See my Do Now in my Strategy folder that explains my beginning of class routines.
Often, I create do nows that have problems that connect to the task that students will be working on that day. Today I want students to work on two standardized test questions. Some students may be confused by problem 1 since it uses a shape instead of a variable. A common mistake is for students to substitute 5 in for the triangle and simplify the expression 24 + 45, rather than 24 + 4(5). A common mistake for problem two is for students to pick c. This equation works when g=4 and p=2, but it does not work for the rest of the values on the graph. I encourage students to create a table of the values to help them see the relationship between the variables.
I call on students to share out their answers. I present the incorrect answers I mentioned above. I want students to be able to explain what I specifically did incorrectly and how to fix it. Students are engaging in MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Notes:
There are many ways to do stations. Today I Create Homogeneous Groups. I identify which stations groups need to focus on first. I set out the copies of the stations throughout the room. I Post a Key for each station somewhere in the classroom. I review expectations for the day.
Students are engaging in MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, MP2: Reason abstractly and quantitatively, and MP6: Attend to precision. Groups can move at their own pace, each time they complete a station, they check in with me. I quickly scan the work. If they are on track, I send them to check their answers at the key. If I see repeated mistakes I circle the problems and have them return to work on them. Once they have successfully completed a station, they check it off on their To Do List and move on to another station. I take note of problems that I see many students struggling with so that I can reference these questions during the closure.
At the end of the work time, I hand around several staplers for students to staple their completed station worksheets together.
For Closure I have students share their ideas about problems that I noticed were difficult for many students. I read the question. Students participate in a Think Pair Share. I call on students to come up and share their ideas and show their work underneath the document camera. Then I call on students to share comments or questions about each student’s work. We go over as many questions as we can during the ten minutes. Students are engaging in MP3: Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
Students pass in their completed station work. For Homework, I tell students that they need to complete the stations that they did not finish. If some students have not completed a large amount, I will give them an extra day or two to complete the work.