tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21668138898037786082024-03-05T04:58:36.805-05:00Algebra 1 for the 21st CenturyLea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-7151166662277107882015-09-13T20:07:00.000-04:002015-09-14T07:34:50.732-04:00Standards Based Grading continues to evolveThis is my third time through the Common Core Algebra 1 curriculum with Standards Based Grading and the <a href="https://www.scribd.com/doc/280759496/Algebra-1-EHS-2015-2016" target="_blank">online book</a> based on ck-12 modules. Our school is moving towards proficiency based grading, so I've made some changes to line up with that.<br />
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My course has used 30-ish <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GRXjNoaFrdlxYV9eir6dZiddBwEE0S5Hc2NhW4GYYw8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">standards</a> for the entire year and I've been using a version of quizzing based on Dan Meyers' <a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/2007/the-comprehensive-math-assessment-resource/" target="_blank">blog post</a> from forever ago. I think students benefit from more summative assessments than this rotating quiz schedule allows, so I've grouped my 38 standards ("learning targets", in other systems) into 10 units (also called "proficiencies" in other systems) so they can have unit tests along with the standards based quizzes. I still rotate all the standards through the quizzes, they see them twice in class and can retake twice with me, but there is now a summative unit test about once a month that can't be retaken. Right now I'm averaging all these scores to make a traditional number grade, but when our school moves over to proficiency based report cards, the grade will most likely be reported based on mastery of each proficiency.<br />
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I have also created a library of videos (screencasts of me teaching each standard) and practice problems that are posted on the <a href="http://ehs.ccsuvt.org/academics/math/mrs-smith/" target="_blank">class website</a>. The students can access these for extra practice for the assessments. I have also reorganized the book and all of the classwork so it is very obvious which standard they connect to. This should make it easier for a student to see how they are doing on each standard prior to the unit test.<br />
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If a student wants to retake a standard, they have to show the homework and classwork from that standard, plus show some extra work they did from the online resources. I have a Google form they fill out to check off that they've done that, plus the form emails me to give me some warning that I need to have a quiz ready. Our school has just moved over to one 30 min advisory period in the middle of every day that we manage with Enriching Students software. This will make it easier for students to schedule time to retake quizzes.<br />
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I also have an extensive collection of <a href="https://www.mindmeister.com/328033793/alg-1-lesson-ideas" target="_blank">classroom activities</a> that I've collected from years of following people's blogs and Twitter feeds. This makes it fairly straightforward to have a variety of interesting things to do in an 80 minute block. I would like to use more of the clever problem solving activities that I have found online, but the Algebra 1 Common Core curriculum still has a lot of individual skills in it, so I don't have as much time for that as I'd like.<br />
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I am happy with how this is going so far, I think everything is organized in a way that makes it straightforward for the students to know what is expected of them. I think that education is moving towards students taking more control of their learning, information is so readily available that it seems reasonable to give them the ability to pick what they want and learn the way that they want. There are many ways to meet proficiencies and I believe schools will be offering students more independence in the ways that they get there. I have structured this course so that a student can get what they need in several different ways and they get experience in looking online for the materials that they need to be successful.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-75271919248039519282015-01-04T17:24:00.000-05:002015-01-04T17:24:52.075-05:00Proficiences, Blended Learning, Personalized Learning, STEM and Technology These are the things I have been working with all year. Standards Based Grading is going just fine and I am developing ways to use online resources in a personalized way with my Algebra 1 students. I am hopefully training the students to use online resources in a professional way to further their own learning goals by creating a well organized database of videos, self paced problems and class resources. I liked this <a href="http://tiie.w3.uvm.edu/blog/multiple-learning-pathways-with-moocs/" target="_blank">blog post</a> about MOOC's (Massive Open Online Courses), I believe that being able to learn from others effectively on the web is becoming more and more important and I'd like to train my students to do that. Our entire school is going toward Proficiency Based Graduation Requirements and I believe that web based resources can be very useful in personalized and self paced learning. Most of my innovative efforts in algebra this year have been around this topic.<br />
