Algebra 1: Unit 2

Here's your visual tour of my Unit 2.

Unit Overview

This is what the "What I need to remember on my retest" looks like.

Since my district uses common assessments my students are not allowed to take their exams out of the classroom. We use a reflections page similar to this one shown for each unit to write reminders and study notes that students take home with them. 

An updated version of THIS page from last year.

The blank boxes on the right side were for partner practice problems like the ones shown here.

Inside the "How to Calculate and Approximate a Decimal" foldable.

Not-so-fantastic Exponents foldable.

Students worked through the following two pages with teams.

Once they were comfortable with their own rules and generalizations, we wrote the names of the rules on the front of the two folded pages.

And we wrapped up with radicals.

YOUR COPIES:

Unit 2 Overview

Calculating a Decimal foldable

Laws of Exponents investigation

the Simplifying Radicals Maze idea is from here

8th Grade Math: Unit 2

Disclaimer... phone pictures with battery too low for a flash :/ so sorry!! But I can't put off posting these any longer! It's been almost a month that I've benefited from the MTBoS and haven't contributed! :(


Alright, so here's what my Unit 2 includes. This is our table of contents for this unit but it also helps you get a feel for what's ahead.

I'm trying to start every unit with a Unit Overview. This is our overview for Unit 2. I ask the students to revisit the essential questions throughout the unit to monitor their own growth and then formally answer them before our test, kind of like a test review. I hope to continue to get better in this area because it's still not working as well as I envision. Students also complete goals and actions before their unit test. I talk a lot about goals at the beginning of the year because I've found that junior high students don't really know how to set goals. "I want to do well" "I will do well by studying" are typical things I get. I try to teach students how to set measurable goals like "I will answer 3 out 4 questions about perfect squares correctly." And actions such as "I will rework the homework about perfect squares to achieve my goals." Then they can actually assess if they've met their goals. Who knows if they did "well"? What does that even mean? Moving on...

Students are supposed to already know combining like terms and distributive property, but here's my review. Based on awesome ideas: here and here.

Next was the real number system. I used most of this from last year but added a foldable and changed up the right side since it's Math-8 instead of Algebra 1.

Here's the foldable...

And for the right side student's each got a set of 30 cards, cut them apart, and sorted them into rational and irrational. We discussed as a class to make sure everyone had each card appropriately placed and then they taped them all down to the page. The originally sorting idea was inspired by this post. Click on the "rational number" frayer definition to access the sorting activity.

Next was terminating decimals to fractions. I still need to add the second flap for repeating decimals to fractions to this page.

The Irrational Approximations activity came from here.

See what I mean?! I've been living off the MTBoS without contributing. Does this even count as contributing? I'm just showing my combination of all your ideas... oh well!  :)

Next was perfect squares and perfect cubes. We also completed these pages before approximating radicals. We did the real number system, then calculated decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals, then perfect squares and perfect cubes, then back to approximating radicals. I know... crazy and not at all how the pages lay out! By the end, it all came together nicely. :)

Students were just as pumped to have little flash cards in envelopes as these students were last year. Score! And I saw them pulling them out on numerous occasions to study and approximate their radicals with. :) Happy Teacher!!

I printed the cards double sided and the back tells the answer to the root on the front. No chance kiddos are studying the wrong root that way!

Next was solving equations. This was inspired by Sarah's pages over here. Each title on the left flips open to reveal practice problems.

And finally, special case equations. Similar to last year, originally from here.

Alright...there it is! 8th Grade Math, Unit 2.

I'll try to come back soon and upload some documents. I honestly don't have much to upload since my ideas were all pieced together from across the internet. I never like to give freebies on ideas I commandeered (I feel like I pirate when I use that word!) because I don't feel like they're mine to share. Anyway...entire other post there...
We'll see what all I feel like is legitimately "mine" to share.

Happy Sunday! Please leave a comment with a link to how you approach these topics! I'm always looking for new ideas to implement in my classroom. :)

**UPDATE** Files have been enabled again! Enjoy!!

Real Number System & Approximating Radicals

Here is one of the first lessons of the year in our curriculum - the Real Number System! During the 2012-2013 school year, my district opted to teach three years of curriculum in one year (AHHH!!!!) to the Pre-AP Algebra 1 students. Since we were implementing Common Core and wanted to make sure to fill in all the gap items before high school, we taught CCSS 7th Grade, CCSS 8th Grade, and CCSS Algebra 1. With that in mind, most of my lessons covered multiple standards and levels. This is one such lesson...

Students were already somewhat familiar with the idea of rational and irrational numbers. While it had been a year and the concepts were definitely fuzzy, they had a little familiarity with the terms.

This was the first year for most of my students using an interactive notebook and they were concerned about writing too big/spacing/logistics. So cute! I put up the following diagram before we got started and eased some of their worries. They felt more confident knowing the layout of the entire page as we filled in portions.

In the top rectangular section we completed the Real Number System information. We created nesting rectangles to show which groups were subsets of other groups. I really liked the way the layout created a number line! The students seemed to understand this layout very well.

Under that section we discussed how to approximate numbers without using a calculator. Some students panicked, but eventually became confident. Don't get me wrong, this was NOT and overnight transformation! Ha! But with enough encouragement and "put the calculator down!" moments, we all made it through.

That night students completed a few problems in classifying and approximating numbers.

We came back the next day, checked our answers with our cooperative teams, and then did a little Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up Kagan activity. Students all divided the right side of their notebook into quadrants and drew a card with a radical. They worked individually for a few moments to approximate their radical, then they began pairing up. I also had a card and was a member of the activity. I've found that students partner up much more quickly and wander less if there's the impending doom of having to partner with the teacher, especially during the first week of school! Ha! I'm okay with that, whatever it takes.

Once students had found they partner, they each worked to approximate the other's radical. Then they compared their decimals using <,>, or =, added their decimals, and multiplied their decimals. This gave students four different practice opportunities very quickly, as well as the added benefit of meeting their classmates and learning that our classroom is a place of active learning. Success!

What ideas do you have for this topic that I could implement next year? Any tips to make these pages better? I'd love to hear from you!!