Day 10: Divisibility Rules

6th Grade Math Standards: Find the greatest common factor of two whole numbers less than or equal to 100 and the least common multiple of two whole numbers less than or equal to 12. Use the distributive property to express a sum of two whole numbers 1–100 with a common factor as a multiple of a sum of two whole numbers with no common factor. For example, express 36 + 8 as 4(9 + 2).
MA.4.a. Apply number theory concepts, including prime factorization and relatively prime numbers, to the solution of problems

The Learning Objective: Determine if a number is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10 without using long division or multiplication.

Quote of the Day: "Walt Disney's request for a bank loan was denied 301 times before he got a yes." - John Maxwell

Assessment: During the notes I had students try their own problem and apply the divisibility rules.

Agenda:

1. Self-Assessment of the quiz. This part of the agenda takes up most of the class. It's the first time that students write about their quizzes. It's also the first time that I have them fill out a checklist, so that's a brand new routine I have to teach. I love the checklist for determining why a grade is what it is. So often we give a B and really don't know what that means. This is a loose way of using standards based grading. 
2. Divisibility Notes
3. WQ Information Re-rehearsed 
4. Divisibility Flashcards
5. Divisibility Song
6. Divisibility Homework begins

Glass Half-Full Take: There were many new routines today. Students were passing in their weekly quizzes for the first time into the weekly quiz folder, getting weekly quizzes back with highlights indicating that their problems needed to be corrected, reflecting on how their quizzes went in their journals, filling out their checklist from the quiz, and even putting the checklist and quiz back into their binder. In teaching many routines in a single day (and the 10th day of school at that), it's easy for me as the teacher to make assumptions or the students to get buried in new information overload. Neither happened.

One Regret: As a consequence of all the new routines, much of our first block was spent in review of the quiz. Given how much time I lost there, I would have much rather had students get a print out of the notes and slip it into their binders than to copy the notes into their notebook. We did not have time to internalize and digest the new information today as I would have liked. I think if the students were quizzing themselves instead of writing down information on the rules, more information could have been internalized.

Homework: Students had to continue to fix problems on Weekly Quiz #1, practice their divisibility rules and do step six of the agenda.

Link of the Day: Another thought-provoking problem that I found browsing through Fawn Ngyuen on Twitter. She has way too many engaging problems to share with her followers.