Thursday, January 4, 2018

A pre-algebra lesson plan.





Here is a pre-algebra lesson plan I thought up.  The lesson plan is designed for 7th graders and uses the kids, themselves, in the plan.  Each student gets a shirt with, =, +, -, *, x, a, c, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0, etc. printed on the shirt - all those characters that are in basic equations.  So, if the equation is 2x-3=5, then John (2) stands next to Jenny (x), who stands next to Mike (-) who stands next to Anne (3) who stands next to Jill (=) who stands next to Robbie (5) - those kids face the class, all the others are in their seats waiting to be included in the next equation.  Those kids say which kids need to move to the other side of the equals sign.  After this exercise is done for a full period or two days, the kids are told they are not allowed to talk about the project in person and any questions or thoughts are recorded in a chatroom, shared document, where the students can talk freely amongst themselves about what all this meant - the silliness, yet hopefully answers to many questions about this abstract topic for 7th graders.  Here are my original thoughts recorded in audio in a 5 minute clip.

Audio Clip

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