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I teach in our math computer lab, so I have access to computers while students are in class. I am working on a blended approach to personalized learning where I set some time aside during the regular class for students to work on material that their standards based tests have indicated some shortcomings in. One of the resources I use is videos that I have made with Explain Everything. This is a fantastic iPad app (also available for Android recently) that allows you to make videos explaining a topic. Something I would like to do is use EdPuzzle to embed quizzes in the YouTube videos, but it just hasn't happened yet.<br />
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I would like for the students to have tablets so they could access this material any time they have a web connection, but this isn't cheap and my school isn't jumping right into one to one for all students. The tablets I am interested in are the Galaxy Note and the Surface Pro. I would like the students to be able to write math problems with a stylus and keep it all their work in a OneNote notebook. <br />
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As our entire school goes towards Proficiency Based Graduation Requirements, I have been considering a change from SBG to another method of learning that uses my standards as learning targets and uses the standards based quizzes more as a formative assessment. The actual grades would be more connected to summative assessments (ie unit tests). I understand that some folks have been using Schoology for this sort of thing, I will be looking into this further.<br />
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Along with the algebra 1 work, I am in my second year as our STEM Academy leader. There are 55 students in the Academy and I am very busy developing a program that allows them to pursue their interests in science by participating in a STEM Advisory, Internships and doing a capstone project. The state of VT has mandated Personalized Learning Plans for all students beginning in fall 2015 for our freshmen. This Academy approach is one possible way for students to receive a personalized learning pathway, there are many exciting things developing at our school right now as we try to figure out how to make learning more meaningful for all of our students.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-58034550589048016992014-09-07T09:52:00.000-04:002014-09-07T09:52:44.442-04:00SBG is going to be much better this yearI've just graded my first SBG quiz this year, I think I have made some big improvements. The first is using a nice rubric, I like this one I found on <a href="http://samjshah.com/2010/08/30/my-sbg-rubric/">Sam Shah's site</a>. Last year, I was doing a hybrid of taking off points like I used to and SBG. It was okay, but it wasn't great. I think a clear rubric of how I define mastery will result in a much better conversation between the students and myself and a clearer path to learning for them.<br />
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We have changed our Common Core Algebra 1 class slightly, so I changed the list of standards, click <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GRXjNoaFrdlxYV9eir6dZiddBwEE0S5Hc2NhW4GYYw8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">here</a> for the new one.<br />
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Each standard appears in class three times over three consecutive weeks, if they want to retake it after that, they need to submit a Google form which alerts me with an email. This form shows me which of the retake requirements they have chosen.
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Most of these items can be found on my Practice by Standard page, shown <a href="http://www.ccsuvt.org/ehs/academics/math/mrs-smith/algebra-1-200/resources/practice-by-standard/" target="_blank">here</a>Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-23016603465796306912014-09-01T10:09:00.000-04:002014-09-01T10:09:20.438-04:00Second year of Common Core Algebra 1Our department modified our Algebra 1 curriculum last year for the common core. This will be our second year of this course and we decided to remove the statistics unit. We have decided to offer one Prob and Stats course that covers all of the CCSSM standards rather than address them in little bits over our entire math curriculum. This frees up some time in our Alg 1 class, we would like to use this time to do a better job with the mathematical practices. We will be doing a section on math patterns at the beginning of our functions unit, this will build a stronger conceptual understanding of what a graphed equation is describing. We will also do absolute value graphing using translations and introduce the vertex form of quadratic equations. Both of these sections should helps students with the kind of translational thinking that will be at the heart of the new CCSSM Geometry course we are teaching for the first time this year. I have modified the Alg 1 book to make the stats unit an appendix and I have added a unit on patterns and translational graphing of absolute value.
