I think of myself more as a geometry and trigonometry teacher and less as an Algebra 2 or Statistics teacher. We are on an integrated math system and I teach third and fourth year which amounts to 1/3 geometry, 1/2 algebra 2, 1/4 statistics, and some precalculus for integrated math 3 (which I know is >100%) and integrated math 4 is mostly trigonometry and precalculus with a bit of function modeling and vectors.
But truth be told, I do not like logarithms. I remember hating them in my Algebra 2 class growing up. I knew that I was not doing justice to them as a teacher, so I hit the web looking for a better approach! I have to give all the credit to some great bloggers that I found! Sarah Hagan is amazing: if you are reading this blog, then please check out Sarah's blog it is the best at Math = Love. Thank you to Sarah Hagan I used your log notes with the loop method. So credit for the loop must be given to Amy Gruen with square root of negative one teach math. We also did log "war"! Logarithm war is like the card game war you played as a kid, but this is with evaluating logarithms. There is a link to the cards that I used on the previous blog. I also added cards that had solutions to the logarithms that were fractions or negative numbers. This was awesome. I asked my principal to come in and observe. The students were excited about logarithms. (I wanted to take a mental picture of this!) They were engaged and trying to beat each other as they raced against their partner to answer the logarithm quickly. This activity got in about 80 practice problems per person within the time in class. I don't think an 80 question worksheet would have fared as well. The opportunity for differentiation presented itself easily. I paired some of the lower students with higher students for round one. In round two, I let similarly abled students pair. Some students took longer to get through the 30 cards - this was fine because they were thinking about it and really trying their best. Some higher functioning students were able to quickly process logarithm answers. We stepped it up and played "speed log war." In this version you had to give the response the quickest (and be correct) to get the cards. Excitement and energy were great! I even jumped in for a round. If we had more time, I think we could have designed a basketball type bracket for the logarithm championships.
Even as students come to me in integrated 4, I remind them of the loop method and they immediately remember.
A suggestion to make is that every card was written in the format log_2_8 where a student could give the answer 3. When we worked on practice later, some students struggled with a problem written as x=log_2_8. They were trying to do the loop and the variable was not on the right side. So, next year, I will provide variety in the format of presentation so that the lower students understand (regardless of the format) the "loop" method.
This sounds great. I wish my teacher had used this; I think it would have helped a lot.
ReplyDeleteI try to incorporate games and competition whenever possible. It seems that is a natural part of ours students' lives. I use Kahoot as a competitive game; however, sometimes students give up accuracy in the name of speed. I like that your game requires them to find the correct answer first, then compete with their partner. Another method I have used to increase motivations is to challenge my students to find an innovative way to teach a concept. They have come up with some interesting activities - some worked well, others not at all. Even if the plan does not work well, the students were engaged in the planning and thinking through the idea. I understand that we need direct instruction, but the more we can involves students in exploration, the better.
ReplyDeleteI am a witness! (Stephanie's Principal here) "Log War" was not only a great way for students to get practice, but it also gave them many opportunities to manipulate the logarithms. It was multiple exposure and complex interactions hidden in a game that allowed the kids to have fun learning without realizing how much they were practicing. If there are any science folks out there, I had similar success with "Chemical Rummy" where students combined an anion card, cation card, and two subscript cards to form a compound similar to forming groups of cards in rummy. The score was calculated by figuring out the molar mass of the compound. Of course they didn't know they were figuring out molar mass (they thought they were keeping score)...that came later when we introduced the topic. However, it didn't take long for the students to figure out the more complicated they made the compounds the more points they earned. Games are a great way to help students IF the game is designed to promote student LEARNING through multiple exposure and complex interaction.
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