Struggling & GReader Cleaning

I feel like I am struggling at the moment. I really wanted to make some changes in how I teach this year and I have made some changes. I have incorporated some different things into my teaching, but I am still at the forefront of my classroom. I struggle with this mentally at least weekly, if not more so. I wanted to be incorporating Reasoning and Sense Making into my classes. I'm not. I did bring in an open question last week into my Advanced Algebra 2 class and it didn't go as well as I hoped.

I did partially use this approach today that John Scammell blogged about last week. I think the next time I use it, I will follow the approach as it was blogged about - when I was thinking about it this morning on my way into work, all I could remember was showing which points made the inequality true. In my first class, I had students choose any point on our grid (both x and y values go from -6 to 6 on it) and they all chose points with two positive coordinates. None of those points worked, so I had them choose a coordinate that had at least one negative coordinate and we got some points that worked. Also with the first class, I didn't have them graph the points we came up with. We just graphed the shaded area that did work. For my second and third classes, I had them plot the points we found that worked on their grid before we graphed the inequality on the grid. They then graphed the line and we talked about testing a point to determine which half of the plane to shade. Below is the pdf of my SMARTNotebook file from my last class.



In that last class, one of my students who has struggled with math spoke out as we were working through the problem. We had graphed the individual points that we found that worked and had just finished graphing the boundary line and right as we finished drawing it in, he said "I get it now!" I hadn't even gotten to the point where we talk about testing a point in one of the half-planes - he already saw where the answer would be and "got" why that was going to be the answer. That was worth it. #win

Getting back to the opening... I know I have done things differently this year. Yes, things are mostly the same. However, due to the twitter-blogosphere and reading and conversing with other math teachers, I have incorporated some different approaches to instructing my students and I think that has made me a better teacher. However, as I look at my classes, I am frustrated because they are so dependent. It's almost as if they don't know how to think.

In my Advanced Algebra 2 class, where we're working on solving systems of inequalities by graphing, we had this discussion about the test point today. It started first by clarifying how to determine which half to shade based on testing (0,0), which is the point I use unless it's on the line. Then the conversation shifted - can I test (1,1)? What about (2,2)? After answering the same question but with a different point for the third time, I got a bit frustrated with them. It was as if they couldn't take the concept of checking a point to represent the region and shift it to a different point. And these are supposed to be my "better" and/or "brighter" students. Granted, I didn't use the same start as I did with my Algebra 2 classes today, and that may have made a difference, but it was very frustrating to me that they couldn't transfer the idea to different points. As I said earlier, it's almost as if they don't know how to think.

Last night I was trying to get caught up on my Google Reader, this post by crstn85 caught my attention about studying for math. Since I was at 130 or so when I started trying to clear it out, I really only skimmed the post and starred it to go back and read later. However, as I continue to reflect, I think I may go back and read it much more thoroughly to see if I can use what she did with my classes. Maybe it will be helpful to them.

So here I am at the beginning of the grading period of disruptions second grading period and I have not really done anything as far as my second and third goals on my list for this school year. I have not made any progress on incorporating Reasoning and Sense Making activities into any of my classes, and although I try to ask my students questions as I help them, for the most part, I pretty much help them through their questions instead of asking them questions. I'm not sure why I am struggling with that one. I think part of it is that my Algebra 2 students are lower in ability/prior knowledge compared to previous groups and I am afraid of losing them. I suppose if I really thought about it with my Advanced Algebra 2 students I could work at it more with them, but again, there are some students in there that I could lose. I'm at a point that I'm not sure what to do, so I continue to do what I have been doing and trying to bring in some new things as I catch them in the twitter-blogosphere. Right now, I'm not feeling that's good enough. So now what?

ACK!

My bellringer today for Testing Thursday was this question from the 2009 Ohio Graduation Test:



To be honest, I didn't feel it was a particularly difficult question. I was quite surprised when all three of my Algebra 2 classes who saw this question today had no idea where to start. They didn't even want to hazard a guess at it. I had one student in my Advanced Algebra 2 class who knew the answer, but this particular student catches on to some things mathematically that most students wouldn't even want to venture towards. I'm not totally sure how to explain him, but let's leave it at that it doesn't surprise me he figured it out and rather quickly.

