Salute!!

Welcome Back Guys...
This year my focus has been to constantly engage my students in mathematics in activities outside of the curriculum. Within my research I came across a activity for students to practice while learning their multiplication facts. The name of this activity is SALUTE.

How to Play:

1. Use a set of large playing cards or create a set on large index cards. For this activity, Aces= 1, Jacks = 10, Queens = 11, and Kings = 12. The joker can be removed from the set or you can make them another one of the numbers. (Be sure to write the value of the face cards on the board for the students to see or take the face cards out of the deck if your students are not able to recall the values.)
2. Call two students up to the front of the room. Hand each student a playing card.
3. Ask the students to hold the card face down in front of them. Students should not look at the card.
4. The students then stand next to each other at the front of the room.
5. On the teacher's cue, the students hold the card up to their foreheads with the front of the card facing the teacher and the audience.
6. The teacher looks at the students' cards and tells them the product of their numbers
7. When the teachers say, "SALUTE!," both players face each other, look at the other person's card, and try to guess the number that is on the front of their card
8. The first player to guess their number correctly is the winner of the round. 

Variations: 

• Use addition for younger students
• Try using three cards/ digits for a multiplication or addition challenge
• Create integer problems with negative numbers being represented by the red cards and positive numbers being represented by the black cards

Reflection: It is all about engagement. My ultimate goal is always for students to have fun learning. I never want the learning process to become so routine that it bores both me as the teacher and my students as the learners. My goal as a educator will always be to research best practices for student learning. Activities like this will always give students a opportunity to have fun while learning. I personally would use this activity as a center activity and or a fluency activity before my problem of the day. I would use it as away to get the students engaged in what ever strategy I am teaching that day. It is my personal goal to make math fun for all students I come across. 

Four Corners: Who's Correct

For this weeks post I wanted to post something that could be used as an informal assessment. Through my research I came a cross a book called A to Z engaging math activities. The author of this book is The Routty Math Teacher. Many of her resources are on Teachers pay Teachers and Pinterest. The specific activity I wanted to highlight is Four Corners: Who's correct?

How it works:

1. Choose a problem centered around skill on which you are currently working
2. Show four different solutions to the problem, each labeled with a fictitious student's name, one for each corner of the room
3. Ask students to complete the problem individually\
4. Once all students have completed the problem, have them go to the corner of the room for the student whose response they believe to be correct and most closely matches he solution they believe to be correct and most closely matched the solution the have
5. After all of the students are in place, in turn, ask each corner to justify why their fictitious student's response is correct

As students listen to the justifications, they should be able to determine the correct response, if not, have the groups discuss why they believe the other responses to be incorrect until a class consensus can be reached. 

Example: 

Three students are working on this problem after school at the YMCA:

6+3[(4+5)-1]+(12/2)

Each student recorded a different answer for the first step. Who is correct?

Marco: 9 [(4+5)-1]+(12/6)

Domonique: 6+3 [(4+5)-1]+(2)

Alex: 6+3[9-1]+(12/6)

Sharon: 6+[(12+5)-1]+(12/6)

Reflection:

This would be an activity I would use for one of my small groups. It would be fun the hear the students attempt to justify there answers and reasons. I am big on engaging students on math in as many different ways as possible. I believe getting students to really analyze questions in this matter, will engage them and push them to really think about the steps needed to solve the problem. Another thing I love about this activity is that it can be used in any grade. It aligns with math practice 3(MP.3) which is to construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.