Student: “How can we possibly be exactly 2/3 of the way through the school year if you rounded to 66.7% when converting the fraction to a percent? That is not the exact answer.”
Teacher: “Wait, wait, wait for it…oh! We just missed it. You’re right, now we have to round it because the exact moment just passed. But, hey, that means you can say less than 1/3 of the year left, right?!” And it’s Friday!
The year is going by so fast. Students will be entering the lab to complete state testing in a couple weeks, and that will be followed by numerous data reports that will point out where my students need specific interventions. Much of April will be spent implementing those and then back to the computer lab the first part of May. Testing, don’t you love it?
In the past years, I was still hitting new math standards all the way through the spring and into June. Lessons were more or less whole class, and I did not have effective ways of pulling groups. With our iPad integration, this year, my classroom has changed for the better in terms of implementing interventions and extension activities.
Here is what today looked like:
- Students walked into class, grabbed iPad and headphones and set up their notebook with their notes title.
- During the morning announcements, they had already opened up the class blog and were reading the directions for the period.
- Students began watching the short (3 minute) video lesson from ShowMe on changing fractions to percents, on their individual iPads. Notes were taken as needed (they all need some).
- As they completed the video, they moved on to a set of practice questions. Peer tutors walked around the room answering questions and scoring practice problems.
- In the mean time, students met with me in small groups of 3 at the SMART Board for 5 minutes at a time for an intervention lesson on finding volume of rectangular prisms that have fraction edge lengths. (Able to meet with 5 groups during the period).
- Half-way through the period, students changed over to the Socrative app (like a clicker system) and answered 5 questions. Then, they resumed their other work.
- At the end of class, we applied the new lesson material to figuring out what percentage of the school year had already been completed. 66.6%! Or 66.7%?Plus, more word based scenarios.
- Students were engaged and focused from the beginning. Each student was checked for understanding several times, in multiple ways during the period, and by the end they were applying the concept to real-world ideas. I have data to support those who still need more work with the concept.
- Next steps for me would have been to allow them to use the new concepts on their own by coming up with data they were interested in and changing that to percents. Constructivism.
- I like it – plans for Monday beginning to take shape!
- Do you have any resources or activities you use for Fraction to Percent conversions? Please do share!
I am hoping to be able to do something like this at least once a week, as the time spent in those small groups was so valuable today. After one of the periods, three students left the classroom, each thanking me for helping them to learn something new (their exact words). We had been working on volume questions for at least a week prior to this. Yet, it was that one-on-one attention and focus that pushed them over the top.
Just like any classroom, I will not have 100% participation and engagement for the entire period, every day. Today was awesome, like that! Yet, this year has been very different from years past, with students actively involved in furthering their own learning on a continuous basis. In part, this has been due to the increased ability to learn and explore in groups and individually with the integration of iPads as a tool in our classroom.
Is technology integrated and used as a regular instructional tool in your school? How do you effectively incorporate it into your own lessons?
Filed under: Apps, iPad, Math Stations, Technology Tools
Source:
http://timeproject.edublogs.org/2013/02/22/exactly-666-or-is-it/