Miss M's Learning Space

MsJordanReads (ND). Roll-A-Story [Online Resource]. Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/206TZAA This unit is based on the activity I found on Classroom Freebies Too which led me to Teachers Pay Teachers . The activity is called 'Roll-A-Story' and it's an excellent starting point to create a series of lessons that will help students develop their writing skills. Depending on how the activity is framed it can be useful for many grade levels. The resource itself is recommended for grade 1-4, but in this post I'm going to be going over a way it can be used in grade 7, or late grade 6. To the right is the actual Roll-a-Story handout; students roll a dice 3 times in order to get a random character, setting, and problem. This puts advanced students in a position where they must think creatively in order to combine those three elements logically. My suggestion, is to use this resource as a starting point to help students come up with an idea before spending at least a coupl

I never understood the connection between patterning and algebra until this past lesson; we seek out patterns, and then algebra is how we communicate patterns to each other. We start in elementary school by describing and representing patterns, then in middle school we model and predict patterns (through algebra), and then in high school we solve and analyze those patterns.  Since I'm observing a grade 7 class right now, I'm going to focus on strategies at the grade 7 level. In grade 7 students move beyond extending a pattern to the next three items, and start being able to calculate patterns at any point, and students begin to see patterns as relationships. For example, if a car is moving at 50km/h consistently for 3.5 hours, how far will they have travelled? If we chart it on a 'T' chart we can see the patterns:  MacCuish (2015).  Based on the above diagram, students can easily see that as time increases by 30 minutes (0.5 hours) then the distance tra

I found an excellent resource on EduGAINS called Critical Literacy: Is Reading Dangerous?  It goes through a sample lesson for teaching critical literacy of a poem, but I'm going to outline how it could be applied to the reading of persuasive articles.  The idea of the lesson plan is to discuss how reading could be ‘dangerous’ and includes strategies for differentiated instruction, small group and large group activities, a rubric, and curriculum connections. Activity Outline The majority of the lesson plan would apply directly to the critical literacy of a persuasive article with a few minor exceptions. For example, the lesson plan begins with critical learning, and curriculum expectations (see below) which would remain as they are for a persuasive article.  Literacy Gains: Transforming Instructional Practice Supports – Grade 7 language (N.D.) Retrieved from: http://bit.ly/1LSvhua Minds On Literacy Gains: Transforming Instructional Practice Supports – Grade 7 langu

The math picture problem is a little more on the advanced side and would definitely be an application question. I developed a 'lead up' worksheet here which students can work through to get their heads wrapped around thinking about a clock in different ways. It could also work as a minds on activity for classes that are more advanced. It relies heavily on the way of thinking I described in my post Weekly Report and Reflection Blog Week 4 .  MacCuish (2015).  When I asked family member's to solve this question they came up with two different ways of solving it. The first is if you forget about the clock and think about it like a circle. The time past since 6 is 3/4 of one circle (i.e. the clock face). So, if that area is 1/4 of the 'whole' than the 'whole' would be 3 clock faces/circles. The second way to think about it is like time. So the time past since 6 is 45 minutes. If 45 minutes is 1/4 than the 'whole' would be 180 minutes

This week we talked about proportional relationships; specifically ratios and rates. Rates and ratios are concepts that are introduced initially in grade 4, but are developed later on in grade 7. There are several different types of rates and ratios (rates, part-part ratios, part-whole ratios, equivalent ratios, etc), and I'm not going to go through them all. Instead I'd like to focus first on some engaging ratio problems, and a potential strategy for teaching them. The engaging math word problem is as follows: Based on the diagram below, which of the lots is fuller? MacCuish (2015). Parking lot ratio question.  The above question is based on one I found at EDUGains in one of their ' Big Ideas ' resources (page 3).  If the question is written out it is as follows: in parking lot A there are 24 of 40 spots filled. In Lot B there are 56 of 80 spots filled. Which parking lot is fuller? Students may get caught up with the 'absolute' numbers and think

At first, when I started going through the copyright guidelines I was even more confused since I've only ever considered copyright from a student perspective. However, after sifting through I was able to realize that most information is suitable for teachers to use as long as it's correctly cited. The  Copyright Matters  (Noel & Snel, 2012) information booklet is an especially good resource since it outlines the works cited procedure for any type of copyrighted work you could need. I think that would be a go-to resource whenever there's any question about how to handle a copyrighted material. I also learned more about the legalities of copyright (specifically, the fair dealing guidelines). Previously I'd only ever been taught the procedure for works cited. I think it would be most important to teach students the  why  of copyright, rather than just the technical  how  to correctly cite work. That way they have an understanding that citing work is not simply an arb

This week we continued with our number sense and numeration discussions but focused on operations involving integers (specifically: addition/subtraction and multiplication/division which leads into discussions around BEDMAS and perfect squares/square roots). In terms of building up to discussions around perfect squares/square roots it's important to lay a solid foundation. The diagram below demonstrates what an integer is , and it's important to spend time with moving around the number line (i.e. adding/subtracting both positive/negative integers). Below, there is an image of a number line; all whole numbers (both positive and negative) are integers. Begin by adding/subtracting whole numbers along the number line. For example, -3 + 2 = -1. NCS Pearson (2015). Integers [Online Image]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1LfGsfj.  Once students have a good understanding of what integers are and how to work with them, you can move on to multiplication/division (again using the nu

This week we continued to explore several strategies outlined in our textbook  Making Math Meaningful  (Small, 2012). Specifically, strategies regarding operations with decimals and fractions, and understanding the relationship between the two.  It's easier, in my opinion, to start with fractions. There are several strategies for operations (multiplication, division, addition, subtraction) involving fractions that were presented in class. In terms, again, of classroom application I would begin with addition/subtraction since that would help develop an understanding of what fractions are before continuing onto multiplication/division. The most effective way, I thought, of explaining addition/subtraction of fractions was the visual representation we explored. It compares the fractions to a whole so students can estimate whether the result will be less than or greater than one. Using lego or strips of paper (which is what we did) you can add fractions with different denominators

The following is an idea adapted from several resources around the web. The first is   Media-Visual Literacy and Presidential Politics   by Frank Baker  from Middle Web on using campaign images as a way of studying images (a component of media literacy), and the second is this article from the Ontario government about incorporating writing with filming skits. The Ontario government article is very general, and the article from MiddleWeb is the basis for the content in the activity listed below. Both are excellent resources and would provide a new and exciting approach to language arts; particularly for writing. The following idea is intended to be a multi-lesson series since the activities will take time (in particular the filming portion). Part 1: Media Studies Media-Visual Literacy and Presidential Politics  is  written for American students so it would require some adaptations, but I think the idea is still very much applicable to Canadian politics as well. National Post