Day 2: JENGA

STAAR Crunch Day 2 Agenda:

1. Warm-up

2. Go over HW

3. Test #9-11

4. Jenga!

One of my favorite review games and one of the ways I change a boring worksheet and create an interactive day for students.  Today each student had a set of 25 STAAR questions from Reporting Category 2 (TEKS 6.3 A-C, 6.4 A-B, 6.5 A) to complete.  

With a plain set of Jenga blocks, I have written #1 - #25 on 25 of the blocks.  Then I added comments on extra blocks like: choose any, choose any even, choose any odd, choose any +2, 2 free points, 1 free point, lose a point, extra turn, lose a turn, and so on until all the blocks had something written on them.

In class, I split my class into two teams-  typically boys and girls.  I randomly choose a girl from my popsicle sticks (beforehand I usually sort put sticks with girls names in my right pocket and sticks with boys names in my left pocket).  This girl comes and pulls a block from the Jenga tower.  The block tells this student and the rest of the class what problem to complete.  I can walk around and help struggling students and address common mistakes.  When the original girl has completed the problem she tells me the answer.  If she is correct, she earns a point for her team.  If not, the boys can steal.  Everyone must be working or: 1. You won't be able to steal, 2. Ms. Stephens makes us stop playing the game and just do the worksheet- boring.  Next it is boys turn and so on until class is over or everyone has had a turn.  

The kids end up doing all or majority of the problems without realizing it and I'm able to watch work processes and address common errors.  It gets a little loud sometimes (today my reading teacher next door messaged me and asked if there was a mouse in my room because she could hear squealing and desks moving)-  they really get into it! 

Homework Incentive

I typically don't assign a lot of homework-  last year was my first year and I noticed that the kids that were doing it...didn't need the practice...and the ones who did need it either practiced the entire thing incorrectly or didn't attempt it at all.  (I will be assigning more next year, just working on figuring out the balance).

Anyway... this week we are preparing for the STAAR test and have homework each night.  Just 10 questions... but motivating the students can be challenging this time of year.

Solution:  A week ago the math department sent home a brown paper sack with each student with a note attached:

Students return the bags with some type of prize inside-  some put bags of chips, candy, $1 or $5, etc.

Throughout this week when students complete homework (bonus tickets for making A's!) or win games in class, they receive tickets.  They place them in containers for each class- my classes are organized by colors.

Monday I will draw names from the containers.  If I draw your name, you get to select a prize bag.  I'm keeping bags that are turned in separated by class so in some classes more names will be drawn then in others, but that is okay.

Really easy (and free for me!) motivation for students to complete homework! :)

STAAR Crunch- Day 1

Agenda:

1. Warm-ups
2. Go over test # 1-8
3. Review Game
4. Pass out/discuss homework

We are one week away from the STAAR assessment, so we are in crunch time!  We are switching things up, which has students excited and there are incentives being thrown all over the place (I don't necessarily know if that is a good or bad thing).  Monday we are covering reporting category 1, Tuesday category 2, etc.

I created warm-ups that were all questions with answers that could be recorded in grids.  Students struggle to record answers correctly so each day at the beginning of class, they practice this.

We gave a CSCOPE test Friday and the grades were LOW.  In all honesty, I didn't think it was a fair test of what we covered that week but we are required to give those exams for data purposes.  I didn't want to completely dismiss it though, so we are going over category 1 questions Monday, category 2 questions Tuesday, etc.  I'm asking students to find WRONG answers and tell me WHY they are wrong.

For a review game, we tweaked "ghost in the graveyard" or "Candy Hearts" to have a STAAR theme:

Student groups got a card of questions from Reporting Category 1 (TEKS 6.1 (A-F) and 6.2 (A-E) and were to work together to solve.  When they thought all were correct, they bring me the card.  If they are right, they receive a colored star to place around the room on larger stars.  If any answers are wrong, I tell them to go back and try again.  I tell them how many they have wrong, but not which ones.  This annoys them, but tough.

At the end of class, I drew cards to determine how much each start was worth.  The kids are familiar with the game, so it was a good day!

