SOLs Covered: 6.CE.2 Fraction Operations; 6.PFA.1-2 Ratios & Proportions
Math Unit: 06 Fraction Operations; 07 Ratios & Proportions
Daily Agenda: December 2-6, 2024
Upcoming Assessments: Winter SGA/SOL (Tues. 12/10); FORM Quiz 7 Ratios (Thurs. 12/12)
Greetings! As I'm sure you've heard by now, this week was made a little extra challenging with both the winter reading SGA/SOL test on Tuesday as well as a rather long power outage yesterday. On top of that, the stretch of time between fall and winter break always seems to be a bit more hectic, so that makes for one very tired teacher and I'm going to try to keep this brief.
We started the week by wrapping up the first attempt of the Unit 6 fractions quiz as needed and then got started on the second attempt. As a reminder, the first attempt (which is generally referred to as the Mastery Connect copy, the school's required assessment platform) is treated somewhat like an SOL test in that no support outside of required accommodations is given and that for most questions, they get the scripted response of "read the question carefully and select the best answer." The exception to this would be logistical questions such as tech issues or how to input an answer. The second attempt is treated dramatically different as we will provide in depth help, walking them through the steps if necessary, and students are even allowed to use their notes. They are responsible for at least trying on their own first after seeing the results of their first attempt and they have to advocate for themselves by asking for help. Quite a few students always ask if they have to do the second attempt; I always respond that it is voluntary but highly encouraged as I can't force them to take it a second time. That being said, I would truly appreciate the help if parents and guardians would push it on their side as well. Another thing students frequently ask about the need to complete is extra credit; as promised, two extra credit opportunities have been added to Canvas and again I can't require that they complete it... but you can, so please push them to take advantage of this chance!
The rest of the week was spent introducing the concept of ratios to the students. It's not a completely new topic to kids as one way we can write ratios is in fraction form. However, they only way they've worked with them as parts compared to a whole (ex. the number of oranges out of all the fruit in a basket). This is one way we're still working with them now, but we also compare parts to different parts (ex. the number of apples compared to the number of bananas) or parts from one group to parts of another group (ex. the number of strawberries from one basket compared to the strawberries in a different basket). This can be a little more challenging for the kids not because it's a difficult concept on its own, but more so because they have been trained on a routine for the first format so much that they have a harder time deviating for the others. Considering the disruptions we had to our week, I think they've started off fairly strong, but we'll be continuing with it next week as well with a formative assessment hopefully next Thursday.
Well, I've yet again gotten carried away, so I'm going to wrap things up here. As always, please feel free to email if you have any questions or concerns. Have a great weekend!