Week 6

The picture here shows one of the math assignments I do with my students twice a week.  The school doesn't have the money to buy these books over every year so we only have one.  I use the elmo (projector) and a piece of line paper to do this with the students. My students have a line paper booklet that they write in.  They never write the whole problems down they normally write down the answer and the unit.  For numbers 1 and 2 they would write out the whole problem and the answer.  For number 3, 6, 7, 8-10 they would write down the answer.  For number 5 they would write down the inequality, and number for they would write down 780, 781,782.  I have found it very hard to make sure all students are on the same page and understanding the material.  These math minutes are not meant to teach the students something new every question, rather they are meant for practice.  I have a hard time deciding if I would ever use these in my classroom.  I think number 6 is a valid question, and could be considered on the way to being a high level task.  The other questions are not very meaningful.  Number 10 could be made meaningful buy adding a story problem to it, for example: lunch is at 12:00 and school gets out 3 hours after lunch.  What time does school get out? This is a question kids ask all the time so why not make them figure it out in a meaningful way.  I have a hard time anticipating all students responses when I do this task.  I work with my students a lot on math, but when it comes to math minutes they all seem to be a little lost.  I think they know that their teacher and I are going to lead the problems so they don't have to think or work hard.