Celebrate Spring and Customer Appreciation

Spring is my favorite season.  It is time of renewal, regrowth and new adventures!  Unfortunately for me and many teachers I know, it is also the start of the stress of state/national test season. :(  In this time of high stress I want to help you all out and to say thank you for your continued support of my TpT store!  I have chosen five of my products that are in high demand at this time of year and am going to offer one per day throughout this week at an additional 25% off!  Additionally, I am running a rafflecopter that will start on Monday, 4/4 and run through midnight on Friday 4/8 of my geometry riddle worksheets bundle and my algebra riddle worksheets bundle!

On Monday (4/4) my Graphic Organizers Entire Year Bundle will be an extra 25% off of the already money saving bundle price!  These Graphic Organizers are great for helping students review for finals as you finish out the year as well as useful through the year as you teach your Geometry Units! 

On Tuesday (4/5) my 2nd Semester Geometry Bellwork Bundle will be an extra 25% off of the already money saving bundle price!  My bellwork are not only great for getting classes started, but also work well as station cards and exit tickets!

On Wednesday (4/6) my 2nd Semester Geometry Word Wall Cards/Posters will be an extra 25% off of the already money saving bundle price!  This posters not only look beautiful on your walls but helps students reinforce their Geometry vocabulary and stimulate mathematical discussions!  

On Thursday (4/7) my  (Geometry) Circles Complete Unit Bundle will be an extra 25% off of the already money saving bundle price!  This bundle includes notes, bellwork, practice worksheets, review, graphic organizers and more!  

On Friday (4/8) my  2nd Semester Complete Curriculum Bundle will be extra 25% off of the already money saving bundle price!  This bundle includes 5 units that are most often taught during the second semester - Right Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Circles, Area and Three-Dimensional figures!

Don't forget throughout the entire week to enter into my rafflecopter Double Riddle Worksheet Bundle Giveaway - both my Geometry Riddles Bundle and my Algebra Riddles Bundle!

I hope that these savings will help you out as you plan out the finish to your year!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The Effect of Posting Word Walls and Vocabulary at the Secondary Level

I sat down and did a quick count of the "new" vocabulary that students encounter in Geometry.  If I discount the ones that students 'should' have heard before, I am still left with over 200 crucial terms, formulas and figures that students are expected to master by the end of a school year.  Yep, over 200...in addition to writing English papers, reading literature and history (and all the intricacies that it entails), science, electives and too many other things to list.  I don't know about you, but even just reading that list makes my brain hurt.  In an effort to help my students achieve mastery, I took it upon myself to create word walls of all of the major terms, figures and such.  

First Semester Bundle

Each entry on my word walls includes the term, its definition, a diagram and/or example and other pertinent facts.  I broke my terms into semesters (first and second) and then further subdivided it into units.  I have found that keep them all up for the course of an entire semester has resulted in some fantastic results.

1)  My students refer back to the walls when they are stuck or don't remember something from a previous unit.  Their frustration level has decreased a great deal because they have a quick reference if they get stuck instead of having to flip through the book, their folders or other reference materials.

Second Semester Bundle

2)  Their ability to explain their thinking has increased dramatically because they have a better grasp of the vocabulary and how the concepts fit together.  For example, when we recently did our congruent triangle proofs, students were more successful because they were able to better remember facts about midpoints, bisectors and isosceles triangles - all of which are posted on the walls.

3)  Students are more focused on the concepts that we are studying because they can see how all the pieces are fitting together and they can see where we are headed.  I open the first week of school by telling the students that what is illustrated on my walls will be what we are studying.  We talk about what they already know and what impressions they have about what they are going to learn.

4)  My room just looks more put together and is a better reflection of high school.  Strange I know, but at the secondary level it is difficult to find decorations that are "older" instead of "elementary".

While it hasn't solved the entire problem of the horrendously long list of things that students today need to remember, it has helped and as teachers, that is one of the best things we can do...help!  