I have noticed over the last week or so that my students already are not really engaging with the OGT testing questions I have put in front of them. Part of me can hardly blame them, but on the other hand, I do need to prepare them for this test that many of them will have to take this year and giving them the opportunity to see previous test questions is a helpful way to do that. I know the best way to prepare them is to teach the material that will be covered by the test in the first place, and I am certainly doing that.

At the moment, I have two questions bouncing around my head that I need to figure out answers to:
1) How do I get my students more engaged with these questions/bellringers? I'm not grading them (remember - SBG here). I have set the expectation in front of them that they are to be working on them - it's not happening as much as it should be.

2) (and this is the more important one to me at the moment) How do I help my students to be able to engage with a question like this? I think many of them flat out wrote it off today without even playing around with it. If I have hopes of incorporating rich tasks into my classes , students have to be willing to play with the mathematics involved. I saw a whole lot of blank stares today and very little attempts at figuring out an answer.

You know, I was just starting to work up the gumption to try to design or find an activity to modify that would involve (*gasp!*) thinking and after seeing this today, I'm back to being scared of it. Help!

School Year Goals 2011-2012

Since my #summerlist helped keep me on track somewhat this summer (I did get a lot done, but not quite all I wanted to), I thought it would help me stay on track if I did something similar for the school year. My list, however, is not going to be as lengthy. Hopefully, this will help keep me accountable and focus what I want to accomplish this school year. I have never done this before, but I have also never felt compelled to do this either. So, here goes nothing, I guess.

Goal 1 - Bellringers
I have never done a great job consistently starting the period. Some classes I have done a better job than others, but I have not really ever been consistent. This summer I came up with a plan for "themes" for bellringer activities:

• Mental Monday
• Testing Tuesday
• What-We've-Been-Doin' Wednesday
• Testing Thursday (or possibly Think-About-It Thursday depending)
• Free-For-All Friday

Since I have my students keep 3-ring binders, I will have them set a section for Bellringers there. I think I will have papers designed for them to put them on, which will hopefully make them a little more interesting/fun.

Goal 2 - Incorporate Reasoning and Sense Making activities
I attended the NCTM's Institute on Reasoning and Sense Making this July in Orlando. I definitely left inspired to incorporate these activities into my classes. I have not totally figured out how often I intend to do this - part of this is that I didn't do much this summer as far as trying to find some rich(er) tasks to use in my classes. I think I will aim for at least once a grading period in each of my three preps (Math 1, Algebra 2, and Advanced Algebra 2). As a part of this, I will be adjusting some of the "structure" of my class as I talked about earlier.

Goal 3 - Work on my Questioning Skills/Helpfulness
Part of this goal will be incorporated in Goal 2, because I will have to work managing rich tasks in the classroom. I am presently reading 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions and that is already helping me to not only better grasp how to set up rich tasks in my classes, but I know from seeing the author speak at the aforementioned Institute that this book will help me to get a better idea of how to set up activities to improve student understanding. I am also intending to do some reading during the school year on how to ask good questions of my students and generally "being less helpful" as Dan Meyer puts it.

Goal 4 - Blog more often
Last school year, I was very erratic on my blogging. I have said previously that this blog is for me - it allows me to reflect on what I am doing. I haven't really done that until I started this blog. But what I have found through blogging and following others' blogs is that I learn a whole lot from the blogosphere. People are willing to share things that have worked (and not worked) in their classrooms and with having only 2 other math teachers to share with at school, hearing those experiences is invaluable. I hope that I am able to contribute some things this year that others can learn from as I have learned from other bloggers.

For the moment, that's what I am going to put in front of myself as goals for this school year. I know there are lots of other things that I would like to do, but I think by focusing on these four goals, I can make some good progress this school year. I am continuing to use Standards-Based Grading in my classroom (this is my second year) - between that and learning how to use the SMARTBoard, I had my hands pretty full with those two things last year. Since I have a pretty good grasp on both (and both can be things that are time consuming), I think four goals is a good place to start.