Functions Continued...

I love my students and wouldn't change them for the world, but so often they have a hard time with math that has multiple steps.

We were working on function and they needed practice, but not just sit at their desks and work on a worksheet practice.  So I decided to make these huge posters, one poster for each of the three steps for graphing a function.  

This activity got my students up and moving around the room while still working on practice.  The few feet between each step made a big difference.  It gave them time to stop thinking about what they just did and focus on what they are to do next.  To them it made each problem seem like three easy tasks.

I had three sets of these posters and even though it was only three problems worth of practice they got each of them correct.

At the end of the hour I gave them an exit ticket over these types of problems and found that most of my students were ready to move on the next day.  I did have to work with one student who has been struggling all year, but this activity gave me the time to do just that.

Function Machines

It's been awhile and I'm so far behind in my blogging.  So here we go...

Before winter break we talked about functions.  For many of my students this year is the first time they have seen anything Algebra so we keep it pretty simple.  I started off talking about a Function Machine, I like to use a pop machine as my class example.  We talk about how if we push the Pepsi button we should get a Pepsi out, but if we push the Pepsi button and a Mt. Dew pops out then our machine doesn't function properly.  I went into how for every input you have exactly one output.  Many of them understood after the pop machine example.

I gave students this chart to put in their ISN.  The top box was Graphing Functions From a Table.  I taught them how to create an XY table and how the values create points that we put onto a graph.  Then we found a few extra points that were on the line but not in our table.

We then moved onto Graphing a Function.  I gave them y = 2x - 1 and we decided we would use the values -1, 0, 1, and 2 for X.  The students plugged the values into the equation and solved for Y.  Then graphed the points.  I again made them find some extra points that were on the line but not in our graph.

Doing the extra points helped my students see that the line does not stop just because we ran out of points to graph.


We then moved on to their practice.

We defined the terms Domain and Range, each one getting their own color.  After we defined them we went back to the left side of our notebook and highlighted which values represented the Domain, and which represented the Range.

I then gave them two functions which they had to give values for x and plug them in to find the y.  After they were done they had to graph their points and then find a few that were not in their chart.  Again they lighted the Domain and Range Values.

As an activity I asked my students to create their own function machine.  It gave them time to be creative, though this class is not at all creative so many of them just drew boxes as their machines.

They were asked to create an equation, but not draw it on their page.  They had to create the XY Table, filling in both sets of values.  The students then went around and had to figure out what everyones equation was.

My Love of Concept Maps

The Whole Concept Map

I have a secret love for concept mapping.  Not only do I enjoy making them but I truly enjoy watching a class of students all create different concept maps on the exact same topic.  It's so interesting to see how each individual interprets a broad topic in such different ways.  The best part about it is that since it is how a person makes sense of a topic, they aren't done incorrectly....well for the most part.

Top Left

Concept mapping is generally done with information in boxes or circles connected by lines that are labeled.  This type of activity is easily done in both Science and Social Studies classes, I usually use them in the Science classes
that I teach.  However, this year I decided to have my basic math kids concept map our entire Fractions Unit.

Now for all of my basic math students this is the first time they had ever done a concept map, and many of them struggled through it and they came out a mess.  Which for me is GREAT!  They are suppose to be messy.

 

Bottom Left

These are pictures of the one I had created.  I will update this post later with some student created concept maps, but some were hard to read/understand in person, and it was way worse in a picture.

In the past I have always done them on paper, and many times I still do.  I enjoy hanging them up around my room and having students keep adding to it each day.

Two years ago I got a classroom set of netbook computers and we were asked to implement them into our classrooms as much as possible.  I started off by taking something I already do in my classroom and do it on the computer instead.
Concept mapping was the first thing I started with.

Top Right

There are many different concept mapping tools out there, many of them free!  The few that I have used in my room and that my students enjoy are Concept Board, Popplet, and Mindomo.


My students prefer those three over any of the others because they can insert pictures into them.  Many of the concept mapping/mind mapping tools out there don't allow you to put pictures into them.   These three are also extremely easy to use.  Also some of them limit how many maps you can make with a free account.  After awhile a student can delete their old ones but mine like to keep theirs.

Bottom Right

Do you concept map/mind map in your classroom?  If so how do you feel about them?  How about your students?

The Coordinate Plane

Before winter break I introduced the Coordinate Plane to my Algebra class.  Let's just say working with a number line was challenging enough for a few of my students but now we combined two number lines together to form a Coordinate Plane was pretty unheard of by some of them.  Trying to explain this to a few of them resulted in me getting looks like I had grew horns and shot fire out of my mouth.  We pushed through and in the end I became Ms. O again.

 Students were given a double sided page where they cut on the dotted lines and folded on the solid ones.  It created a four flap foldable where each flap was one of the four quadrants.  I added the font so all they had to do was color it in.

When you open up each of the flaps it reveals that quadrant on a coordinate plane.  On the inside of the flap is where students filled out information about that specific quadrant.












In the middle was grid paper where the students created the two number lines and labeled the different parts of the coordinate plane. We then practiced plotting and naming points in each of the quadrants.

For the right side of their notebooks I gave them two graphs, one blank and one with points.  The top graph (blank) is where I gave them points and they had to plot them.  The bottom graph (with points) is where the students had to practice naming them.

For homework that night I have them those fun sheets where they plot the points and it forms animals or easily recognizable objects.  The kids loved these because they knew right way if they did it right or not.  I found a few on MathCrush.

Mathcrush.com

It was pretty interesting to see what some of my students came up with when they returned.  A few had some deformed fish or birds, so I knew they needed more practice but everyone else knew what to do and was ready to move on.

Here are the links to the foldable, it's two pages that you print off double sided.  Everything lines up correctly.  Enjoy!

Coordinate Plane Interior
Coordinate Plane Exterior

Geometry ISN

Since I started using an ISN in my Algebra class I have seen my students succeed to higher levels/expectations than I ever thought were possible at the beginning of the year.  In the mean time I saw the levels of my Geometry students progressively drop as the semester was going by.

At the beginning of every period I ask my students a journal question in which they are to reply to, we use blogger for this.  One day I asked my Geometry students to reflect on their learning and the type of student they are.  These are the following questions I asked them:

• What do you need to do as a student in Geometry class to be successful?  
• What have you been doing so far this school year that hasn't been working for  you?  
• What have you been doing so far this school year that is working for you?   

The number one thing my students replied with was they don't know how to take proper notes and they lack organizational skills.  It was like the clouds opened up and the sun was shining down on us that day.  I instantly knew that they desperately needed the ISN too.

That night on my way home from work I stopped by my favorite store, Target, and picked up composition notebooks for each of my Geometry students.  The next day when the kids came in and saw all of the supplies out on the table some were excited because they have friends in my Algebra class and knew what was going on, while others were just plain old confused.

I explained what we were doing and why we were doing this.  They were all excited to try something new.  In fact at the end of the period one of my students approached me and said "Ms. O this is a pretty cool project you have us working on."

This is the cover I created for my Geometry ISN.

   

Numbers Important to Me! Numbers Important to Me! #2