Minds on Mathematics - Chapter 6 (Opening)

Now we're getting into the meat of things…!  I thought this was a great chapter.  I know that most of us probably start with some sort of warm-up activity.  I know I do.  What got me in this chapter was on how to structure the warm-up.  We've used Math Minutes previously and this year I've decided to write my own.  I wanted to have half of my questions be strictly review of material learned throughout the year, and half of my questions be a recap of what was learned during the previous class.  It looks something like this:

So, I was really into this (and have created my first 10)… until now.  After reading this chapter, I may have to rethink this a bit.  Or at least rethink the next 10 :).  I don't really have any open ended questions (except maybe #5) and I liked the reference to using those during warm-up time in chapter.  Since I have 111 minutes during my class period, I have some flexibility with the length of the warm-ups and have found that 10 questions is a good length.  Possibly I could keep the 5 Review questions and then have the Recap question be something more open ended (maybe not called Recap?).  Hmmmmmm……………..

I liked the Accountability Structure Hoffer suggests on page 96.  It is important to have a way to ensure that students are participating in the warm-up activity, especially if it's not going to be graded.  I liked the "Give One - Get One" strategy - I haven't heard of that before.

I also liked the short synopsis of homework at the beginning of class.  I too grade very little homework and find that it helps keep up with paperwork.  However, this means there have to be plenty of other graded assignments, simply for parents to see how their kids are doing.  I tend to go for the Weekly Quiz, using the homework as a basis for it.  This takes a little shuffling since we are on the block schedule, and turns into more of a quiz every other week, so that I've seen the students around 5 times.

Good, working chapter.  Excited to keep going!

Creating Effective Warm-Ups

I'll confess… I love warm-ups.  They are my sanity keeper.  They give me just a moment of peace at the beginning of class to get my head back into place after the chaos (organized chaos, of course) of the last period.  They allow me just a minute or two of silence where, in my mind, I can just sit back and close my eyes and relax.  In reality, peaceful though it may be, this is my time to take attendance, address small issues, and make sure I'm ready to begin another 111-minute class period.

I like the structure that having a warm-up allows as well.  My students know that when they come into the room, that they go straight to the shelf near the door and the warm-up will be sitting there.  I just love if there is a day that I've forgotten to put the warm-up out changed routine and a student comes up to me and says, "Where's our warm-up?".  It just makes me smile…

In the past we've used Math Minutes or MathMate's as part of our warm-ups.  Since I'm in the process of integrating both 8th grade Common Core standards as well as Algebra 1 or Geometry into the same year (see my previous post about this craziness), I'm worried that the pace we'll have to work at will not allow for as much processing time as I'd like for each topic.  Depth of knowledge is also a concern, but that's for another post.  This summer I'm working with the other two 8th grade math teachers and we are going to come up with our own warm-ups that will both review previous topics as well as look at what was learned in the last class session.  I'm in charge of the first 10 and have gotten a jump on them. I think I'm going to call them "Recap & Reviews" since the first 5 questions will be related to things that they students learned in the past and the second 5 questions will be related to the homework topic.  (With 111-minute class periods a 10-question warm-up is quite doable.)

Here's a sample of my RR for the second day of learning.  The first 5 questions come from 7th grade standards since we won't have been in 8th grade for more than a week yet, and the second 5 questions are covering translations and reflections from the prior class.

I'm hoping, that by including the Review section, we will be able to continually remind students of things they learned during the year instead of trying to have them remember just before state testing time.  I'll keep you posted on my thoughts...