Day 24: Open Middle, Visual Patterns Let Me Grade

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.

Objective: Determine if two numbers are relatively prime; find the product of prime numbers given a composite number

Agenda:

1. QSSQ
2. Quiz on Prime Factorization
3. Students work on their weekly quiz or read a book
4. At the start of the second class, students were given this packet to do in partners. I focused on getting them to write what they know, what they're finding and estimates instead of worrying about the answer since some problems were especially difficult (most notably Visual Pattern #3 - see picture below)

Assessment: The quiz was graded and I got mixed results, but it seemed like the students were at least willing to admit that they were well prepared. I had many students check off simple mistake to wrong answers the next day in class.

Glass Half-Full: Doing the Open Middle, What Wouldn't Belong, Visual Patterns, and 7 Puzzles questions after the quiz was a great way to break up the day. Students had more creative freedom on these and I could hear partnerships working through problems together. In two out of my three classes I did not need to leave my desk once to redirect students so these problems were appropriate challenges. All the while, I got to give students feedback on the weekly quiz and the quiz as I was grading them one on one.

Regrets: My only regret would be the lack of time the next day spent on reviewing the challenge packet for after the quiz. In one of the classes we really got into visual pattern number three (although nobody ultimately had it solved). The chart above was done at the bell and the student who wrote it ordered it not to be erased. I did not erase it. I made another student do it.

Link of the Day: "At some point, self-conciously 'understanding' why you do what you do just slows you down and interrupts flow, resulting in worse decisions," Barbara Oakley stated in this article about her STEM journey that cries out for the need to develop fluency in order to understand complex subjects.