<p style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;"> <a title="View Algebra 1 EHS 2014-2015, no Stats on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/238319074/Algebra-1-EHS-2014-2015-no-Stats" style="text-decoration: underline;" >Algebra 1 EHS 2014-2015, no Stats</a></p><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/238319074/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" scrolling="no" id="doc_49090" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-60459527371202980902014-09-01T09:02:00.001-04:002014-09-01T09:02:38.792-04:00Warm UpsI've seen some conversation about warm ups in other recent blogs, I use Kuta software to generate multiple choice worksheets and use clickers in self paced mode. The students do the worksheets and put in their answers while I'm checking hwk, handing back papers, etc. I do most problems from recent work, but I will be spiraling in problems from older lessons, as inspired by Kathryn's session at TMC14. I review the results of each question (histogram, not individual students) with the students immediately after they are done. This is valuable formative assessment and the recording of results helps the students to take it seriously. I plan to start working in more open ended question warm ups (Math Arguments180, etc) as the year moves on.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-80832046509710782842014-08-07T07:59:00.002-04:002014-08-07T07:59:31.594-04:00Algebra 1 ResourcesI have been using MindMeister to make a mindmap of the resources I find. I like the mindmaps, the node concept works with my thought patterns. Click <a href="http://www.mindmeister.com/328033793/alg-1-lesson-ideas">here</a> for the link.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-21110612059305046012014-08-04T15:43:00.000-04:002014-08-04T15:43:06.546-04:00First semester of book and videos finishedI have finished updating the book for first semester, that is units 1 through 4. I will work on units 5-7 as the school year progresses. I made significant changes based on last year's run through the Common Core<br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/235842576/Algebra-1-EHS-2014-2015" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Algebra 1 EHS 2014-2015 on Scribd">Algebra 1 EHS 2014-2015</a></div>
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The videos for first semester are also ready, they are posted on my "<a href="http://www.ccsuvt.org/ehs/academics/math/mrs-smith/algebra-1-200/resources/practice-by-standard/" target="_blank">Practice by Standards</a>" page. They aren't really all that entertaining, I'm not expecting the world to beat a path to my YouTube channel, but I do think they get the point across and they will be useful for students who need to retake a standards based quiz.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-66420873452937578422014-07-27T20:36:00.001-04:002014-07-30T19:55:22.652-04:00Algebra 1 plans, post TMC14I am working pretty hard this summer in my never ending quest to make my Algebra 1 class a place where all students can learn. In 2014/2015, I will be using SBG for the second time and I will be using the second edition of the book I am writing on ck12.org. YouTube videos of my teaching will also be available online. This will also be the second year of our new Common Core Alg 1 curriculum, I don't think I did a great job teaching the 8 Mathematical Practices while I was trying the new curriculum for the first time. My plan for this year is to try to improve that, but it is difficult to find the time with all of the skills that are still required in the CCSSM. I will need to cleverly work them into instruction and classroom procedures.<br />
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So here's a quick synopsis of thing I am thinking of doing, some new ideas from TMC 14 will be highlighted, along with where I heard them.<br />
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First day, I may start with a slide show about me, this is from <b><i>John Mahlstedt's Favorite Thing presentation</i></b>. I hesitate a little 'cause I don't want it to be all about me, but I do think it could help build connections.<br />
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Daily Agenda, always <b><i>write the date as a math problem, also from John Mahlstedt</i>.</b></div>
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I usually start class with a clicker warm up on the previous days lesson. I liked <b><i>Kathryn Belmonte's idea to spiral through previous units in the warm up</i></b>. I will still use the clickers, but I think it will help with retention to have old units continue to show up randomly.</div>
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I had changed by SBG grading scale from 0-4 to 0-10 for more flexibility in grading. From general conversations with folks, I think it's better to use 0-4, I just need a better rubric.</div>
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I still like my SBG/resources online/YouTube video plan. A fellow teacher in one of the sessions I went to reminded me that parents will possibly use the videos as a refresher if they wanted to help their child. I think that will happen and I like the idea. The same teacher also suggested putting the videos on iTunesU so they could be downloaded if there was a problem with internet access at home, good call.<br />