If you want to read more about word walls, my friend over at Scaffolded Math and Science shared their own experience with word walls in this blog post.  They also shared a link with me to their spectacular word wall for Algebra 2 available here.  The description includes "...references for domain, range, increasing and decreasing in interval notation, ... Also included is a quadratic example graph showing the vertex, the equation in vertex form (and how those two relate), domain, range, increasing and decreasing. ... how the x and y at the vertex can show up in domain (in the radical example) and range."

If you are looking for more of an Algebra 1 word wall then check out All Thing Algebra's "Relations & Linear Functions: Word Wall Cards + Template".  Not only does it include the terms "coordinate plane, quadrants, origin, ordered pair, relation, domain, range, mapping, discrete graph, continuous graph, function, function notation, vertical line test, zeros, slope, slope formula, zero slope, undefined slope, positive slope, negative slope, slope-intercept form, standard form, x- and y-intercepts, horizontal line, vertical line, parallel lines, and perpendicular lines" but it also includes a bonus template to create your own.  

If your needs fall into the middle level then check out Lindsay Perro's "Middle School Math Vocabulary Cards  "The product includes "120+ Common Core related vocabulary words. Each page includes three cards - one with the word, another with the definition and another with an example. Use together on a word wall or as a matching activity to help students learn the words that are critical to common core success in middle school! These cards would work great as a math center in your classroom! Included are both color and black and white versions. Also included are templates in PowerPoint so you can add your own words!"

To the Square Inch- Kate Bing Coners has taken the idea of math word walls one step further and not only offers them in English but in Spanish too!  Both sets feature "Common Core based word wall words with illustrations with super bright colored backgrounds."   The Spanish ones are "Perfect for bilingual classrooms, ELL classes, Spanish math classes or supporting your English Language Learners."  I encourage you to check them out!  I know I will be :) 

I would love to know how you use word wall cards.  Comment below and I'll chose one lucky commenter to receive their choice of one of my twelve sets of word wall posters!!!  

Geometry Bellwork - A Longtime Project, FINALLY Finished!

I am happy, relieved, exhaustively excited to announce that I have finished the last set of bellwork for Geometry!  It is a combination unit on Similarity, Special Lines and Triangle Inequalities.  I combined the three together because a) none of them are really long enough to stand on their own and b) I teach them all as one unit! 

Additionally, I am pleased to tell you that I have bundled my bellwork into a first semester MONEY SAVING bundle and a second semester MONEY SAVING bundle as well as an entire year bundle!  Each unit in each bundle includes a full - color powerpoint, a teacher answer key, each day double printed so that you can hand them out as exit cards if you wish and a weekly student answer sheet! 

1st Semester

2nd Semester

Entire Year

I love using bellwork (bellringers or do-nows as my students call them) because not only does it help to settle a class, but it is also a great way to review previous concepts, assess where students are having difficulty and to get students up to the board!  You can read more about my love of bellwork here

Why I Do Vocabulary Assignments and Quizzes

During classroom discussions, my room used to sound a lot like this:

Me:  What do we know about these angles (points at a set of vertical angles)

Students: -----

Me:  What do these two angles share?

Student A:  A point

Me:  Great!  Where is that point located?

Student B:   Where they cross

Me:  What is that point called?

Students:  ------

The "discussion" would go on from there with me asking ever more information loaded questions trying to get the students to the point that the angles were vertical and therefore congruent.  It seriously made me doubt my teaching abilities.  Until the day that a light bulb went off in my head that is.  I realized that their lack of ability to answer my question had less to do with an understanding of the concepts and more to do with the fact that they lacked the language to express themselves mathematically.  I sat down that evening and made a list of all of the vocabulary that was new(er) to that unit.  Terms that they might have heard in passing or ones that I might have used, but not ones that they had ever really practiced.  I came up with almost 40.  I was astonished so I went back through the unit I was teaching and double-checked.  Nope, no mistake, it really was almost 40.  The next day I went into class and gave them five of them to define as bellwork.  The majority were able to give me two.  At that point I felt like I was in an old space movie - you know:  "Houston, we have a problem"...

As any good teacher does, however, I took the problem as a challenge to be tackled, addressed and fixed to benefit my students.  Out of this problem was born a simple solution - vocabulary assignments to launch each unit and periodic vocabulary quizzes through each unit.  

