Sunday, November 5, 2017

Day 46 Desmos to the Rescue

Regular Math Objective: Find unknown triangle side lengths by applying the Pythagorean Theorem; Apply the Pythagorean Theorem in the coordinate plane

Regular Math Standards: 8.G. 6a. Understand the relationship among the sides of a right triangle. b. Analyze and justify the Pythagorean Theorem and its converse using pictures, diagrams, narratives, or models.
8.EE.7 Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to determine unknown side lengths in right triangles in real-world and mathematical problems in two and three dimensions.
8.EE.8 Apply the Pythagorean Theorem to find the distance between two points in a coordinate system.

Regular Math Lesson Sequence:

  1. QSSQ
  2. Take the quiz
  3. TenMarks or Retakes 

We're getting there with this standard. The rational number is correctly converted. The repetend is in a good spot. The student is putting a zero to extend the terminating decimals and make the thousandths spot relevant for the repeating decimal. And yet it was still in the wrong spot on the number line. I'm an angry little math teacher for giving no credit on this, but so is the standardized test. 


Not pictured in this picture because I'm not a photographer is the fact that the student drew a right triangle off to the side to help with this question. And yet the right angle was left off. Again, we're making some progress.

Despite struggles with other questions, students were writing the formula for this one. Many did not have the number sense to get the square root of 169, but that's not something that just happens with one unit of Pythagorean Theorem. We will continue to hammer basic facts through TenMarks and Pepper.

Honors Math Objective: Identify function notation and differentiate between the input and output in function notation

Honors Math Standards: A1.F-IF 2 Use function notation, evaluate functions for inputs in their domains, and interpret statements that use function notation in terms of a context.

Honors Math Lesson Sequence:

  1. Before students entered my room I read them the riot act about complaining and their work ethic. It was the first class of the morning. Everyone loves to be miserable first thing in the morning, but I had to set a tone before they did. The group is a great group individually, but culturally a few complainers are spreading a culture of whining to the entire class. We've done some really challenging things in class especially surrounding absolute value, but after looking at their exit tickets the previous class some of the kids are just complaining to fit in. I asked a handful of students publicly if they knew their vocabulary. I had given them the words and definitions more than a week ago. And there weren't 65 terms. It was about ten terms. "Most of them." Most of them! That's not good enough. How much time do you spend on homework? "Some days 15 minutes. Some days no time." And you can't get all of your vocabulary?!
  2. As a warm up students tried to solve a 3 x 3 magic square. They had some success and it was a true Goldilocks Task. I only gave it out because we did it in Math Academy that morning. 
  3. Homework review and pepper.
  4. Desmos. We did the linear functions polygraph activity (it's basically guess who with linear functions). I was apprehensive going in because I had never used Desmos before. I had several backup plans warming in the bullpen. Their TenMarks weekly quiz for next week was ready. We could look more in depth at Pythagorean Theorem since regular math was the only class to do this. Clayton Kershaw was on full rest. None of them needed to come in though. In fact when I hit pause with five minutes to go to give a similar exit ticket to the previous day. My complainers were complaining that they wanted to keep playing. 
Here was some of the math dialogue that got recorded:
  • Does your line cross through the origin?
  • Does your line pass through quadrant 1? 
  • Is your line a function? 
  • Is your line increasing or decreasing? 
  • Is the slope positive?
  • Are all the x-coordinates on your graph positive? 
Then there were some questions that demonstrated some mathematical gaps:

  • Is your line diagonal?
  • Is it a short line? 
  • Is there a tilt in the line? 
I also saw some questions that were well...
  • Have you heard the Pina Colada song? 
  • Do you enjoy Cheez-Its?
  • Is your line blue? 

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