Term III

Jackie Kim

Math Term III Lesson Plan Core Decisions In my sixth grade class, my classroom mentor typically starts off her math lesson by having students complete a few problems either independently or as a whole group (i.e., using white boards to write their answers and raise them in the air). Afterwards, she sometimes reviews the concept with them, but more often than not, the students usually go on to do more practice problems. Generally speaking, the class can be spilt into three groups: students who quickly finish all the problems and get them correct, students who do not have a strong grasp on the concept but show some understanding, and students who the lack a mathematical foundation or show little to no understanding (this includes ELLs and students with IEPs). The first group will usually finish the work quickly and go on to more challenging independent practice or can play a math review game. The second group will take longer to complete the problems but get them mostly correct, completely the first few questions correctly and then struggle with the harder ones, or do all of the problems incorrectly. The members of the last group with an IEP will usually leave them room to work with a special education teacher, while the rest either work with in a small group with my classroom mentor or struggle the entire period. This approach has raised many questions for me, as we continue to move forward with the curriculum regardless of whether or not the majority of the class has a firm grasp on the topic. My classroom mentor believes that sixth grade is a review of all the content the students learned up to that point, and therefore they have already been taught the material before and should know it1. However, this approach fails to meet the needs of all the groups, as the students who know the material do not benefit from doing more practice problems, and the students who do not know the material will not learn the concepts simply by doing practice problems without more direct instruction or guided practice. For this assignment, I would like to give the students an opportunity to expand their mathematical understanding beyond simply doing practice problems. As we have discussed extensively in our class, getting the right answer does not mean students understands what they are doing or how/why the concepts they are using work. From my observations, it seems that even the students in my class who are getting all the answers correct have a very instrumental understanding of math and have been taught that all that matters is getting the right answer. This idea is reinforced through the constant drilling we do in class, the majority of which entails solving problems that involve procedures without connections. Therefore, for my lesson, I would like to challenge the students to work on a single high-level task that will force them to reflect on the mathematical process rather than completing several practice problems with the emphasis on getting the right answer. While searching for a task for my students to solve, I found the following problem on the Figure This website. Although my class has not discussed rates and functions yet, I thought this problem would be feasible yet challenging for my students to solve, and importantly, representative of a relevant real-world situation:
1

It is not that my classroom mentor is trying to avoid doing extra work or teaching, but she seems to believe that the students who are not getting the problems correct are simply not trying or have been coddled and need to experience what it is like to struggle.

Term III

Jackie Kim

Would you rather work seven days at $20 per day or be paid $2 for the first day and have your salary double every day for a week? I believe the students will be more interested and engaged if they can see how these concepts carry over into their lives. However, after trying to solve the problem myself and come up with multiple strategies, I found that the problem seems to be geared towards solutions involving algorithms more easily than other forms of representations. I decided to edit the problem and rewrote it as follows: Your neighbor asks you to watch his dog for a week while he goes on vacation. He offers you the choice of two different plans to pay you for watching his dog: Plan #1: $20 per day Plan #2: $2 for the first day, with the amount doubling each day after You want to choose the plan under which you will get paid more. How will you make your decision? Which plan would you choose if your neighbor was leaving for five days? What if he was leaving for two weeks? I based my changes on the NT&T and P-Mobile problem of the week we previously completed in class. While the original problem would allow me to simply answer that I would choose the second plan, asking how I will make my decision (or advise my friend, as was the case with the problem of the week) forces me to show how I am justifying my answer. Although my class has not worked on functions or rates, the problem is essentially asking them to identify and compare repeating patterns. This problem may be difficult because it requires the students to compare an arithmetic sequence and geometric sequence, but I believe it is possible to compare the two rates without identifying specific formulas for them. I have decided to allow the students to use calculators as the problem is not testing their arithmetic skills but checking to see if they can understand the different changes in rates for each plan and correctly set up the problem. However, I do anticipate that the students might get confused by the differentiation between the rate of change in the amount earned each day in the second plan versus the cumulative total for each day. In teaching this lesson, I will be focusing on facilitating mathematical discussion in solving the task. Math lessons in my class usually involve independent work, and even when students work in pairs or groups, they have not been taught how to work collaboratively and do not gain the benefits of group work. I have chosen to spend the entire lesson on a single problem to make sure that the group has a chance to discuss their strategies and learn from their classmates. By giving them freedom to solve the problem in any way that makes sense to them, I hope they will draw upon various aspects of their prior knowledge and use different strategies to solve the problem. I believe that this question will force students to reflect on how they will prove their answer and how they can justify their strategy. In addition, I have chosen to have my students first share their strategy with a partner so that they may practice explaining and justifying what they did to solve the problem. Then, I will have them share their strategies with the whole group, which will hopefully expose them to multiple strategies and get them thinking about different ways of reaching the same conclusion. During this group discussion, I will make sure to challenge the students to justify their strategies and introduce alternative methods for solving the problem that may not arise.

