MPM1D1 - Day 87 Last Day of Classes

Today was the last day of the semester. We started the period by going over a couple of questions that much of the class struggled with then they were able to work independently or in small groups to go over what they thought they should study.

A number of students had clearly used the last couple of days off effectively and had some very specific questions to ask. A number of students had a hard time focusing and didn't use the period effectively. I think coming back after an unexpected two day holiday was part of the problem, but perhaps I need think about making some of the review time more structured.

I gave students their marks going into the exam and they had lots of questions about the logistics of the next week or so, this being their first time through the exam process.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the class does on the exam.

MPM1D1 - Day 86 More Cancelled Buses

Today was pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday.

The buses were cancelled so I sent out an email reminding students that they should be studying for their exams and that they could email me if they had any questions.

I did have one student show up for class (a different students from yesterday). He worked away on some review and asked some questions when he was stuck. It was really easy to help him since he chose to work at the whiteboard. It made it easy for me to keep track of where he was as he went along.

It will be great to see the class again tomorrow.

MPM1D1 - Day 86 Cancelled Buses

The buses were cancelled today due to the potential of freezing rain. I emailed students in the class to let them know that they should use their time wisely today and that they should be studying for their exams. I let them know that they should email me if they had any questions.

I did have a couple of students stop in for some extra help. It was great to be able to work one on one with these students. I didn't hear from anyone over email. Although I hope it's because they all know exactly what's going on, I'm very aware that many of them likely didn't check their email.

MPM1D1 - Day 85 Exam Review

The first thing students wanted to do today was to discuss some of the problems that they saw on the EQAO test yesterday and the day before. We walked through a couple of the questions that they struggled with. Then they had a bunch of questions about the exam: what it would look like, how it would be different from the test they had just written, how long would it be, etc.

I had shared a list of topics we've covered this semester and reminded them to use if they needed help figuring out what to study. I let them choose whether to work independently or within a small group. Most choose to work with a partner. Some worked on reviewing old tests, others discussed questions from the EQAO test and still others worked on practice exams found online (most settled on this one).

With about 20 minutes to go our peer tutor took over and had students reviewing some terminology. She created a crossword puzzle for them with a ton of terms. She did a great job. It was a good way for them to be reminded about some of the terms they may have forgotten about.

I reminded students that they should be spending some time studying over the weekend. It's hard to believe that the semester is just about over.

MPM1D1 - Day 83 & 84 Standardized Test Days

Students wrote their standardized test today and will do the second part tomorrow. Some were nervous about writing. I told them not to be nervous and to just do their best (I know this is easier said than done). I'm very excited that they get the chance to show me what they've learned over the semester.

MPM1D1 - Day 82 Final Day of EQAO Practice

Today is the final day before we write the EQAO test.

We started with this warm-up at the boards in groups since a number of students said they were having a tough time with geometry.

There was some discussion about what the sum of the interior angles of different figures should add to. Once that was sorted out most groups proceeded fairly quickly.

After the warm-up was done students could work on what they thought they needed to work on. Some worked in pairs, others put their headphones on and worked individually. There was a huge variety in the work that was happening. The vast majority of the class was really productive. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do tomorrow and Thursday.

MPM1D1 - Day 81 Multiple Choice Practice

 I was pleasantly surprised today to see that a number of students had attempted some of the practice multiple choice question that I had sent to them on Friday.

I had them start in groups working at the board on a few multi-step multiple choice questions. Here they are: 

 

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The reason for starting with these questions was to get students to realize that just because it's a multiple choice question doesn't mean that it's easy. I wanted them to see that there could still be multiple steps involved.

Once they were finished the warm-up questions they could choose to work on the Opens Response questions from the other day or to practice the multiple choice quizzes in D2L. Most students chose to complete the online quizzes but a few worked on the open response questions. I think my favourite part about this time of year is watching students help each gain a better understanding of the content. There seems to be so much transferring of knowledge. It's exciting to watch.

MPM1D1 - Day 80 EQAO Multiple Choice Questions

The buses were cancelled today. The plan had been to work through some of the EQAO practice multiple choice questions. From the bank of released questions over the past few years, I created a question library in D2L. From there I created a quiz that randomly selects questions from each of the strands. Students can do the quiz, see how they did and repeat. Every time they do the quiz they get a different set of questions.

I fired off an email to all students first thing in the morning showing how they could access the quiz along with a video showing how to do it. Unfortunately, not many of them took the opportunity to try, but hopefully more will over the weekend.

Here's a link to the file containing the quiz if you'd like to import it into D2L. I'm hoping to add more questions as I have time.  Below is a video showing how import the quiz.

MPM1D1 - Day 79 Open Response Questions

Our class writes the provincial assessment (EQAO) next Wednesday and Thursday. So the next few days will be spent practicing and preparing for the test. I always struggle with how to structure these days. On the one hand I want students to be able to focus on what they think they need work on, but on the other hand some students can't seem to handle the independence. I also want them to be able to work with the person(s) that they feel they work with best. The downside is that there may be a disconnect between someone a student chooses to work with and the person they work best with.

In any case we started today all working on the same open response question (perhaps from last year's test?). It's one that was not that different from one of yesterday's test questions.

I gave everyone enough time to finish the question and then we wrote up a complete and well communicated solution so that students had an exemplar of what would was expected for these types of questions.

Once we were done I gave them access to this document with another twenty four open response type questions. As might be expected, some students worked very effectively, while others could have made better use of their time.

More practice tomorrow.

MPM1D1 - Day 78 Cycle 4 Test

We finally had the chance to write our last test. I feel like it would have gone better had we done it before the holidays. I guess we'll see how it goes.

A number of students came into class with some good questions about problems they worked on from the review. A couple of students asked questions that made me a little nervous.

MPM1D1 - Day 77 Test Review

I changed my mind about how we were going to review today about thirty minutes before class started. I threw together some questions that would be representative of the questions on tomorrow's test. I had students work in groups on the board on these questions. I decided not to do a warm-up today so they could have lots of time to work on the questions.

There were some great discussions and arguments about how to do certain questions. There was also lots of peer teaching/coaching, which was great to see.

An entire period to be focused was tough. Some groups started to loose their focus with fifteen minutes to go.

Here are the questions they worked on.

MPM1D1 - Day 76 EQAO Practice & Review

I struggled a little with what to do on the first day back after the holidays. We were supposed to write a test the day before the holidays but the buses were cancelled. Writing the test on the first day back after two weeks off would be a bad idea. I wanted students to review but I figured if I let them study on their own that the period might not be that productive.

As much as I wanted to get started right away a number of students had lots of questions. Questions about when our test would be, the details about the EQAO test as well as questions about the exam. I spent way too long talking about what the next couple of weeks look like and then we got to work.

The warm-up, at the boards in groups, was this visual pattern:

I asked them to find an equation for the volume of the n^th term. Once they had finished that they were to do the same but for the surface area. I was very pleased at how quickly the groups got to work and how well they were able to get a solution and explain it. It seems that they haven't forgotten much over the holidays.

After the warm-up they worked on the multiple-choice questions from last year's EQAO test (in groups at the board). This provided a good overview of much of the content that will appear on their final test of the year. There were some great discussions. It's nice to see them pull the course content together like this.

Most groups only made it about halfway through these questions so we'll finish them up tomorrow.