Vocabulary Bundle

Vocabulary Bundle

Each vocabulary assignment contained two parts.  The first part asks students define the term, draw a sketch (if possible) and to give any prior knowledge that they might have.  I stress to students to read the definition given in the glossary, the textbook or online and then to write it in their own words.  We talk about the fact that when they write it in their own words they will better understand it and retain it for future use.  For the prior knowledge portion we talk about maybe hearing it in a prior class, hearing it at home, seeing it in a book or other words a way may be used to help them start to make the connections.  I will admit, at first this is the column that they struggle with the most but as the year goes on, it gets filled in more and more.  The second part of the vocabulary assignment is a set of puzzles.  I include a crossword so that they read the definition and start to make connections to the term and a word search so that they learn to spell the vocabulary terms.  The students not only learn from doing these, but they also seem to enjoy them!  I have even had a few students ask if I could make them a specialized set!  (I have bundled an entire year of these assignments for Geometry here!)

The vocabulary quizzes that we do through the unit vary.  Sometimes they are matching with the definitions in one column and the terms in a second.  I also give them quizzes where there are paragraphs to fill-in with words from a word bank.  The hardest version, and the one that I tend to save until towards the end of the year, are the ones where I just give them the definition and they supply the word without being given a vocabulary list or word bank.  I find that as the year goes on, their scores on the quizzes get better and better.  

Games

Activities

In order to help  my students practice the vocabulary throughout a unit, I will utilize a variety of review and practice techniques.  I have made a few matching activities where the students cut apart pieces and match the term, definition, diagram and label.  I sometimes will do this in stations and just give the students an answer sheet.  Other times, I will literally have them cut and paste everything together.  I also have a created a few vocabulary based BINGO games that we use.  Additionally, we use Kahoot and Socrative to practice as well.  

Wall Posters

Finally, I have also created a set of posters for every unit that we study.  Each poster features a single vocabulary term, a diagram, the definition and any other crucial information or facts to support the definition.  I print the posters on card stock and laminate them so that I have them.  I post the vocabulary for the entire semester along one wall of my room.  It stays up until the new semester starts.  I find that students will take pictures of parts of the wall, especially if they are studying for a test or quiz.  And yes, I even leave them up during an assessment (although I will cover a specific unit during a vocabulary quiz).  By the time we get to an assessment the students know the vocabulary well enough and realistically, I am testing their application of the concepts by that point, not their memorization.

Reviewing Beyond A(nother) Worksheet

After all the days of teaching a unit, doing practice work, quizzes and other formative assessments I find that I need to change it up a little bit for the review before an assessment. I have explored many different methods and want to share a few of my favorites with you. The results will of vary depending on the make-up of your class and how well they can keep the noise level down when being up and moving around!

My first favorite is to use station activities. Station activities can be designed in multiple ways. I have done some stations where students complete task cards at each station that focus on different skills or concepts for the unit. For example, I just finished a unit in Algebra on functions. My students had a station activity where each of the five stations focused on major skills - 1) finding the domain and range from a table/graph/mapping and identify whether it not it was a function, 2) evaluating functions, 3) writing a function rule from a table, 4) find the domain and range from a graph, and 5) applying functions to create distance time graphs. I found that this worked well because they were focusing in on one concept at a time and I could quickly identify if there were gaps or holes in their knowledge.

I have also done station activities where different stations actually have them completing tasks. I did one where one station has them going online (usually using i-pads) to look up a topic, one station had them constructing something out of pipe cleaners, another had them doing a matching activity, and two were problem solving. This type usually works better in a more visual class like Geometry. Regardless of the type that you use, make sure that you have a timer displayed and that students know the direction of rotation. Also, make sure to build in rotation time when you are planning out the lesson.

My second favorite form of review is to use a review game such as BINGO or Jeopardy. I especially like using BINGO in a unit that is identification heavy be it from vocabulary or diagrams. My students enjoy it because they get to a) compete, b) win prizes and c) be noisy! When setting up a BINGO game make sure that you either laminate your cards so that can be reused or have the students create their cards themselves. While I don't use Jeopardy as often, the times that I have I found that my students really enjoy it. The only drawback that I have yet to overcome is how to have students "buzz" in.

