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.
Today's warm-up was a little different. We started by looking at a problem with a fully worked solution. The solution contained errors (it was a level 2 exemplar) and students had to identify the errors then present a complete (level 4) solution.
I gave out a page with two problems along with the level 2 solutions.
The first problem served the purpose of practicing some of the algebra skills that we worked on earlier in the week, that need more work.
I had students work in groups of three up at the board to figure out what happened in the solution. This was difficult for some students. They just wanted to solve the problem their way, which was different from the solution. Once groups figured out the approach used in the problem they were able to determine where the errors were and correct them. There were some good discussions about how to fix those errors. I think students were able to solidify their understanding of the distributive property and collecting like terms.
As a result of this activity my class has now constructed an exemplar for solving these open response type questions. I'm hopeful that next time we solve a problem like this, we will be able to co-construct the success criteria for solving problems like this.
All groups completed the first problem, many were working on the second problem and one group finished both.
We then moved onto this activity (thanks @davidpetro314)to investigate parallel lines, transversals and angle theorems. This was review for most students and most of them seemed to remember doing it in grade 8. Once they were finished with the activity I had them create their own note for their notebooks to remind them of the theorems. Some of the notes were excellent, others were not, but who am I to say what type of note would be useful for all students. I then gave them some questions to practice.
I started by having groups up at the board working on this Would You Rather problem.
This was the first time we've worked at the board in a little while. There were a number of people who were quite off task. Others got to work right away but the group dynamics were not what they should have been. Once they were done the activity I sent them back to their seats and we talked about contributing effectively to a group and how it benefits everyone in the group.
The main event for today was some geometry, specifically interior and exterior angles of polygons. I put the image below up on the board and asked students to work at the whiteboards to see how they would do without any instruction.
The group work was much better this time around and all groups were able to answer all of the questions. A few groups needed some reminders about supplementary angles and a couple asked about opposite angles. They were doing great.
I brought them back together as a group and we summarized the different types of triangles, supplementary angles, opposite angles and began exploring the sum of interior angles. Everyone knew that the interior angles in a triangle sum to 180° so we began looking at other polygons. We did this by looking at the number of triangles in each polygon:
From this they were able to determine the sum of the interior angles. Next I had them fill out the table below to come up with an equation.
We've done enough visual patterns that to many this process came easily. They had no trouble finding the rate but had to think a bit about the initial value. I had a couple of different results which was neat. The most common was that the sum of the interior angles = 180n-360 and the other was that the sum of the interior angles = 180(n - 2). It was exciting to see these different results.
We had just enough time to look at exterior angles. To do so I showed this video:
We had a few minutes left which was enough time for me to handout the work for the day.
