Place Value and TodaysMeet

Student Journal

Last year I made a place value chart and glued those orange wooden base 10 blocks to the chart to represent ones, tenths, and hundredths.  You know the ones I'm talking about.  If you teach primary, you probably give the tiny cube a value of "one" while in intermediate (or at least in fifth grade) that tiny cube represents "one hundredth".  That can be confusing to some kids.  That's why it is important to stress the value you assign to each block and to model what that looks like.  Anyway, back to the chart . . .

For homework the students watched a  Study Jams Place Value video and my Decimal Place Value video that I posted on Edmodo.  Then in class I had them use decimal grids to create a place value chart in their journals. By doing this the kids could really see that one tenth or .1 was completely different from 10. Next, we made a class chart and went to the thousands place.  It was easy to see that if you start at the decimal and move to the left, then “each place is 10 times bigger”.  Just like the song says.  

Once the chart was finished (it actually took two days to make) we used  TodaysMeet to discuss what we noticed about our place value chart. Using TodaysMeet really makes the students think about their thinking.  Now when we have our WSQ chats one student in the group has an iPad and they post the group's thinking during the chat.  After we finish the WSQ chats,  we meet back together as a whole group and use the transcripts from TodaysMeet to "see" what the smaller groups were thinking. I have the transcript projecting on the white board the entire time. 

Using TodaysMeet is so easy.  Simply go to the website, name your "room" and then start "talking".  You can choose how long you save your group.  I decided to save my group for a year.  Imagine, I will have a transcript of our math thinking for the entire school year!  Each time we log on, we enter the same address and we are reconnected to our ongoing chat.  It really is powerful to see their thinking and hear the conversations that result from reading the posts of others.  I guess you could say we are Rockin' the Standards!

  

 

Hard at Work!



Decimal Addition to 500



It's amazing how hard students will work when a game and a little friendly competition are involved.  

My students practiced adding decimal numbers with a game I found on Math Teaching Resources called Decimal Addition to 500.  This site has several games and hands-on activities all aligned with the Common Core Standards.   

All you needed to play this game was a deck of playing cards.  I added the red counters, so my students could separate the whole number from the decimal.  The students draw 3 cards and make a 3 digit decimal number.  Even numbers are whole numbers and odd numbers are decimals.  They draw 3 more cards and add their two numbers together.  The first player to reach 500 is the winner.  The complete instructions can be found on the web site. 

Hard at Work

 I really like that there are games using Base 10 blocks to really teach the concepts of place value.  We also played Base Ten Decimal Bag Addition and Subtraction.  It was very easy to see why place value is important when you are subtracting decimals (that was our Essential Question). I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I kept getting the wrong answer to a student's problem.  Then it finally dawned on me that I was subtracting .02 on paper when the student had actually pulled out .2 from the bag.  Talk about a teachable moment!

Getting Back on Track

Last week was conference week. The students also had to complete their Benchmark test in math.  The test was spread out over 3 days, so between me trying to make sure I had documentation and observations ready for conferences,  and the students completing their tests and other missing assignments/videos, I wasn't too thrilled with the activities during math class. In my opinion, the level of students engagement was not what it had been in previous weeks. 

With that being said, almost 100% of my parents mentioned how pleased they were with the format of our class.  They seemed to feel that they actually understood what the kids were learning because of the videos.  I did say almost didn't I?  I had one parent express concern because their child was NOT bringing home math worksheets (like their sibling).  I explained the format of my flipped class and the reasons I have decided to organize my class this way. In the end, I did suggest they have their child use IXL for more practice items.  Hopefully, I was able to help them understand my reasons for flipping. Now that I think about it, I can also send them the link to my web page about flipped classrooms.  

I did make a Google form for the students to fill out while watching a video.  I liked having all of their responses on 1 spreadsheet.  While walking to lunch, one of my students mentioned how they liked the Google form better than having to attach a WSQ document and could I do that from now on.  Now I'm wondering did he think it was easier because submitting the google document was easier than uploading the WSQ or was it because he did not have to summarize the video on his own but respond to 3 questions on the document? 

I also made a QR Code sheet for adding and subtracting decimals and I have some different activities planned for partner and group work, so maybe we can get back on track next week.

It's More Than Just the Videos

Watching Videos

I know I keep stressing out about making these videos.  But flipping the class is not just about finding and making videos for your students to watch at night.  How will "flipping my class" be different from what I did last year?  When I think about it, I had some content videos linked on my class website last year, still do. I often reminded my students, "you know, you can watch these at home" or "If you need to review, you can go online during independent reading and watch that video".  The closer we got to our end-of-the-year assessment, I found myself encouraging my students to watch the content videos whenever they had time; especially the students who needed review or who were absent during instruction for whatever reason: illness, small group pull-out, or whatever. 

I am beginning to understand what Brett Wilie meant when he said: "Flipping is not just about the videos"!  I had videos last year. One way my flipped class will be different this year is that I will make some, eventually most, of the videos I post for my students to watch. (See "Why it Has to Be Me").  But I think the biggest difference will be that I will have more in-class time for the students to practice with supervision, to put what they are learning into action through games, projects, solving problems, etc. and I will have more time to work with individual students and small groups. Not a bad trade-off, wouldn't you say?

"Order Up" Game Board

 
"Order Up"

Each student wrote a 3 digit decimal number between 2 and 3 on an index card.  Their cards are then placed in random order on the side of a strip of adding machine tape. Their task was to arrange the cards in order from least to greeted by moving only 1 card at a time.  They can only move 1 card to the empty space on the board (see the smiley sticker). They could not talk while playing the game. Can you see the student covering their mouth to keep from talking in the picture? Too cute!