Term III

Jackie Kim

Goals/Objectives Students will be able to Identify, interpret and compare an arithmetic sequence and a geometric sequence Identify the relationship between number of days and total pay based on the rates of change for each plan Explain and discuss the mathematical strategies they used with a partner and/or the whole group Standards Recognize, describe, extend, create, replicate, form a rule, and/or find a missing element for a variety of whole number patterns, sequences, and relationships verbally, numerically, symbolically, and graphically (2.8.6.C.) Develop a plan to analyze a problem, identify the information needed to solve the problem, carry out the plan, check whether an answer makes sense, and explain how the problem was solved in grade appropriate contexts (2.5.6.A.) Materials and Preparation Copies of the problem for each student + 2 extra Calculators for each student Have the students bring their own pencils Giant poster sized post-its Different colored markers Classroom Arrangement and Management Issues I am not sure if I will be in the library or at a large table in the hallway for this lesson. However, I will let the students to pick their own seats, as I believe they can handle sitting closely together and choosing their own seats. If there is more than one table, I will have them all at one table initially, let them spread out while working on the problem, and them bring them back together to go over the strategies for solving the problem. Plan 1. I will go over the format of the lesson with the students: independent work, pair share, and group discussion (3 min). a. Only working on a single problem emphasize that the goal is not to find the right answer, but they should focus on their strategies for solving the problem 2. Go over the problem and have them work (17 min) a. Hand out papers with the problem on it and read it out loud b. Tell the group: Think carefully about how the two payment plans are different and how you will choose between them. I want you to justify your choice and explain why it makes sense. After this, you will be sharing your strategy with a partner, and later with the whole group, so be ready to show how you found your answer. You should be able to explain what method you used to youre your decision and why it makes sense.

Term III

Jackie Kim

c. Walk around and look at the strategies the students are using make note of different strategies and answers d. If students finish early, are very confident about their method, and know how to explain it, tell them to try to think of different ways to represent the solution. 3. Have students discuss their strategy and answer with a partner (5 min) a. Tell your partner how you found your answer. Explain what you did and why you did it. If you do not understand what the other person did, ask them questions. After youre done sharing, we will come back together, and I want you to share your strategy with the group b. Walk around and listen to conversations make note of how the students are explaining their strategies 4. Have the students share their strategies (20 min) a. Ask for volunteer to share how s/he solved the problem to start us off have them write on the poster have as many students as I can share i. Encourage the students to ask questions if they do not understand ii. I will ask questions and draw/write on the posters to clarify or explain a point 1. Who else used this strategy? 2. Why did you do that? 3. What does that mean? 4. Does this make sense to everyone? b. Points to bring up i. How are the two plans different? (Asking about the change in rates) ii. Which plan would you choose if your neighbor was leaving for 5 days? (the first plan) iii. Which plan would you choose if your neighbor was leaving for 2 weeks? (the second plan) iv. When is it better to choose the first payment plan? When is it better to choose the second payment plan? 1. The plans increase at different rates the first one increases at a constant rate, the second one increases at an exponential rate v. Can anyone come up with an equation to represent either plan? 1. Plan 1: 20x = T 2. Plan 2: 2x = T 3. x = number of days; T = total pay c. If there is time remaining after everyone has shared his/her strategy have them share alternative strategies they came up with or can think of or introduce other strategies to them i. I will introduce alternative strategies if they arent coming up

Term III

Jackie Kim

Assessment Checklist
Able to use patterns to Demonstrat Can identify Can identify demonstrate es an and and an understandi interpret the interpret the understandi ng of when rate of rate of ng of the it is better to change in an change in a relationship choose one arithmetic geometric between the plan over sequence sequence number of the other days & total pay

Name

Uses an appropriate strategy to answer the questions

Able to explain and justify answers