tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post7430769532948032512..comments2024-02-16T23:32:12.073-08:00Comments on The Exponential Curve: The Exponential Curve, Phase IIDan Wekselgreenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08696028020767073620noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-87186376430792178392013-10-03T17:01:23.487-07:002013-10-03T17:01:23.487-07:00Just wanted to say Welcome back. Good to read you ...Just wanted to say Welcome back. Good to read you again. You were the first MTBoS guru I found and have revisited every since.<br /><br />Have a great year! <br /><br />AmyAmy zimmerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09960137549431994944noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-42469965867493091842013-09-28T12:55:18.787-07:002013-09-28T12:55:18.787-07:00Oh and I think I should clarify that I never expec...Oh and I think I should clarify that I never expected kids to learn a new topic on their own, but I don't waste class time reviewing all the pre-requisite skills they should know already. All of those I just go over quickly in class and then assign as homework for them to catch up on on their own time. If they need extra help with factoring, for example, then they need to be looking up resources online or seeing me after class, because we don't have time to re-teach it during class.untilnextstophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15285583728476473117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-29296672459282069282013-09-28T12:52:38.231-07:002013-09-28T12:52:38.231-07:00oh and I always remind them to check their answers...oh and I always remind them to check their answers with a calculator. So for example, they should know how to check that their formulas are factored correctly, or that their vertex formula is still the same as the original formula. Or if they are finding the integral by hand, require them to also find it by calculator. If you build this into every quiz, they'll get used to using the calculator maximally, especially if you emphasize the same in those practice quiz rounds. untilnextstophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15285583728476473117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-10062700042136415862013-09-28T12:49:28.753-07:002013-09-28T12:49:28.753-07:00Something that worked very well for me to was to h...Something that worked very well for me to was to have spiraling quizzes right from the start. This way, I am not making assumptions about what they can do on their own outside of class. One of the things I quizzed kids early on in Grade 11, for example, is to turn any standard-form quadratic equation into both vertex and factored forms, and then to graph info from ALL 3 forms on one graph. We'd start each class doing 1 such practice problem, or I'd assign 1 problem as homework to review at the start of next class, and after doing this a few days in a row, they'd say they're ready for a quiz on this skill, and we'd take a quiz. <br /><br />So, instead of re-teaching everything, just highlight what you think is MOST important and do that repetitively for a few class-openers and then hold them accountable to it. Over time, the quizzes should incorporate multiple topics to deepen their understanding of connections. For example, by 2nd year of SL IB, they should be able to find a wave equation given a graph, then graph a quadratic on top of it, then find area between the curves.untilnextstophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15285583728476473117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-62040498096401029612013-09-28T12:09:28.243-07:002013-09-28T12:09:28.243-07:00Thanks for taking the time to write! I know exact...Thanks for taking the time to write! I know exactly what you mean about the stress level of the students. I taught IB Math Studies for the last two years. They were great students who were loaded down with IB classes, and very often Math Studies took a back seat to whatever major assessment they were working on. And it's understandable, because the students who chose Math Studies instead of Math SL are typically either weaker in or less interested in math, or both. They take it so they can have a 4th year of math, or if they need it for diploma. So I tried to be pretty flexible with them, as they were often coming in after staying up all night, bleary-eyed, sometimes crying. <br /><br />Right now, at the beginning of year one of SL, everything is fine, but I can just imagine what it is going to be like for them next year.<br /><br />I agree with you about the calculator skills. That is something I will definitely focus on this year. I'm also going to incorporate using desmos, because I think it is much easier to use, see, and understand what is going on. Too bad they can't use it during exams! But I think that the specific TI skills are easier to teach than the actual concepts of graphical analysis. We've got a copy of the test bank CD, although it's hard to find questions this early on that cover only the skills they already know. Right now, I find I still have to modify them to an extent, but I really like using them. It does give them practice with the IB testing vocabulary. So far, we've done a lot of work with "show that", and how you can't use what you're trying to show as part of your explanation.<br /><br />Do you have suggestions for what concepts students are able to successfully learn on their own outside of class? I often misjudge, and something I think should be easy for them turns out to be very difficult... and vice versa.Dan Wekselgreenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08696028020767073620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-1116049584580457192013-09-22T14:45:49.748-07:002013-09-22T14:45:49.748-07:00Yes....
