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=Algebra R Wiki=

This space is a journaling site for the Algebra R course.

We can use this space to communicate issues with lessons, tests, homework etc.

You can add content right to this site so everyone that teaches this course can follow along. (A great alternative to email!)


 * [[image:sun_playing_with_beach_ball_md_clr.gif]]Summer Update:** We have completed revisions to the curriculum through chapter 13. We have not included chapter 8 since it came after 13. Marlene has submitted copy requests for all of us through chapter 7. The rest is up to you!

September
 * The year has gotten off to a great start. Most of our students have graphing calculators that they can use at home. This is going to be a tremendous help!
 * Our first quiz was difficult for the students. They are getting used to the format and types of questions that will be asked of them. We have discussed the need for reinforcement of good study habits for their chapter test.
 * The classes are going very quickly. The entire period is being used up by most of us going over homework and new material. There is a lot of information in these first few chapters that takes time to explain. Everyone is encouraging the students to come in 9th period or during math lab if they feel they are not comprehending the material.
 * We finished our first chapter test. Most results were better than the quiz grades. Marlene and Jeri talked about the fairness of the test. Both of them felt that the questions were fair and not overly difficult. **(Update: Sue created a review sheet similar to the test to help the students get a better grasp of the material. Thanks Sue)**
 * Our chapter 3 quiz has been completed. The grades were much better than those of the first quiz and test. The students were glad to see this rise in grades also. I believe the students are getting more comfortable with the layout and types of questions being asked. The students are becoming more enthusiastic about asking questions and coming in for help. They have the classroom routines down pretty well and understand their expectations. Lets keep up the momentum! - Jeri


 * The chapter 3 & 4 test has been completed. We have noticed as a department that the students had the most trouble with evaluating expressions. They understood how to substitute, but they were not using parenthesis when substituting and not following order of operations at all when it was time to evaluate. There were 3 problems on the test that had this type of situation and all 3 problems gave the students trouble. We are currently re-emphasizing the importance of following order of operations in the coming days and when reviewing the test with the students.
 * So far, it seems as though the students are doing well with Chapter 5 which is working with exponent rules. I'm really pushing the phrase "a power to a power is a product (Triple P)". It seems that more of the students are getting the problems correct using that. I still have some problems with some of the students mixing up when to multiply the exponents and when to add them. I've shown them how to slow the problem down and write what the exponent means and this helps for some students, but not all. We'll see how this chapter goes. These are the same mistakes that my 11th grade students taking the Math B make. - Sue
 * Sue- What do you mean by "slow the problem down"? Do you mean write out the expression without exponents? My students are so weak on +,-,*,and / integers. Even if they know their exponent rules, they get signs wrong in problems b/c of their work with integers.-Joann
 * Joann, I will have the students write out the expansion of x cubed, etc. But those kids who don't know their signed numbers rules will continue to make mistakes on this. I go over the rules verbally each time I do a problem. - Sue Z
 * Today, I only went over FOIL and not the other three methods. I felt for the X kids that it would be more confusing than helpful to see the different ways to do the problem. Jeri just told me she used the RM stuff today for FOIL. I wish I had thought of doing that.-Joann
 * I have used RM for a few lessons now. The kids like the change of pace from daily notes. Plus, it gives them a chance to get to the smartboard and use it for themselves. - Jeri
 * My students did better on the chapter 5 quiz. I believe it is due to the fact that the review sheet resembled the format of the test very closely. I am expecting the same results for the chapter 5 test.
 * I'm having trouble with getting many of my Algebra kids to finish test corrections in the two-week time period I give them. I plan to send out additional progress reports. But I'm concerned about their having incorrect info as their last attempt on a chapter. One class seems to be doing very well with the corrections and the other is not. - Sue Z
 * Chapter 6 started out fine. My students do well with ratios and proportions. They had some difficulty understanding the Dimensional Analysis. We'll go over it again today and see how they do. Sometimes it's better on the second time through. I'll do the RM lesson to help. - Sue Z


 * I have similar trouble with the test corrections. I only give the students one week to finish them. I may institute a 9th period detention if they do not turn in corrections. The chapter 5 test went fine. The results were about where I expected them to be. However, many students were done early. Maybe we should extend the test slightly? - Jeri
 * As far as chapter 6 goes, I think that the area of difficulty is on percent of error. They are having trouble deciding if they should use relative error or percent of error. - Jeri
 * I used the RM Easiteach for Dimensional Analysis. I felt it went smoother than going over the wordy notes. The kids did not have trouble with the homework at all. I only did 3 problems from the notesheet. The rest was RM - Jeri
 * SINCE WE ARE COMING UP ON CHAPTER 7, DONT FORGET TO MAKE COPIES FOR FUTURE CHAPTERS SINCE THEY WERE NOT COPIED EARLIER IN THE YEAR
 * The chapter 6 test went well. It was a great length and the questions were not overly difficult.
 * The chapter 7 notes seem long. Several of us are having a hard time getting through them. I wanted to introduce RM stuff, however, there was too much material in the notes to cover. Line & angle relationships was long, Triangle notes did not get completed, and I would have liked to spend more time on the Pythagorean Thereom.
 * I did a great fluff piece at the end of perimeter and circumference. I opened Google Earth and took guesses on the perimeter of the Pentagon. The kids loved guessing and seeing who was closest without going over. They asked then to measure the perimeter of Colorado, Utah and Nevada. They really got into it. I gave stickers to the closest guess. You would think stickers were money! They were so excited to get them! - Jeri
 * Area of the shaded region seemed to give the kids problems on their HW. I spend a good deal of time going over it the next day.


