Well disappointing to say the least on the results from the Chapter 7 exam. The multiple choice questions were terrible, and that really concerns me since the final exam is all multiple choice.
We just had a rep from the Princeton Review about strategies to perform better on the Math portion of ACT, and her ideas can help out in my Geo classes. I think I will start doing multiple choice questions in class to help teach these strategies. My colleague, Becky, had a great idea to use questions from previous exams so that it becomes a review as well as practice with multiple choice strategies.
Chapter 10 is next and I am concerned about it. We venture into lateral and surface area of polyhedra, which uses all these area calculations we just failed miserably on. I am trying something new though, making them "un-fold" the solid into nets so they can see the polygons that make up the solid. After doing a few, we saw how there is a perimeter calculation inside the lateral area calculation, and so I generalized these into formulas that our textbook uses. So far, two good days of class, but we shall see.
Thanks for listening, more later.
Meeks
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Friday, November 16, 2012
New Thoughts & Chapter 7 Exam
Last week I attended a meeting on the new Common Core standards and implementation into our school district. Lots of work to do, but exciting time I believe for mathematics in general.
Chapter 7 exam coming up next Monday and Tuesday. Hard stuff, area of shapes, special right triangles, arcs of circles, areas of sectors and segments. I am not sure how my students will do. Each year I go through this, is seems to get harder and harder to teach. Now the new CC standards are pushing a lot of this material into the 7th and 8th grades. I am glad, but wonder how hard it may be there.
I do think that students caught on to special triangles this year, better than years past. Maybe I finally did a decent job of teaching that. The last two days have been awesome review, students really helping each other and asking great questions. Make me nervous for exam day, but maybe they will rise to the occasion.
Chapter 7 exam coming up next Monday and Tuesday. Hard stuff, area of shapes, special right triangles, arcs of circles, areas of sectors and segments. I am not sure how my students will do. Each year I go through this, is seems to get harder and harder to teach. Now the new CC standards are pushing a lot of this material into the 7th and 8th grades. I am glad, but wonder how hard it may be there.
I do think that students caught on to special triangles this year, better than years past. Maybe I finally did a decent job of teaching that. The last two days have been awesome review, students really helping each other and asking great questions. Make me nervous for exam day, but maybe they will rise to the occasion.
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