Friday, March 19, 2010

Battleship for Introduction to Algebra Students




I got this idea from Tom DeRosa and his blog http://www.teachforever.com/ I have modified his original document to work for my needs.


All the students will place their 3 boats on their grid covering the correct number of points.
The teacher will shoot random shot to all students in the class. Everyone will write this down on their paper. Students will put a O for a miss and an X for a hit.
The teacher will then call on a student to fire at back. Everyone will write down this coordinate on their paper. The teacher on the Smartboard will write a O for a miss and X for a hit.


This will go back and forth until someone wins. Usually the students will win since the teacher is randomly firing.


Tom DeRosa suggests having the student explain where the point is when giving it to the rest of the class. Such as "its in the first quadrant." It is on the y-axis. Or things like this.
I've attached the lesson that I have revised from Tom DeRosa .
By the way, I have included sounds in the smartboard lesson to add the fun of BATTLESHIP.
Give it a try.


Thursday, March 18, 2010

Clicker Circuits


My colleague Tony Schlorff made a lesson for our Introduction to Algebra Team. It was a Smart Response 10 question review. I used it the other day and it worked great. He has the questions set up all over the room. They are numbered. The students each take a clicker and log in with their ID. They then can walk around to any problem they choose. They then put their answer at the appropriate number on in the clicker. They then answer all 10 questions. They are constantly MOVING around the room to go to each question. Once they get all 10 questions, they submit their answers. They will then get a chance to see which problems are correct and which are not. Most importantly, I get a can get a printout of the types of questions that were most missed. I also get a idea from tagging my objectives which objective was most missed. I know now which problems I need to work on for the next review.

If you haven't used the CLICKER system, you should try it. It is a great way to get instant feedback on my students learning.

Another thing that I can do is identify my students in thirds for the next review. This little review sets up well for differentiated learning groups for the next day.