Differentiated Quizzes

Normal

Guided take one

Early I had addressed my problem with my lower level students on their quiz and a few of my top fliers as well.  So I feel like my second time around was much better.  I even used this method on the test.  I broke the problems down to find the misconceptions.  I sometimes have to scale back because I want my students to solve the most difficult of problems and they just don't have the capability because they don't understand how to solve a part of the equation.  All of my students seemed to benefit from the more broken down quiz.  I will come back and post links to the quizzes later in case you would like a copy

The new updated versions:

Normal

Broken down

Word problems continued

Word problems seemed to go a lot smoother this year because I held off on them for the entire solving equations section.  Typically I try to teach the word problems along with the solving the equation so they can make the real world connection, but they would sometimes be frightened by the thought.  This time we started word problems after their second test and I almost hit the floor when the class agreed that they were easy.  They can ALL tell me what the word problem is looking for and what key words are in the word problem.  Their reflections on Friday stated that they thought word problems were difficult, but these were easy.  What?!  I love this method most, because my low level reading students and my ESL students can at least identify the important parts of the question.  Sometimes they still struggle to translate the verbal expressions to equations, but they can at least talk me through what is needed for the equation.  I love this unit because all of the mathematical practices are used.  I can use that big word decontextualize with the students and they get it!


I have realized the kids pay attention more when you make the word problem about your students in the class.  For example, my student Evan who calls himself DaKing was used in problem 2.  The kids giggle at the thought of some of the word problems occurring, but I feel it helps them create a visual for the equation as well.


We did hit a road bump or two on the consecutive word problems, but I could see light bulbs going off after one-on-one sessions.

Taking the problem out of word problems...

As a teacher when I write my lesson plan for word problems I quiver at the thought of the frightened faces in my class.  Somewhere along the way word problems become a problem for students.  Oddly enough on my quizzes and tests most of my students can answer the word problems better than the multi-step equations.  Yet if you ask any of them about a word problem, they begin to almost hyperventilate.

Today's lesson will be to try and take the fear away by providing the students with a word problem toolkit.  I wanted to make sure the students didn't fear word problems and could find the key words to solving multi-step equation word problems.

First, we underline what the equation is looking for.  Next, we highlight the important information and mark out the unnecessary.  Third, we identify the indicators for operations and for the equal sign.  Finally, set up and solve.

The kids seemed to do a great job with the assignment and had a grasp of multi-step equations better than they did previously.  They still were tripped up by consecutive numbers, but until they see the answer they can't grasp why we are adding something to x.  Also, as always we had a discussion of when you need to go a step beyond solving for the variable.