The curriculum reinforcer, is a daily practice piece that is incorporated into almost every lesson to help my students to retain skills and conceptual understanding from earlier lessons. My strategy is to use Spiraled Review to help my students retain what they learned during the earlier part of the year. This will help me to keep mathematical concepts fresh in the students mind so that the knowledge of these concepts become a part of students' long term memories.
For our opening exercise I will have my students participate in an activity where they are given several commands. Each command will limit them in some way shape or form. They will have to carry out each command while taking into consideration that limitation. The commands will be presented on a card of some sort.
Because my classroom is set up in tables, I will give each student at each table a different card. No student at the same table should have the same card. The cards will have the following scenarios written on them:
Every student will be given a whiteboard paddle to write their answers on. When I read their scenario, they will come to the front of the classroom with their paddles and present their answers. It is my hope that I will get several different answers for most of these scenarios so that we can discuss why each scenario has more than one possible solution.
After these students have presented their answers and we have had the discussion as to why there is more than one solution to the scenario being presented at that time, I will then ask all students what are some other possible solutions.
This activity is designed to help students to prepare for today's lesson by helping them to see how inequalities can be used in context.
Today, I will show my students real-world scenarios that involve inequalities. During instruction, I will ensure that my students understand that the solution will provide a range of answers. Students should be able to locate key words and phrases and understand what those key words and phrases direct them to do.
To do this, I will present my students with two problems that I will work out step by step. One problem is a word problem that involves inequalities. The other problem is one that will require me to work backwards to create an inequality word problem.
The modeling of these two problems will later serve as a reference to the successful completion of the independent practice. For this reason, all students should be taking notes during this time.
The two problems that I will present and model for my students are as follows:
Using these problems, I will allow student to ask questions and address any misconceptions that they may have at this time.
Students will be given 5 minutes to complete 2 inequality word problems that mirror the problems that I modeled for them during the instructional piece of this lesson. During this time, I will be traveling the room answering any questions that the students may have, ensuring that they have a good grasp of the concept and are ready to move on.
The problems that my students will try are as follows:
After the allotted time has elapsed, I will ask my students to provide the solution to the first problem. Then, I will ask three students to provide me with solutions to the second problem. The students that I choose for the second problem will be selected using a purposeful method, in that, they will be chosen to showcase the many different ways that the students could have solved this particular problem.
In today's independent practice, my students will complete two tasks.
TASK #1:
During the first task, I will give my students 4 mathematical scenarios involving inequalities to solve. These mathematical scenarios will be presented to my students on a worksheet and requires my students to write a one-step inequality when given a mathematical scenario and then solve that one-step inequality.
This task is great for a quick assessment as to my students' ability to break down and solve inequality word problems.
TASK #2:
For the second task, my students will be required to write a mathematical scenario involving inequalities in the same manner as what was presented during the instructional portion of this lesson. This is also the same as what the students practiced during the Try It Out portion of this lesson. However, I did make one adjustment. In this task, the students, while given the quantity that must be included in the solution, they will have the autonomy to choose which inequality symbol should accompany that quantity in the solution.
To complete this task, the students will be presented with four quantities in total. For which they must do the following for each of those quantities:
The four numbers that I will give the students are as follows: 6.25, 5/8, 12, and 4
Having the students work backwards to create a mathematical scenario when given only a quantity is very informative, as it pertains to my students' level of mastery when it comes to this concept. I know that if they can create their own mathematical scenarios, then they have truly mastered one-step equations. Being able to work out a scenario demonstrates proficiency but, when you can create a problem on your own, that is exemplary.
To close out today's lesson, I will choose one student per problem to present.
The students who will present the first four problems will come to the board and write their answers on the board. Then, they will be asked the process that they used to solve their problem. They need to be ready to answer probing questions that I will ask to ensure that they are actually understanding the math behind the problem and not just mimicking my model. And, they will have to be ready to defend their work should they be challenged by me or one of their peers.
The students presenting their scenarios will have much more to articulate and explain. They will need to explain their thinking as they went through the process of completing this task. Their work will be critiqued and analyzed by me, as well as their peers. During their presentation, these students need to be prepared to answer questions and defend their thinking and their solution pathways.