Curriculum Materials and Resources

        The textbook for the class I am teaching is Prentice Hall Algebra I. It is a standard mathematics textbook with a few worked example problems followed by about 100 practice problems, a huge difference from the CPM textbook that I got used to at McNary.
        The math department at North Albany Middle school has many games, manipulatives, and activities. Unfortunately, at this point in time, they are sitting unused in a room adjacent to the library collecting dust. Instead, the teachers I have observed use their SmartBoards for every lesson, most taking full advantage of the wide variety of resources available on there.
     
In terms of virtual resources, I have been using:
Pearson Success Net- an excellent resource that comes with the Algebra I textbook
Kuta software- which provides some free worksheets for a variety of algebra topics without requiring you to buy the program
www.quia.com- a website with hundreds of interactive math games and activities
www.mathopenref.com- a website with manipulative graphics that shed light on many geometric and trigonometric functions.
  

Closure Component

Here is a video of my closure component which was students worked in groups to do  review problems getting ready for a test. I apologize for the limited view. It was the best I could do at the time.

1. What strength(s) did you notice in the teaching and learning process?

I felt it was a constructive use of time because my supervising teacher and I were able to individually help students with problems.

1. What evidence(s) of students' learning did you observe?  

Students were engaged almost the entire activity and there were plenty of questions being answered.

1. To what degree were all learners engaged?

Every student worked on the review problems at least part of the available time.

1. What evidences of addressing varied abilities did you observe?

I was able to address varied abilities because I could help each student individually.

1. What was the your role in supporting learning?

My role in supporting learning was go go around and answer individual questions.

1. Describe one challenge you observed.

One challenge was  some students needing much more help than others, so some of the students may not have received as much help as they needed. 

 

1. Based on the above responses, how might you revise or tweak this instructional routine? 

I'm not sure I would change very much. Just to make sure more students are engaged I thought about making a number of problems due that day. I think it is important to have time in class to do homework, especially before a test.

Intro to a New Topic

1. What strength(s) did you notice in the teaching and learning process?

I am proudest of the classroom environment in which students feel comfortable sharing their math ideas and questions with each other. Often this leads to extended conversations which sometimes eat up valuable class time, but I feel that these conversations are worth the extra time.

1. What evidence(s) of students' learning did you observe?  

Students are asking great questions. I know it is difficult to hear the exact questions but hopefully I rephrase their questions enough to get the gist. 

1. To what degree were all learners engaged?

Sometimes I do wonder to what degree other students benefit from questions asked by one student, but most often, when I am answering a student's question I hear a informed "oooooh" from a good portion of the rest of the class.

1. What evidences of addressing varied abilities did you observe?

I think the think pare share process that I use is a good way of addressing varied abilities. Not only does it encourage students to help each other, but it also allows me to walk the class and do in-depth check for understanding with individual students while the other students are engaged in conversation. 

1. What was the your role in supporting learning?

During the video I play several roles. One lecturing, one questioning, and one guiding. 

1. Describe one challenge you observed.

The biggest challenge on this particular day was that it was a shortened day with only a 30 minute class time. Subtract time to answer questions about the homework and there was barely enough time to fit in what I wanted. During a normal class I am usually able to give time for students to work on their homework, but during this class I felt that the questions I was receiving and the conversation it was generating was more important. 

1. Based on the above responses, how might you revise or tweak this instructional routine? 

I would try to give more time for homework. I would have preferred to do this lesson in a full 50 minute class instead, but due to the timing of the term the lesson needed to be done. 

Algebra I Pre-test Results

My test results can be found here

Based on these results, I can tell that most students have an adequate understanding of solving for one variable in an equation. Given this, I would most likely move on to including more difficult topics such as combining like terms, problems with a higher difficulty of order of operations, or word problems and applications that use this skill.  

Mr. Kaufmann MS Algebra I Warm-up from Ben Kaufmann on Vimeo.

1. What strength(s) did you notice in the teaching and learning process?

I really like how the popsicle sticks not only allow me to make sure everybody gets called on, but they also keep students engaged because they know that they might be called on. The format of students doing the warm-up on the smart board also works to my advantage by allowing me to roam the class and spot-check while one student is up at the board.

2. What evidence(s) of students' learning did you observe?

The original video clip was far too large but it showed how I had students compare answers to the one on the smartboard.   

3. To what degree were all learners engaged?

Like I mentioned above, this method keeps all learners engaged by allowing me to walk around and spot check while the warm up was being done on the smartboard. The students also keep their warm-ups in a journal that I periodically collect, to make sure they are doing the warm-ups and taking notes.

