Grade 9& 10 Academic Lessons

Tonight was the night for geometry! Two of the three grade 9 teachers chose to teach a lesson on the sum of interior angles. Both teachers had very similar lessons but different approaches. My first colleague provided a worksheet with multiple figures and we were to to investigate how to find the sum of the interior angles for each figure. This lesson took a very openended approach, I liked how the students were given time to develop their own thoughts and strategize how they can solve the problem. The students had the support of their peers and constant support form the teacher circulating the classroom. In the end, students presented their findings to the class and we found that the class had come up with multiple strategies. I thought having the students explain to the class what they did to be very useful. Maybe the method we came up with in our group is different from another group and by learning the other groups method I better understood the concept. A worksheet was also provided during the lesson which was an excellent consolidation tool however it could have been referenced more frequently by the teacher. I feel I focused more on the problem and did not bother to summarize my findings during investigation. My other colleague's lesson was more of a teacher driven approach. He began by having us draw a triangle on a paper and draw semi-circles in each corner indicating the angles. We were then instructed to cut out our triangle and cut off the angled corners. From the corners we were asked what we notice about the corners put together and it was that they create 180 degree angle thus solidifying the concept that each triangle has a sum of 180 degrees. From here we worked on a sheet the same as the other lesson splitting up polygons into triangles and calculating the sums. Both lessons lead to the creation of the formula --->SUM =180(n-2) however one lesson was a more direct path towards this formula while the other was more of a discovery process. I think both lessons were excellent, I would use them both and when/where I use them would depend on the type of learners I have in my classroom.

Coordinate Grid and Description Cards

Another lesson activity I thought was absolutely incredible was "Speed Dating and Equation Making" . The learning goal was for students to determine the equation of a line when given specific characteristics such as the slope and y-intercept. The activity required the class to be grouped in pairs of two and the desks were set up in a horseshoe shape so the students could rotate partners like speed dating. In each starting pair, one student was given a yellow card with information on the slope and their partner was given a purple card with information about the intercept. The objective of the activity was to put together their information, create the equation of a line and draw the line on the provided coordinate grid. Printed on the grid were hearts on specific points, if the equation they created passed through a point with a heart this would be a match. The class will rotate to all partners and in the end the winner is the person with the most matches. I found this to be very fun activity and an easy way to practice forming and drawing equation of lines. I can also see how this could be adapted to the grade 10 curriculum by having the students match quadratic equations and the hearts could possibly be placed at the vertex.

Math Lessons for Intermediate Classes

In this week's class I was reliving my days as a student in grade 7 and grade 8 math classes. My fellow teacher candidates presented some interesting lesson ideas they created from the grade 7/8 math curriculum and the following are a few ideas that really stood out to me.

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One of my colleagues presented a lesson on finances and money management which is a crucial concept for real life application. For years Monopoly has been a best selling board game and not just for its addictive nature but also because it is an important educational tool. My fellow teacher candidate created a lesson which was a play on Monopoly and the learning goal for the class was to understand daily expenses and how to properly manage your budget. The teacher had placed all the students in groups of 4-5 and had assigned a profession to each group or now known as each family. With their profession, the families received a monthly income statement and were instructed to collect their money from the bank which was paper monopoly money. The teacher then advised each family that they were to pay various bills (internet, phone, rent, grocery etc.) and one bill at a time the teacher would provide the percentage that each bill would take from their paycheck and the students were to calculate the exact dollar amount. What I truly enjoyed about this activity was that at all times the students were engaged. One student from each group was in charge of distributing money, collecting money, recording transactions and/or calculations. The students were even able to have fun playing the role of their professions such as the internet company collecting money or the banker handing it out. This activity clearly made the connection between earning and spending and although we were adults playing we even forgot about certain required expenses. Thus this would be a great reality check for students and the enforce the importance of budgeting which is a crucial life skill.

The second lesson that had me intrigued had us practicing with coordinate grids and transformations of figures. The teacher created a story called "Steve the Stick Figure" and the goal at the end of the activity was to explain Steve's story based on his movements. For this activity the class was divided in 8 groups. Each group was sent to a station and at each station we were given coordinates of two points; one representing Steve's head the other his body. After plotting the coordinates and drawing the stick figure on the provided coordinate grid we were to read the transformation instructions specific to that station. For example one station said "Steve walked three blocks right and four blocks north" we then had to translate our points three units right and four units up to find the new coordinates. We then searched for the next station with starting points that matched our coordinates after transformations. This process continued through until all 8 stations were visited and the path was completed. I enjoyed this activity especially the fact that the class was moving and it resembled that of a scavenger hunt for the correct coordinates. I also like the worksheets created for the assignment; one to draw out our figures on coordinate grids, one to organize our steps and describe the transformations that happened at each station, and to consolidate the lesson with a few critical thinking questions where we had to draw conclusions from the movements recorded. Overall I found this to be an excellent lesson and although it was noted to use this near the beginning of a unit I would suggest to use this activity near the end perhaps before a test as it encompasses a lot of different concepts.