Post date: Mar 6, 2020 8:38:49 PM
MSM2 Periods 1 & 4
SOLs Covered: 8.9 Pythagorean Theorem; 8.5 Angle Relationships
Math Unit: 18 Pythagorean Theorem; 19 Angle Relationships
Daily Agenda: March 2-6, 2020
Upcoming Assessments: 3.04 Geometry Part 1 Quiz (Tues. 3/17)
Math 7H Period 3
SOLs Covered: 8.9 Pythagorean Theorem; 8.5 Angle Relationships
Math Unit: 20 Pythagorean Theorem; 21 Angle Relationships
Daily Agenda: March 2-6, 2020
Upcoming Assessments: 3.04 Geometry Part 1 Quiz (Tues. 3/17)
Good afternoon! Before getting into this week's math happenings, I want to again reach out to all parents with a request to please help me by pushing the kids to stay on top of their work. The seventh grade team is still reaching out to parents of students with D's and F's in one or more classes for the quarter, but the dominating trend for those students (and honestly even those with better grades at the moment) is missing work. For my class, that's a relatively easy fix as all formative assignments can still be completed, possibly for full credit if students still have Lambie or Liberty Points to spend on the "late fee." Even if they don't have the points to spend, students can still turn the work in and are only penalized 10% for the work. In regards to the ALEKS work (graded in the formative assessments category), students cannot make that up in the traditional way since there is always a new week that needs to be completed. I have however come up with an alternate assignment that can take the place of one missing/incomplete week of ALEKS (this Pi Day Sudoku, due by Fri. 3/13) and I've decided to make next week a "non-ALEKS" week, meaning students are not required to complete ALEKS next week (Mon. 3/9-Sun. 3/15) but can still do so in order to make up for another missed week of ALEKS. This gives students the chance to make up two weeks or even "bank" time for next quarter if they don't currently have two missing weeks.
Additionally, students can earn back points on their quizzes by completing the quiz correction form for each missed item, earning back half credit for all they correct. This is a huge opportunity for the kids since it not only helps improve their grades. It also pushes them to identify and (hopefully) learn from their mistakes, so they don't make them again. We have still have the spring MAP test (March 26th for math) and SOLs to take, so it's important that the kids recognize where they're messing up so they don't continue to get tripped up by the same issues/topics. Math is also a subject that continues to build on itself, so if the kids are struggling with something now, it will continue to affect them in future math work if they don't work to rectify the issue.
This is already ending up longer than I'd hoped, so let's move onto our math for the week. The week was devoted to the beginning of all of our geometry work, which many of the kids are thrilled with! The number of comments about how easy the work is seems to have sparked a new life in some students, so I'm hoping this will help with some of the above issues. As I've told the kids, many people feel they are "either algebra people or geometry people" (those that are both are just "math people"), so some of the kids are finding they have a stronger connection to our new work. Kids who are fairly artistic, prefer physical activities, enjoy puzzles, and the like generally "click" well with geometry as it's math they can see all around them. There are a few kids who don't feel as comfortable with the geometry, but I've got a few tricks to help with that, the biggest being just plan old drawing out the pictures and then (if needed) color-coding to help further illustrate the topic. I encourage students who struggle with geometry to start working on classic jigsaw puzzles as they really do help develop some of the same skills needed in geometry. Our specific topics of the week were the Pythagorean theorem and the beginnings of angle relationships, which will carry over into next week. These two topics along with the next (3-D models) will all be assessed together on the next quiz.
Well, this week's update has gotten away from me and I feel like it's a bit on the rambling side (you can blame the sinus medicine that's helped me make it through the past two days), so I'm going to close things out here. As always, feel free to email if you have any questions. I hope everyone has an amazing weekend!