4. What evidences of addressing varied abilities did you observe?

It is not obvious from the short video clip, but I often tailor my help to students depending on their ability level. It is not an option to to say “I don’t understand it” or “I didn’t do the warm-up” because I will always help students at the smartboard if they need it.  

5. What was the your role in supporting learning?

During warm-ups I feel that my role is to make sure everybody is engaged in the activity and to help students who need it.

6. Describe one challenge you observed.

One challenge that is evident in a longer clip of the warm-up is that sometimes students take a long time working the problem out on the whiteboard and it is sometimes difficult to keep all students engaged while they are working on it.

7. What did you learn or observe about your students thinking (eg., what were their typical mistakes or misconceptions?)

Typical mistakes often center around a misplaced negative. One of the frequent mistakes that surprises me is students will often turn an x into a y in the middle of the problem!

8. Based on the above responses, how might you revise or tweak this instructional routine?

I think the way that I do warm-ups in the classroom is solid. One of the changes I’d like to make is to vary the warm-up method I use, so it is not always the same routine. Lately, I have been throwing in group response or other methods, just so the warm-up doesn’t take as long. It will also be interesting to view the other videos to see if their methods would work for me.

Algebra I Pre-Test

CMP-Inquiry Middle School Interview

1.   How does the CMP curriculum align with the national Common Core and NCTM standards?

For many years now, Salem-Keizer has modified the order and level of the CMP books from what the authors originally wrote.  With that being said, it seems like it was not aligned very well to the state standards.

With the upcoming national standards the district and the authors are working hard to find some alignment.  Last summer the authors of CMP held a workshop to introduce supplementary units which will patch up the curriculum to fit the new national standards.  However, I find the units a little disjointed.  The authors have begun a third addition of CMP to match the national standards.

2.   Numerous students are a year or more behind in the basics. How does one address the needs of these students on a daily basis so they can get up to grade level and also experience success in the inquiry to investigation philosophy of the CMP? 

• The best way is to have a support class which helps the kids fill in during another period.  However, that is not always possible.  So the teachers spend a lot of time looking at the material the kids should have learned before and building those skills into warm-ups or 5 minute drills.
• In my class, I am lucky to have 15 computers which can be used to differentiate the classroom.  I have used them to do Math workshop which is basically different stations.  The lower kids are with me in a group and the higher kids are on the computer doing Math whizz or manga high as fun extensions.  In a perfect world I would like to do this once a week but I tend to get behind in my implementation plan if I do that.
• After school tutoring also helps.  Our special education department holds a mandatory special education help session twice a week.  Students get individual support on class work.
• About CMP and the inquiry approach and kids with low ability.  It is hard.  If you follow the grouping strategy of CMP then being very strategic in building the groups is important.  Most of the time, I try to put mixed groups together so kids can learn from each other.

1.   What is the role of homework (and accountability) in the CMP? ____

CMP has three levels of homework for each investigation.  The first are application, the second, connection and the last, extensions.  I believe that homework is practice of what the student has a beginning understand of.   However, the constructivist approach that CMP uses often follows through on the homework assignments making them a huge challenge for the kids.  I know we are trying to increase rigor with the work but we don’t want to deflate the kids.

Because homework is practice, I count it very little in my grade book.  I ask the students to try at home so that they connect to the problem and can find their mistake easier.  Since I stopped grading homework, I have less accountability from the students so this is still a place I struggle.  I have thought of doing all work in the room but there are not enough hours to do the teaching and practice of all of the standards.

2.   CMP Investigations compose of small-groups (pair-share, teamwork, cooperative learning).

§  Describe several classroom management techniques that ensure all students are actively engaged. Eg, how are individual roles established? Accountability (Group, individual)? Ongoing assessment(s) and checking for understanding? 

I like using partners and then I ask who wants to share and pick the partner instead of the volunteer.

In groups of 4 I have assigned roles for the 4 students (recorder, time keeper, supply person, drill Sargent) and they have to do their roles.  One student is responsible for asking group questions so I will not talk to the whole group.

When groups are stuck or off task, I ask one member to huddle with me to get some questions answered and take the answers back to the group.

To establish roles, I have used cards that they pick or have them number off and all 1’s are recorders, all 2’s are time keepers…). 

Accountability is hard.  I ask each student to turn in work rather than group work.  I have done partner tests but I will also do individual tests.  I want to know what each student understands.

I often do formative exit quizzes on skill based questions.  Very simple 5 minute questions and I record these at 2 points or “not yet” in my grade book.  We circle back to make sure the students have a chance to show me that they understand.