It's Friday night, and what better way to spend it than read through nrich and ncetm resources? (I don't know whether to take a lengthy think about my life or just be happy that I love my work).
Anyways, I found a few ideas that I've been meaning to try out in my teaching but haven't gotten around to just yet. With a trig unit coming up, and the ncetm resources being so very well-written and inspiring, I decided to jump in and design my own resource based on two (for me) novel ideas.
1. Always, never, sometimes true classifications: Supposedly great for promoting conceptual understanding and constructive discussion.
2. Matching activity: I like this one because it can so easily be differentiated by creating more options and/or leaving blanks.
Here is the actual file, which will probably be changed a bit before use in class on Monday.
Matching Basic Trig
(I do not know why Scribd likes to minimize letters and rotate pictures. The original document looks neater.)
Something I'm not very happy about is the increase in paper copies these kinds of activities seem to require. I'll probably project the classification task on the board instead, and am grateful for any other suggestions.
I have used the always/sometimes/never true approach to a few things when I taught in middle school. It definitely gets students talking about conceptual mathematical ideas. My only words of warning about it is that (depending on the questions you ask) you can find yourself spending an entire period discussing the truth value of a single point, and spend days talking about all of them.
ReplyDeleteAh, good point, especially since I often am too optimistic about time anyways. Do you have any good ideas for wrapping up an activity such as that?
ReplyDelete