One of the things that really threw me o...Yes.... <br /><br />One of the things that really threw me off about that IB SL curriculum is how fast-paced it needs to be in order for you to cover everything. Realistically, you have only 1.5 years to teach all 6 math topics, because during the last half year of the IB program, your students are going to be SO stressed out from all their other classes' due dates for big projects and papers that even the best students will be in melt-down mode and unable to absorb new material effectively. At that point (starting around early February 2015), hopefully you've already finished teaching all the topics and you're just reviewing and helping them with review strategies. <br /><br />Also, calculator use cannot be over-emphasized. On the IB exams, the calculator section can be way trickier than the other section in terms of complexity and content, which means that your students must have the instinct to go to the calculator whenever it is available, to help get through parts of a problem. You should always teach/practice calculator skills prior to introducing the manual calculation component, else the kids will not develop that instinct to rely on the calculator. They must learn to approach the two exams (calculator vs. manual) with entirely different mindsets.<br /><br />Also, all of your assessments from the start should be using old IB problems as much as possible, because the IBO tries to make the language in the questions as mathy as possible, which means that the kids will need significant ramp-up time to learn to read and decipher those problems comfortably. You can buy an IB Questions Bank CD from IBO to help with planning those assessments. <br /><br />Another thing that I recommend definitely is talking to your kids early on about the three elements of successful test prep: <br /><br />1. Reading questions and understanding what's being asked.<br /><br />2. Connecting questions to key concepts (I teach my kids to create flash cards for this to help reinforce those connections)<br /><br />3. Basic skills for executing the solution (of which there are many, and you shouldn't hope to review all of them during class... some of this will have to be done at home)<br /><br />If you keep in mind that the IB is taught worldwide, it touches upon the cultural differences to education: American kids are used to their teachers reviewing all necessary skills during class. European and Asian kids do the bulk of their learning independently at home (and class time is diminished during high school compared to before), so your kids will HAVE to be more responsible than the average American student in order to excel on this test, because the sheer coverage is not possible to do entirely in class including review of basic skills.<br /><br />In terms of pacing, I recommend that you get through all of Algebra, Functions, Trig, and differential Calculus by the end of the first year, as well as finishing the internal assessment project before the summer. This leaves you with a few months to do integral Calculus, Prob/Stats, and Vectors in the second year. Leave Vectors till last because that's one of the more straight-forward topics as your students are starting to lose their minds over stress from all classes...<br /><br />I wish I could say that the IB is a good curriculum. It has some advantages in integrating math topics, but the amount of stress really takes its toll on students and teachers, and so you have to approach it with that long-term goal in mind. Good luck! untilnextstophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15285583728476473117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-83237151534153124042013-09-21T16:53:19.225-07:002013-09-21T16:53:19.225-07:00Thanks all for the encouraging words. I do hope to...Thanks all for the encouraging words. I do hope to keep posting, and I think I can make it happen!<br /><br />Untilnextstop, I'm sure I will have questions about SL. Do you have any suggestions or things I should be thinking about from the beginning?Dan Wekselgreenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08696028020767073620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-79386909441120012042013-09-21T12:06:31.272-07:002013-09-21T12:06:31.272-07:00Wow! Welcome back!! And let me know if you have qu...Wow! Welcome back!! And let me know if you have questions about IB SL at any point. I look forward to reading about your many ideas!untilnextstophttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15285583728476473117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-29756285444309653502013-09-17T07:12:19.992-07:002013-09-17T07:12:19.992-07:00Welcome back. I just found your blog this summer, ...Welcome back. I just found your blog this summer, and have linked to several of the resources here. I love this 21 game and the way you describe it. I'm hoping you manage to keep updating it with the things you are doing this year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-50559314075966996962013-09-15T08:29:48.751-07:002013-09-15T08:29:48.751-07:00Dan,
It's great to see your post! We began Alg...Dan,<br />It's great to see your post! We began Algebra 1 this year with the FAL Laws of Arithmetic. It took us about 4 days and was a great way to start the year. I'm somewhat procedural myself, so it really helps us all to work with visual representations of math.<br /><br />I look forward to hearing more from you.<br />(Gill Sans is my font, too.)<br /><br />KarynAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-78684534582451688212013-09-15T01:19:47.547-07:002013-09-15T01:19:47.547-07:00I enjoyed that FAL. However, it wasn't nearly ...I enjoyed that FAL. However, it wasn't nearly enough for my students to master integer addition and subtraction. They have so many misremembered rules from middle school clogging their heads and they same-change-change everything. I made additional practice problems, and when I forced them to draw a diagram, they could almost always get the right answer. But when I don't explicitly tell them to do so, they fall back on old habits and start getting the operations mixed up again. I am going to have to continue practicing integer operations all year, I think. But they will get it at some point! Please let me know how it goes in your class. Dan Wekselgreenehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08696028020767073620noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30226356.post-24177466532038297362013-09-14T23:05:22.141-07:002013-09-14T23:05:22.141-07:00Welcome Back! We are doing "Positive and Neg...Welcome Back! We are doing "Positive and Negative Integers in Context" on Monday. I am hoping to keep it to 1 1/2 class periods, but it never works out that way.<br /><br />Sorry if I have sent this numerous times, I don't know if it is working!Kristinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12184593237468282811noreply@blogger.com