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Just before TMC14, I went to a<b> <i>Global Math Dept presentation on SBG</i></b>, Matt Owen showed a slide with the list of things students need to have before they can retest</div>
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I will be making a modified version of this, but I think it's a great start. Jessica (@Algebrainiac1) also suggested they fill out a Google form when they are ready so you know they are coming, I will probably do the same. I also think a list of things they have to do to retest can help solidify classroom procedures.</div>
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The discussion in my <b><i>morning Algebra 1 sessions</i></b> about assessing functions were very useful. I plan on doing a much better job of teaching functions this year.</div>
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One of my alg 1 classes has a lab associated with it, I liked some of the ideas in <b><i>Kathryn Freed's intervention session</i></b>, I will probably put them in groups with whiteboards and let them work. I will make the groups based on what they need to study from SBG results.</div>
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I liked the work that <b><i>Mathalicious and Illustrative Math</i></b> are doing to make lessons that are both Common Core and PBL. My curriculum needs more of this kind of thing and I will be looking those over. I also hadn't heard about <b><i>Robert Kaplinsky</i></b>'s lessons, I need to look through those. http://robertkaplinsky.com/lessons/<br />
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I learned about <b><i>Desmos</i></b> at the Anja Greer conference at Phillips Exeter last summer. I used it a little, but there was a giant buzz around it at TMC 14, I need to use it more in my PBL quest. I think that will be easier when my school goes 1 to1 (hopefully) next year. I will try a few lessons to get a feel for it.</div>
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Just as a general thing, there are a very large number of algebra 1 resources on Pinterest, I didn't realize that before. <b><i>Lisa Henry's TMC Pinterest board</i></b> got me looking and there's a lot of good stuff.<br />
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Another My Favorite Things was on planbookedu.com. I use it, but I don't use the links to the extent that the presenter did.</div>
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I need to look through the session pages in the <b><i>Wiki</i>,</b> I'm sure there's lot's there.</div>
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As far as future communication goes, my Twitter skills improved tremendously. I met lots of people and it's much easier to understand the communication flow. I have a better idea who to follow and I'm better with lists and TweetDeck. I'm also more clued in about blogs as well. <b><i>Dan Meyer's presentation gave me a better feel for the MTBoS and who's in it.</i></b></div>
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I thought there was a lot of power in <b><i>Steve Leinwand's presentation about emphasizing the WHY over the HOW</i></b>. I would love to teach math that way, he made sixth grade math sound like the subject I really want to teach. CCSS alg 1 still has so many skills in it, I think my school is a long way from that kind of teaching as a whole, but I'd like to strive towards it.</div>
Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-60154417274955758082014-07-21T15:20:00.002-04:002014-08-04T15:44:16.246-04:00Summer curriculum workThe standards based videos are coming along nicely, Explain Everything is AWESOME! I have finished 15 of 38 standards, the book is also updated through the end of unit 2. The latest videos are on my YouTube channel, utubemath, https://www.youtube.com/user/utubemathchannel<br />
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The latest version of the book is on Scribd, http://www.scribd.com/doc/234692369/Algebra-1-EHS-2014-2015 (This was deleted on August 4, 2014, there is a new version now. Please see the post "First Semester of Book and Videos")<br />
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Off to Twitter Math Camp on Wed, should be fun!Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-51530394437676085822014-07-02T06:55:00.000-04:002014-07-02T06:55:56.208-04:00SBG, Common Core and Online Class SummaryOkay, so it's been FOREVER since I posted anything. The end of the year just got nuts. Along with implementing a new Common Core Algebra curriculum, I am the leader of a new STEM Academy at my high school. This spring, we worked very hard to get it launched and 45 students signed up. This is awesome, it's been taking a lot of my time and it will be a major focus during the 2014/2015 year.<br />
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This year, I tried 3 main new things in Alg 1. We are starting Common Core with our Alg 1 class, 2013/2014 was the first year of it's implementation. Since we were launching a new curriculum, it was a good time to try breaking the content down into standards and using standards based grading. Our school is looking at proficiency based graduation requirements, SBG seems to me like a natural launching point for that. I also wanted to make my curriculum available online to facilitate self-study towards mastery of the standards. I wrote a book using ck-12 and created a webpage with access to classroom materials and practice options.<br />
