Day 33: Unit Rates

6th Grade Math Standards: Understand the concept of a unit rate a/b associated with a ratio a:b with b ≠ 0, and use rate language in the context of a ratio relationship. For example, “This recipe has a ratio of 3 cups of flour to 4 cups of sugar, so there is ¾ cup of flour for each cup of sugar.” “We paid $75 for 15 hamburgers, which is a rate of $5 per hamburger.” 29

The Learning Objective: Find a unit rate; analyze a unit cost to see what the best deal is

Quote of the Day: "When we attempt to use criticism to win an argument, to make a point, or to incite change, we are taking two steps backward. People can be led to change as horses can be led to water, but deprecation will rarely inspire the results you are aiming for.” – Dale Carnegie

Observation from Yesterday (as always from a student): "The price of cans will also change when there's only 5 cans because there is a recycling refund."
"If there is one missing, it should be cheaper than normal because the customer could argue the goods are damaged."

Assessment: Letting students try problems on their own from the notes; circumventing the room during the visual pattern

Agenda:

1. Visual Pattern #7. Write one thing you know. Write another thing you know. Draw the 4th step. Make a chart. How many trees are in Step 43? 
2. Unit Rate Notes
3. Unit Rate Homework

Glass-Half Full: In the first class, the co-teacher I was working with looked like she was going to jump out from the back of the classroom and attack me like a tiger. We were finding a unit rate and dividing 5 by 74. This was the students first experience dividing 5 by 74 I think (the occasion is rare unfortunately because they are two beautiful numbers). So why was it made into a glass half-full situation? It allowed us to use calculators. Students were literally asking how to clear their answers, were asking questions about how many decimals to write, etc.

Regrets: As far as time went, depending on the class I could have left out visual patterns. The notes took a while and in one class, I did not bother to assign homework because I did not fairly assess those students and it would have been an assignment that they potentially did wrong. I also think that it might have been better to start with a much more basic example in the notes (I did verbally give them two birds to one stone and four wheels to one car).

Link of the Day: We have Chromebooks in my school, so if this is you as well this link could be of use. What to do with Chromebooks.