It was from this drawback and I discovered my favorite review game of all time to play in the classroom...KAHOOT! :) I love this game. My students love this game! It is a win-win situation all around. The game is free and if you search on the website there are ready made "Kahoots" already created that you can download and edit to suit your needs. The two essential requirements are a board to broadcast on and devices (i-pads, computers, phones) that can connect to the internet. It is an online game. Whenever I mention Kahoot my students get excited. They enjoy it so much that they ask if we can play. A really wonderful feature of Kahoot is that you can download the results and save them so that you can use it as a form of assessment or a record of their knowledge gained. Are there still units that I use a paper and pencil review on? Of course there because a review game or station activity won't fit every unit. But they are not always my go-to anymore. I still always create on though in case the technology goes down and so that absent students can still have a review to use to prepare for the assessment. How do you review?

It's not a "sin" to do Trigonometry, It's a "Sine" of new content!

One of the biggest jokes in my class when I teach the Right Triangles and Trigonometry unit in my Geometry class is how to pronounce "sin".  I inevitable end up telling my students (jokingly of course) when they pronounce it as "sin" and not "sine" that it is not a sin to do Geometry.  Most of them giggle and then we discuss how to properly pronounce Geometric terms. 

One of the biggest problems I find in my Geometry class is a students inability to define the terms.  I cannot begin to count the number of times that I found it necessary in past years to redefine terms that we have already covered multiple times (think alternate interior angles versus consecutive interior angles).  Since vocabulary is so important in both general content and problem solving as well as on state testing I decided to talk the issue head on.

So in that spirit I want to share with you my top four ways to reinforce Geometrical vocabulary and to help students to retain it beyond a single unit.

Geometry B Bundle

Geometry A Bundle

1)  Illustrate, illustrate, illustrate!   I have embarked on a quest to illustrate our terms whenever possible.  I created sets of posters for every unit that we will study throughout the entire course.  Each poster is 8.5 by 11 and includes the definition, a labeled illustration and and pertinent facts.  I print them on card stock, laminate and hang them around the round grouped by unit.  I leave them up the entire trimester and refer to them constantly.  (I have them in my TeachersPayTeachers store in money saving bundles).

Triangles and Congruency

2)  Practice leads to retention!   I start every unit by asking my students to complete a vocabulary assignment (I usually give it to them as their assignment to complete after finishing the prior unit assessment).  Each vocabulary assignment includes a few pages where students give the definition, an illustration if necessary and any prior knowledge they might have.  I also include a crossword puzzle and a word search.  The students enjoy usually enjoy doing these assignments since it helps to give them a preview of what the unit will be covering. We refer back to these vocabulary lists as the unit goes on and students refine their definitions as the unit progresses. 

Congruency Vocabulary Activity

Early Concepts Bingo

3)  Play games or do activities!  Whenever possible I do vocabulary activities or play vocabulary games with my students.  I created some cut, paste and match activities for my students that require them to match the term, definition, a diagram and a label.  The students LOVE doing these.  It helps to tie all of the pieces together for them!  Additionally, we play vocabulary bingo games too.  I play one of two ways.  I either give them cards that are the terms or cards that are a diagram of the term.  Depending on what I gave them as a card, I will either read the term, read the definition or a project a diagram of the term.  We also play Kahoot (this does require you to have access to either I-Pads or smartphones and a projector or smart-board with internet access) which is the best online game to play I have seen in many years of teaching. 

4)  Get the students talking about the vocabulary and using it correctly!  I'm pretty sure that at times my students are either rolling their eyes when I'm not looking or thinking I'm slightly strange but I do not let them get away with skipping over the vocabulary during classroom discussions.  I ask them questions like "why can you do that" or "what geometry concept is being illustrated/applied" leading them back to the vocabulary all the time.  "Tell me why" is so commonly said in my classroom that after a couple of weeks I find students saying "wait, let me tell you why" or asking each other why!  I love it when it works!

Whatever works the best for you, embrace it!  The more you can get the students to understand the why, the what and the how behind what they are doing, the better they get at it!  In my opinion, students need to use mathematical vocabulary to truly retain the material.