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First, I'd like to talk about the Common Core curriculum. There is a major emphasis on the 8 mathematical practices and I was imagining a classroom with a greater focus on problem solving and creativity, but in practice, there are still a lot of skills to cover and it's hard to find time for both. Our department compared our traditional curriculum to the Common Core standards and came up with a list of topics we needed to cover in order to make sure students would have all the skills they would need on the SBAC test. I converted that into a list of 38 standards to use for SBG. I also compared those standards to the CCSS. Here's the document I ended up with.<br />
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GRXjNoaFrdlxYV9eir6dZiddBwEE0S5Hc2NhW4GYYw8/edit?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Algebra 1 Standards List</a><br />
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I like how this course ran, I think it's a nice sequence, I liked the focus on functions, modeling and statistics. I think it does give students some idea of what math can be used for in the real world and it all hung together pretty well in my mind. It is difficult to find time for problem solving, though. What I ended up doing was grading students for trying to think outside the box and I didn't like the feel of it. I will be revamping how I develop mathematical creativity next year.<br />
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I liked SBG combined with the online curriculum elements I developed, but I will be beefing it up for next year. What I did was give one quiz a week with the recent standards on it. Each standard appeared on a quiz for three weeks and the students could retake them outside of class up to 3 times. I think my quiz questions were a little too easy and I made it too easy to retake and master the standard. I don't think this did my students any favors when it came time to take the department final. I don't have all the details worked out yet, but my testing will become a little more rigorous somehow. Watch for this is a future post.<br />
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A key part of the SBG system (at least in my mind) is giving the students access to the material outside of class. Here is the webpage I developed over the course of the year.<br />
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<a href="http://www.ccsuvt.org/ehs/academics/math/mrs-smith/algebra-1-200/" target="_blank">Essex High School Algebra 1, Mrs. Smith</a><br />
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The resources page is important here, it has a link to the book I used this past year (being revised for 2014/2015) and the <a href="http://www.ccsuvt.org/ehs/academics/math/mrs-smith/algebra-1-200/resources/practice-by-standard/" target="_blank">Practice by Standards</a> page. I used Flexmath and BrainGenie (ck-12 products) to create self practice materials. This summer, I am using the iPad app "Explain Everything" to make videos that I am posting to my YouTube channel (utubemath) and putting in each standard. I am always available for help at school, but I am trying to create a way for students to use the internet in a way that teaches them how to help themselves.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-62673648392853635922014-02-26T16:24:00.000-05:002014-02-26T16:24:22.154-05:0010 points per standard on SBGThis change seems to be working out for me. I was using a 4/4 scale which went to 5/5 when the student has received two 4/4's. I changed to 9/9 which goes to 10/10 with two 9/9's. I think this is working, I like being able to grade with more detail on what I take points off for. I think the pure way to do SBG is that four points lets you know levels like "no skill", "some skill" "proficient" and "mastered", but I'm doing a hybrid set up where the average of the SBG grade counts for 70% of a regular, old numerical report card grade and I think 10 points per standard works better in that system.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-88026644064531598252014-01-26T16:23:00.000-05:002014-01-26T16:36:07.262-05:00Modification to SBG for second semesterI gave a Google survey at the end of first semester, several students mentioned that the 4 point grading scale that I was using seemed a little goofy. One mistake put you down to a 75 and after the standard had moved to the 5 point maximum, that was a 60. I started off by using the point system outlined in this blog post by Dan Meyer<br />
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<a href="http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=346" target="_blank">Dan Meyer SBG</a><br />
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I thought that the number of standards assigned each quarter would balance that off, but I do still think one small mistake could have too much of an impact on the grade, so I've decided to make each standard worth 9 points instead of 4. If a student gets 9/9 twice, they receive the full credit of 10/10. Also, second semester involves some complex tasks, so I'd like to have more points to work with for partial credit.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-18299122823281674232014-01-03T17:31:00.000-05:002014-01-03T17:31:20.158-05:00Twitterfeedtwitterfeed.com is how I connect my Blogger posts with Twitter. It stopped working, I'm pretty sure that's because I changed my Twitter password recently. I've tried to reauthorize it, hopefully this post shows up on Twitter...Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-32568164060044225812014-01-03T16:45:00.001-05:002014-01-03T16:45:26.630-05:00Problem-AtticThis isn't particularly new, but I just found the part of it that has Common Core questions. There is a charge for it, but there are nice multiple choice problems arranged by Common Core standard.<br />
