Let the students discover FOIL

I was happy to see my students struggle. In the past I have seen the difficulty to just follow the steps. But here, I was able to see the struggle with the concept. I think the students feel like they came upon this pattern, more than being told to memorize steps.

We were able to have discussions about
a. what variables to assign to what
b. what to include in our dimensions
c. how to solve the problem of that extra space (the 4th/red rectangle)
d. discover how to multiply two binomials together

Did my students grasp the concept? I don't know yet. I wish I could have had about 10 more minutes of class time (we went off on a tangent about multiplying exponents in the beginning of class). The students that were engaged in our discussion have the tools to grasp the concept during their homework tonight. However, the students that turn off during our discussions will be lost tonight. They will ask me to "teach" them tomorrow, since I "didn't" today.

Kids these days...

My 7th graders are going on a field trip today to see a math play. As I was explaining to my students yesterday about the plan for today, the first question they had was, "Can we bring electronics?"
This blows my mind. The bus trip will be around an hour, should be less but traffic will not be great. I lied and told the students that it will be about a 30 minute bus trip (which is not really a lie, if I were to drive from school it would take about 30 minutes) and that you do not need your electronics. They still insisted that they will download a tv episode to watch on the way there.
Want to know why our schools are "failing?" Maybe, it should be worded, "Want to know why our culture is failing?"
More on the field trip after I return.

The way things should be

While watching Mythbusters last night, everything clicked with me. School, especially math class, should be like that show. Take a question, or myth, and prove/disprove it. This will create creative, patient, and energized problem solvers. I was greatly influenced by the "Bee picking up laptop" segment. The amount of math and creative ways to solve the problem is amazing. It is so beautiful. Please share any ideas as to how to make school more like Mythbusters.
Here is the video that sparked the myth: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_12L_Dme8Vc