Tried It Tuesday- PowerPoint: ABC's of Math

It's time for Tried it Tuesday with Holly at Fourth Grade Flipper.

This week, I am sharing a project I tried with my math lab kids. These are kids that have lost an elective and have two math classes. Most have two reading classes too, so they actually lost two electives due to their state test results from the previous school year. You can imagine the challenges these students face.

They worked for one week on a Power Point presentation for the ABCs of Math.

The requirements were to include, the word, definition and picture. Even though, they didn't always follow the requirements, they more than exceeded my expectations.

What I liked about this project:

• 6th graders know how to manipulate Power Point without much help. 
• I can use some of their slides for my word wall next year! 
• THEY LOVED the project and worked really hard on it. 

What I didn't like about this project: 

• My kids choose awesome backgrounds, but they seemed to be the focal point of some of the projects more than the actual word and definition. I can solve this problem though. Next year, we do words and definitions first. (you will see what I mean in the pictures below)
• We couldn't print their projects due to shortage of ink. They seemed fine with not printing them though. So, I got over it as well. 

I will definitely do this project again. As a matter of fact, I think all grade levels are doing this type of project. 

Here's some sample slides they created. I wish I could post them all, they were so good!!! 

 This was exactly what I was looking for. This student made every slide look like this.

 Another really good one. This student made every slide the same format.

 Here's a busy one. I like the background, but I need to learn how to "lighten" the background and make the focus the word and definition. Is this even possible in power point?

 This is from the same student above. This is a good choose for a border.

 This is from one of my beginner ESL students. She made every slide the same and finished first. She was really proud of her work. I was too!

 This student forgot his pictures, but he loved the border.

 Similar to the student above, but this student remembered his pictures.

 Another busy one. He had a different crazy background for each letter. I liked his backgrounds a lot, they just shouldn't have been the focus.

 Loved her borders. I wanted her to focus more on the vocabulary words. 

This was my favorite. She made every background the picture. I put several of hers below. I know there are some spelling mistakes though. I will get her to go back and fix those. 

Another of my favorites. He used the same background for all of them. When he played his slide show it was AWESOME!!!! 

Thanks for making it the end. I know its a long post.

Projects and Performance Assessments- MS Sunday Funday

This week we are talking about projects and/or performance assessments in the math class.

I personally love these, but think they are hard to truly do. Why are they hard? Because I feel so rushed, so stressed about "getting it all in". So stressed by a data driven district.

I am trying though. I guess I think of it as baby steps.

Last year, at the end of my first year in middle (after 17 years in elementary, I might add), I wanted to do a project because I was so bored from teaching worksheets. I found, this great project online, The Million Dollar Project.

We spend several weeks on it and I know the students enjoyed it. It was tough though. I thought the kids did a poor job on it. They did the research, they spent the money, but the quality of work was awful. I will definitely do it again this year, but I also know I will set it up differently. Last year I didn't really give them the exact expectations. Live and learn right?

We use CScope in our district and I have noticed that they have incorporated a project for the last six weeks. When I have time, I will be investigating this to see if its worthwhile.

I also follow thenumbertwentyone blog and she is incredible. She does what I feel like is a ton of these. I recently completed her Unit Rates Performance Assessment. I changed it a bit to use "thanksgiving" food instead of BBQ, but it was the same thing. I used it with my Math Lab kids. These kids struggle in math and that is why they are in a math lab. They worked really hard and I love how rigorous it was.

Back to Cscope: They do try and incorporate what they call "Performance Assessments" in the plans, but we haven;t quite mastered how to use this in our class. We did one at the beginning of the year, it was difficult, but it should us a lot. Again, I will use it again, but format it differently.

A few posts ago, I shared an activity I made from a worksheet into a performance assessment. My plan was to use it the week before Christmas, but due to testing, we are behind. We will be completing it the week we return. I think it will be a great way to get back in the swing of things after being off for two plus weeks.
You can get it for free here.

The Christmas version here.

I also might add, we grade projects and performance assessments as major grades. Its a lot of work and students deserve to get as much credit for it as possible,