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<a href="http://www.problem-attic.com/">http://www.problem-attic.com/</a>Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-16744605920695001692014-01-03T16:30:00.002-05:002014-01-03T16:30:13.111-05:00Statistics UnitWe are approaching the end of first semester and we are finishing our first ever Common Core Statistics unit. We covered dot plots, histograms, measures of central tendency, box and whisker plots and standard deviation. We found that the students were familiar with most of this information except for standard deviation. Next year, I will go through some of the basic concepts quicker and I will spend more time on analyzing data. I'm thinking more analysis of outliers and more study of different types of distributions (normal and otherwise). Here's links to some activities that I found helpful<br />
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<a href="http://dnet01.ode.state.oh.us/ims.itemdetails/lessondetail.aspx?id=0907f84c80530fb2" target="_blank">Box and Whisker Lesson</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.purplemath.com/modules/boxwhisk3.htm" target="_blank">Interquartile Range and Outliers</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.math.uakron.edu/amc/DataAnalysis_Statistics/OldDataStat/IBLDeviationSD.pdf" target="_blank">Standard Deviation Lesson</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.oconee.k12.sc.us/webpages/thavice/files/statistics%20unit%20lesson%201%20-%20activity%201%20-%20penny%20activity.pdf" target="_blank">Summary Activity using pennies</a></div>
Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-31714814261155544552013-12-02T08:39:00.004-05:002013-12-02T08:39:57.553-05:00Algebra 1 Curriculum MapOur department put together a curriculum map for Algebra 1 during our Thanksgiving inservice. This was our first try, it will become more refined at future inservice meetings. We are doing a Common Core curriculum for the first time this year in Algebra 1, we also started mapping out our Geometry Common Core curriculum during this inservice.<br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/188563597/EHS-Algebra-1-Curriculum-Map" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View EHS Algebra 1 Curriculum Map on Scribd">EHS Algebra 1 Curriculum Map</a> by <a href="http://www.scribd.com/SmithMath" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View SmithMath's profile on Scribd">SmithMath</a></div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="1.29411764705882" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_59648" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/188563597/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-n2v2pn437iof9193khh&show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe>Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-89923219412796514112013-11-13T19:58:00.000-05:002013-11-13T19:58:10.735-05:00MTBoS Mission #6, what do I do with all this online stuff?I mostly read blogs. I'm starting to use Twitter more, but it takes a little too much time for me. I use Feedly, it saves all of the potentially interesting blog posts until I get an evening to look through them, that usually happens once a week or so. If I see something I like, I give it a tag in Diigo. The things I REALLY like I put in a mind map. I like MindMeister, it allows me to save ideas in the ways that I see them connecting to each other. You can put notes and links in each node of the map. I use MindMeister to help me develop ideas using the information I find on the internet, here's a screenshot of my Algebra 1 map.
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uzixh3ArRGY/UoQfy3nZ9QI/AAAAAAAABkQ/PmeAzwX2CjQ/s1600/Screenshot+2013-11-13+at+7.46.19+PM.png" imageanchor="1" ><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Uzixh3ArRGY/UoQfy3nZ9QI/AAAAAAAABkQ/PmeAzwX2CjQ/s320/Screenshot+2013-11-13+at+7.46.19+PM.png" /></a>Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-3933816937040708612013-10-21T20:00:00.003-04:002013-10-21T20:00:36.799-04:00MTBoS Challenge 3, One Good ThingI've been working hard putting all my class materials on my web page this year and I don't really know if people are using them yet. Today I handed a packet of papers to a student who missed last class and he said he didn't need it, he'd already printed it out from the website and he understood what we'd done. Yay for systems that work!Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-84132994591531243662013-10-21T19:50:00.003-04:002013-10-21T19:51:10.741-04:00Common Core Standards listI am using Standards Based Grading this year, I've taken the list of standards we are using and compared it with the CCSS. I also cross referenced it with the traditional pathway in Appendix A of the standards. Seems to me we've got most things covered, although I think our emphasis will be evolving over time to include more modeling and less skill work.
