Unit Closure

See my Do Now in my Strategy folder that explains my beginning of class routines.

Often, I create do nows that have problems that connect to the task that students will be working on that day. Today I want students to work on a fraction word problem.  My goal is that students are able to identify this problem as using repeated addition or multiplication.  Some students may use a diagram while others may use an algorithm. 

I have a student explain the operation that they used and why.  Then I call on a couple students to explain their answers. 

Notes:

• Before this lesson, I use students’ work from the previous lesson (Unit 4 Review) to Create Homogeneous Groups.  Students work in groups of 3-4.
• I determine what are the most pressing needs of for each of these groups.   If there is a small group that is struggling with fraction operations across the board, I will meet with them to work with whiteboards.  Groups who still need practice with multiplication will start on the on Dog Food Task and move on to the Division Two Ways Task.  Groups who are struggling with finding a part of a group will start on the Sale Price Task and move on to the Division Two Ways Task.  Groups who are doing well will start with the Division Two Ways Tasks and move on to the Dog Food Task.  It may save time to fill out the group to do lists before class.
• For this lesson, some students may need a fraction kit to help model problems.  Example: http://store.mathsolutions.com/product-info.php?Marilyn-Burns-Fraction-Kit-pid230.html

I tell students their groups and their assignments.  I have students move to their groups and I have a volunteer pass out materials and a Group Work Rubric for each group.  Students are engaging in MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively, MP4: Model with mathematics as well as MP6:  Attend to precision.

If I have a small group that is working on fraction operations, every few minutes I walk around the class to monitor student progress and behavior.  

For Closure I ask students to share out specific things that they class did well during work time and specific things that they can improve on for the next time we do an activity like this.  I stress that these are reflections about the class as a whole, rather than reflections about individual students. 

If we have time I ask if there are specific questions that students want to ask/talk about. 

Instead of giving a ticket to go, I collect students’ tasks to evaluate.  Then I pass out the HW Unit 4 Closure.