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.