<p style=" margin: 12px auto 6px auto; font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none; display: block;"> <a title="View Algebra 1 Standards List on Scribd" href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/177936560/Algebra-1-Standards-List" style="text-decoration: underline;" >Algebra 1 Standards List</a></p><iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/177936560/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" data-auto-height="false" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" scrolling="no" id="doc_2680" width="100%" height="600" frameborder="0"></iframe>Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-68776865739504599422013-10-14T12:27:00.000-04:002013-10-14T12:27:14.078-04:00Looking for other blogsI would like to follow more blogs about Standards Based Grading and Common Core in Algebra 1. If anybody reading this is blogging about that, please leave me a comment (or get in touch with me in some way that work for you) so I can follow you. Thanks :-)Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-75717154047010276962013-10-13T17:54:00.002-04:002013-10-13T17:55:45.812-04:00MTBoS prompt 1This fall, the Math Twitter Blogosphere is having another challenge to help bring bloggers together. I'm writing on the prompt about a good open ended problem. I use this one as a warm up. The challenge is to connect 9 dots with 4 straight lines without lifting up your pencil and with out retracing<br />
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I don't give them the answer, someone has to get it. Sometimes this takes until later in the lesson and I just wait. There is always someone who wants to get it bad enough to keep at it. Here's the answer<br />
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This problem requires you to think outside the box, literally and figuratively. I like to try to get them to realize that the fun of math is in the ah-ha moment, not just repeating what I say, and I think this problem is good for that.</div>
Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-1180444839966501962013-10-11T08:58:00.003-04:002013-10-11T08:58:28.902-04:00CK-12 Guest BlogCK-12 asked me to write a guest post on their blog, please click <a href="http://blog.ck12.org/blog/bid/339482/How-I-Use-CK-12-in-my-Algebra-1-Classroom" target="_blank">here</a> if you'd like to read it.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-68004587069071478052013-09-15T20:07:00.000-04:002013-09-15T20:07:57.185-04:00SBG and Online ResourcesWe are two weeks into the year and SBG seems to be going well so far. It's a little early to really tell, though. Something I am doing that I hope will be helpful is having a large number of resources available online for students who will be retaking standards as the year goes on. If you've been reading this blog, you know I have an online textbook with embedded video and that I post my class notes from the SMART Board online. I'm also using FlexMath for practice and I hope to be incorporating BrainGenie shortly as well. I'm hoping that students will be able to use these resources for self study to improve their skills prior to taking a quiz on a concept that was covered in class previously. Don't get me wrong, I am all over providing extra help if they need it, but it would be nice if they could also do some independent study.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-23578589595843188972013-07-31T08:55:00.000-04:002013-07-31T08:55:01.888-04:00Information in EducationI am just a huge fan of the way the internet makes information available from so many sources in such an easy way. I use this in all areas of my life and I think education needs to change so as to allow students to become better at exploring their own interests in this way. I am learning how to be a fully engaged internet citizen, I hope to be able to interact with my students in such a way as to make this a valuable component of their education. The ck-12 book that I've shared here is one aspect of this, the information I'm teaching in class is available online at any time with additional resources for self teaching embedded. I'm exploring other things with a new STEM teaching assignment I have, hopefully that turns into a blog as that unfolds.<br />
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Last summer, I was a little overwhelmed by this model, but it's coming together now. I like cloud computing, Google, Dropbox, Spotify, etc. I have the same model for most things, I find online sources of things I like and then I store them in the cloud in whatever format is best for that particular content. Feedly brings me other educators ideas, those are stored in Diigo or Mindmeister. YouTube brings me all sorts of things from all over the world, that is stored in YouTube playlists. I also have a YouTube channel if the need to broadcast ever came over me. Spotify music streaming is awesome, I follow people with similar musical tastes and make playlists of a wide variety of music. Pictures are stored in Dropbox for easy access anywhere and sharing.<br />
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It's fun to find people that are broadcasting what I want to know and then learning from them. It seems to me that this is a whole new model for people to learn from each other. Isolated nodes of higher education seem like a thing of the past, I chose my own experts and learn wherever I want. I imagine there will always be well documented education paths for things like open heart surgery, but it seems like the whole Ivory Tower, I've got the knowledge and you don't thing may become less powerful someday.<br />
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Bottom line, it's about finding sources of things you like and storing them in the cloud in a way that is easy to retrieve. I have a Chromebook and a Galaxy S3 phone which allow me to access all of this fun and I enjoy it.Lea Ann Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06144601214144156646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2166813889803778608.post-34005789869393808282013-07-31T08:34:00.001-04:002013-07-31T08:34:36.581-04:00MindMeisterThe cool thing/annoying thing about the internet is the non-stop stream of information that is available. When I find an idea that I like, one of two things happen. If it seems like it might be useful someday, I give it a Diigo tag so I could find it later. If it fits immediately into the framework of an idea I'm working on, I put it in a MindMeister mindmap. It really works for me to string ideas into a framework like this, you can attach links, notes or files to any node in the map. This way, the new ideas build into a coherent whole, not just a sea of thoughts. Here's a screen shot of my current algebra mind map. Each node with a "+" next to it has subnodes, I minimized some so that the picture wouldn't be too busy.<br />
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