SOLs Covered: 6.PFA.4 Inequalities
Math Unit: 03 Inequalities
Daily Agenda: September 16-20, 2024
Upcoming Assessments: SUM Quiz 3 Inequalities (Mon. 9/23)
Greetings! I hope everyone has had an amazing week! While we (Mrs. Lee and I) are both feeling better, we're also exhausted after a long week, so I'm going to try to keep this update on short. Between student absences, the math portion of the fall SGA/SOL, the previously mentioned disruptions from last week, and various other smaller disruptions that happen on a daily basis in any school (I should start tracking how many times the classroom phone rings, random knocks on the door, etc. for when we get to our data unit towards the end of school), we're still finding ourselves playing catch up with many of the students when it comes to some of our past work. With us being just over the halfway mark, we've spoken to all the kids about grades and what they need to be working on to improve, but we'd also love the help of their grownups. Please help us by checking grades on ParentVUE and speaking with your child about what can be done to improve before we get to the end of the term. I'm planning to create a couple extra credit opportunities, but I'm working on figuring out the tech side of it when it comes to using Canvas grades, so stay on the lookout for updates on that. We'll be reaching out directly to families for students we have concerns about, but please feel free to reach out to us directly as well.
In regards to the math covered this week, we started working on linear inequalities (AKA algebraic inequalities). For 6th grade math, there is no solving at this point, but the topic is still a pretty big leap for the kids. Previously, they've only used less than < and greater than > and exclusively with comparing to known values/numbers. While we still do some of that, we're now throwing variables into the mix and they're also introduced to less than or equal to ≤ and greater than or equal to ≥. When you also factor in their new knowledge of integers, which their still trying to adjust to, the new keywords and phrases for contextual situations (AKA word problems), and the graphing component, the kids find themselves a bit overwhelmed at first. While I think my approach (which includes making connections to the real world application of inequalities) has helped, I did feel we needed a bit more time with it and I have thus pushed the quiz to Monday. Ideally, I would prefer to spend another day or two on the topic, however we have to stick with the county's pacing and I can't push it back any further. For this reason, we'll be offering a bit more guidance/support on the quiz than we generally would with a summative assessment. They'll be warned that it's not something they can get used to (we generally try to emulate SOL testing rules for summatives or at least warn if something asked is a question we wouldn't be allowed to answer during an actual SOL test), but with having a more tightly packed first quarter, I don't want us falling too far behind this early in the year.
Well, this has already gotten past what could be considered "short," so I'll close things out here but as always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions/concerns. Hope you all have an amazing weekend!