I made a few changes throughout the day though-  some of the cards had 5 or 6 questions, which took students too long and they got frustrated.  For some of my classes 3 was a better number, and for others 4 made it more challenging, so I adjusted the number of questions they had to complete on each card along the way.

Homework this week:  Every night students have 10 STAAR-like (or as close as we can get at this point knowing what we know) questions.  They are graded at the beginning of class the next day.  Students who complete the homework receive 3 things-  a ticket, a STAAR buck, and the satisfaction of preparation and a job well done.

Tickets are entered into drawings for prizes at the end of the week.  STAAR bucks earn them a chance to play games or purchase snacks in a school-wide STAAR carnival at the end of testing.

My Favorite No- Adapted

In a department planning day our instructional coach shared a strategy: My Favorite No - Learning from Mistakes .  "A mistake is your opportunity to share with me how much you understand"

We took a quiz last week...and the grades were disappointing.  Typically I would hand the quiz back and we would go over questions at a class but this isn't typically effective-  students who should be listening aren't.  So I adapted "My favorite no" to review quiz answers.

As I was grading I took notice of common student errors and took pictures of student work:

Students got out a piece of notebook paper.  I displayed an image of a student mistake and gave the class one minute to write down any and all mistakes they saw, one minute to share with their group members, and then we discussed what the student did correct and what mistakes they made, as well as how they could correct their mistakes.

The students really enjoyed this activity and when I returned their quizzes they were able to recognize their own mistakes and correct independently.

Review Rotations- Add and Subtract Fractions and Decimals

We have entered 3 weeks of STAAR Crunch time.  We are reviewing all of the concepts we have learned throughout the year and making connections between concepts in preparation for the STAAR exam.

Today we were reviewing the addition and subtraction of decimals, fractions, and mixed numbers.  Instead of just having kids complete a worksheet, I decided to have each student group create their own questions and then rotate to solve questions written by classmates.

I had students fold their paper into fourths- creating 4 sections on the front and 4 sections on the back-  room for the 6 stations and 2 summary questions at the end that I gave them.  At each table there was a red card and a colored piece of paper.  To prevent students from writing simple problems (one-half plus one-half), I created a "number bank" providing students with fractions or decimals that they could choose to incorporate into their word problems.  Student groups would work together to write a word problem on the colored paper using the numbers and operation provided on the red card.  Then groups rotated.  At the new station, students solved the question written by the previous group and then wrote a new problem using the red card.

Some struggled, some wrote really great questions, some wrote more difficult questions that I would have given.  A lot were surprised and upset when class was over...which does not always happen in math class, so that is good.  I was able to walk around and get a general idea about where students were struggling, provide help, and modify tomorrows lesson to meet their needs better.

Instant Group Game

The idea behind this is essentially the same as here but switches it up just enough so the kids think it is a new game....

Students were given 4 problem situations in which they had to solve multi-step problems by writing an expression and solving the expression using the order of operations

Ex - Ms. Stephens is twelve less than 3 times your age.... how old is she?
Expression: 12*3-12  = 24

Good assignment...just a little boring in my opinion.

So.... students worked in groups.  Here are procedures for group work:

When every student in a group have agreed on an answer, they call me over to check.  If correct, students get to draw a card.  Throughout class each group collected cards.

At the end of class I asked students to find the total value of their cards (face cards = 10 and aces = 11).  I told students that the groups that total was closest to my age were the winners!  In the future, I could switch it up by announcing the winners are those with the lowest total, or most hearts, or most face cards, etc.

Easter Bonus

Thursday before a 3 day Easter weekend.... and we had a test....

To add a little excitement, I had hidden Easter eggs around the room, some better than others.  I wanted some to be in view so kids would ask questions.  

Before the test I gave them one minute to find an egg and return to their seats.  In each egg was a jolly rancher and a strip of paper.  These strips of paper contained bonus questions.  I had them numbered 1-10 and students had to write which number they were solving when they put the answer on the back of the test. At the end of class I gave each student another egg and had them hide one for the students next period.  Easy way to add a little Easter excitement to a testing day! :)