Grade 9 & 10 Academic

Welcome back!

This week in class we continued to present our learning activities with a focus on grade 9 and 10 Academic. Although it has been a very long time since I took grade 9 and 10 math, the concepts almost immediately came back to me. Ensuring students understand and grasp the concepts in grade 9 and 10 math is imperative for their future learning and success. This week I would like to reflect on two of the presentations: Interior Angles and Speed Dating and Equation Making.

Interior Angles

To begin, the students (us the teacher candidates) were required to draw a triangle, cut out the angles and then connect the angles to determine the degrees. As shown in the picture on the right, when connected, the three angles from the triangle create a 180° angle. I personally have never seen this strategy for teaching students that the sum of the angles within a triangle equals 180.° I can definitely see myself using this in my classroom! Moving along in the lesson, we were then required to draw small triangles within a number of different shapes. In the sheet provided, students are required to determine the number of sides of the shape, the number of interior triangles, and from this information, calculate the sum of interior angles.

I thought this lesson was extremely engaging and also presented the opportunity for problem solving and critical thinking. As opposed to simply providing the students with the formula for calculating the sum of interior angles, 180° (n-2), this activity allows students to develop a deeper understanding of where the formula comes from. I think it is extremely important that educators provide students with the opportunity to make these mathematical connections. Often, students only understand how to complete a math problem and we need to provide more opportunities that demonstrates the why.

Speed Dating and Equation Making

The second presentation I would like to reflect on is speed dating and equation making. For this activity, students sat across from a partner at the desks. Partners on one side were required to pick up a yellow piece of paper, containing the information for the y-intercept and partners on the other side picked up a purple piece of paper, containing the information for the slope. Together, partners had the task of determining their equation in y=mx + b form and then plotting their line. On the sheet there were a number of hearts, and if your line crossed through a heart, than students were a "match."

 

I thought this activity was also extremely engaging. Students had the opportunity to move around the classroom and interact with their peers, thus, fostering both student communication and collaboration. The only aspect I would have done differently for this lesson is possibly change the idea of “speed-dating.” Students in grade 9 or 10 could become more focused on the concept of “matching up” with someone as opposed to the math they are completing. Although the concept worked very well in our class, some students lacking maturity may become off-task very quickly. I would just alter the concept of dating to something such as sports, movies, or food.

Overall, I thought all lessons presented this week were well done! Our class is presenting many fantastic ideas that can be implemented in our future classrooms.

Have a good week!
Rachelle