Minds on Mathematics: Chapter 10 (Sharing and Recognition)

So… I've finally caught up with my chapter posts since vacation!  Phew…. that was a lot of reading and reflecting, but I've done it.  I really loved this book and know that I'll refer to it over and over again.

Speaking of reflection, that's what this chapter was about.  The author discusses the importance of granting our students time each day to think about what they have learned.

Metacognition - thinking about our thinking - is the last step in a daily math workshop.  It gives the student time to sit back and process the items that they've covered during the class period.  They can think about things they understand, topics that are still unclear, and "a-ha" moment, or state something in a different way to help cement material.  It allows students to take a short, quiet moment to put the period at the end of the class and finalize their thoughts (instead of that mad rush of shoving papers in backpacks, tossing books on the shelf, and running out the door because the bell rang).

For my own classes, I will be utilizing my math journal (Math Survival Guides, MSG) for this purpose.  I will actually be doing this twice during my 111-minute class period.  I am going to have students reflect just prior to the mini lesson in the middle of class and again at the end.  Below is an example of a page I've created for one of our first units:

Notice on the right side the three topics - Write, Reflect, Review.  I am going to have my students complete one set of pages (for example, this is 5/6) each class period.  The left will hold drawings, foldables, and creative items.  The right side will almost always be Write, Reflect, Review (now that I'm typing, maybe I should switch the last two…?).  Write will contain any important information outside of the notes I'd like students to have.  Reflect will be something they think about and can write on prior to our lesson - possibly bringing in some background knowledge or items from the notes they are working on.  Review will be my "end of the day" piece, similar to the exit ticket.  I liked all of the suggestions listed in the book and mine will vary between questions for clarification, to explaining their understanding, to writing about what they'd like me to go over.  Since it will be in their journals, I'll probably collect them on quiz/test days to grade and may also glance at them while walking around during work time.

I do like the idea of reflection, but I have to come up with a system that works for me.  I tried exit slips, but being able to read, grade, and possibly give good feedback became overwhelming.  I'm excited to try the MSG system and see if it works.  I'm hoping this helps get the students in the habit of reflecting at the end of each class period.

Setting up Interactive Math Notebooks (INB, MSG)

At the Annual NCTM conference in Denver I was inspired by a booth and presentation on foldables. I am in love with them!!!  I'm not such the creative type myself, so I purchased two books full of templates ready to go.  Then, I found myself overwhelmingly inspired by all of the photos and information on Pinterest as well!  I've even gotten to the point that I had to get out of my "School" album and create and album for foldables and INBs all on its own!

So, now that I have all these resources, I decided that I actually needed to sit down and do something with them.  I've been toying with the idea of interactive notebooks for the last semester or so.  Our science team uses them and I think they have the potential to be totally cool and useful.  There are so many fantastic ideas and as much as I'd love to fit every single one of them into the notebook, I don't think that's possible!  So, here are the things I decided I wanted to do: (oh, and I'm going to call them Math Survival Guides, or MSGs)

Inside Cover & First Page:
I have two web sites the kiddos need to keep track of and I cannot tell you how many times someone would come up to me and tell me they forgot their logon information.  I decided they could glue a little strip to write that information on to the inside cover so that it is always available to them.  I'm sure I'll still get asked… but maybe a little less.  I also took one of the manilla pockets that divided the notebook into 3 sections and cut it up and glued it to the inside cover as a pocket.  I felt like this will give them a sturdy place to put items that need to be glued or flash cards.  The right side is the cover page, and I'm hoping the students will be a little more creative than I have been :).

Inside Cover w/ pocket and Cover Page

Table of Contents:

I'm still working on this page.  I am going to have them color code each unit, so you can see that Unit 1 (Geometry) is going to be green.  I'll give all the students one paperclip to hold the five pages they'll need for the TOC together so they don't have to flip through them every time they open the MSG.  I'm also going to have them include the date for each page, but I don't want to do that here since I'm hoping to use this for multiple years.  On the left I'm still thinking about what to put… rubric, standards (this is what I'm leaning towards), rules, etc.

TOC - still working on left side

The next four pages are for "reminders" of geometry formulas.  By 8th grade (according to Common Core) they should have already learned everything except for the Volume formulas, so these are basically a place for them to refer to as needed.  Notice that under each flap I've used pencil. I think color is great, and for their titles, drawings, etc I'd like them to be as creative as possible.  However, when they are doing actual math manipulation, I think it is important that they use pencil even in their notebooks.

Reminder formulas

More reminder formulas

The next four pages are the start of the real "meat" of the first unit.  We are going to start with transformations.  After looking at many, many examples, I decided that foldables and drawings will be on the left side and and response items will be on the right.  This is basically because I really dislike writing on the left side of a notebook because the spiral gets in my way the closer I get to the end of the page!  Just personal preference.  My first foldable I appropriated from tothesquareinch and I think it's fantastic!  I don't have a school budget for colored paper (*sigh*), so I added color to the actual figures instead.

Transformations #1

You'll notice my right side.  I've decided to complete one page a day on the right (remember, we have 111-minute blocks, so plenty of time).  The top (Write) part is where I may have the students put vocabulary for the day, work out a problem, jot down an important note, etc…  The middle part (Reflect) I will have them do during the middle of our class during "mini-lesson" time.  The bottom part will be completed at the end of class (sort of like an exit slip), but I won't always collect them (ohhhh, I have so much more to write about this - but another day).

Transformations graphic organizer

I'm still working on this page (transformations day #2), but I liked this graphic organizer from the Alden Schools.  I've written "What are the properties of transformations?" on the outside flap.  

I'm hoping that now that I've started this that things will move a little faster.  This is probably close to about 3 hours worth of work, but I had to make a lot of decisions about placement and other things (this is my type-A coming out here).  Let me know your thoughts and what some of your ideas for interactive notebooks are!