 * The chapter 7 test was given. The first part of the test was fine. However, when it came to surface area, volume and area of irregular shapes, the kids crashed. I think we need to spend more time or better examples of this on the notes. Since they are given the formulas on the reference sheets, it is just a matter of substitution, but they were omitting pieces of the question. Basically, its seemed like they didnt read the directions. - Jeri
 * Because of my lower grades on the overall averages and students not coming in on their own, I am instituting a mandatory 9th period. I will require the students with averages below a 70 to come in twice a week for extra help. This can be on HW, test corrections or review. The kids are not taking the initiative themselves, so now I have to force them. - Jeri




 * We completed chapter 9 this month. The test was given a few days after we returned from break. I had several high grades and a few low ones. The hardest topic for them seems to be remembering to shade for inequalities, and writing the equation of a line. The test was a little long, but nothing too hard.
 * We began chapter 10. The first day was difficult due to the fact that it was again, writing the equation of a line. They really have trouble with this topic. We then went into systems and most of my students and Joann's students did not realize (even after spending the entire class period on it) that solving GRAPHICALLY means that you must graph the lines!!! I stressed this point during both review days.
 * The topics of solving systems seemed to go fine. We did a lot of reviewing on what substitution means and what elimination means. The students did not seem to multiply wrong when using elimination.
 * The chapter 10 test was long. Several students did not finish on time. This could be due to the fact that they are tyring to remember how to solve systems.
 * In addition to the test being long, the students did very poorly on it. They did not properly solve the systems of equations even when given the choice on how to solve. I think this might be an area to consider expanding for a day. Time is tight for this course, but the results of this test indicate they did not understand the material. It is a popular question for the Regents exam also.
 * Chapter 11 was difficult for the students. They always feel that they understand what they are doing, then they practice factoring and get it wrong.
 * Factoring trinomials with a coefficient greater than 1 was very hard. I would like to expand this by a day and do this type of factoring on its own day instead of being combined with factoring regular trinomials.
 * This chapter was quick because there were not a lot of separate topics. I continued to inform the students that factoring does not go away after this chapter. They will need to know factoring for the rest of the course. I continuously urged them to come in and get help if needed, but as usual, not many showed.
 * The test on chapter 11 was better than chapter 10. I did not have as many failures. However, I would have liked to see scores higher than what I did see. After handing back the tests, I again urged the students to seek extra help since this was such an important topic.




 * Chapter 12 went quickly. There are only a few points to cover before the test. We did use the graphing calculator quite a bit through this chapter to get the students comfortable with square roots and cube roots.
 * The students were weak on their perfect squares. I left a list of the perfect squares on my board until the test day. I was surprised at how many students had to look at the board to find a perfect square factor.
 * The first test of this month was the chapter 12 test. The students did very well on this test. They did need a lot of reinforcement on rationalizing the denominator though. They were not sure when they needed to.
 * We began chapter 13. We are currently working with solving quadratic equations both algebraically and graphically. The students that remembered how to factor from chapter 11 are doing well. However, those who had difficultly factoring are not doing as well. I have been reminding students of the necessity to comprehending factoring since they will continue to see it for the rest of the year.
 * The chapter 13 quiz went very well. I had excellent results. Students that needed help factoring came in to get that help. Students are still forgetting that they should look for a GCF first, then look to DOPS and trinomials. I think this is a great setup for the rest of the chapter.




 * We are working on graphing parabolas and solving quadratic linear systems. The students are really enjoying this topic and like the graphing. I must keep reminding them, however, that they need to answer the question and write down the intersecting points. Most are improving in this area.
 * The students seem to be weaker at knowing when to solve a system. They have been able to do the day to day homework on systems, but when it is thrown all together, they have a much tougher time. Real world applications was another point that they had extreme difficulty with. Even after drawing pictures as examples, they were having trouble putting it all together.
 * The beginning parts of the chapter 13 test were fine. The students can solve a quadratic without many problems. Their factoring is much better also. However, when told to solve the systems of equations, they did not recall what needed to be done. The grades were pretty much the same amount for each grade range. I had just as many people get A's that failed, and that same amount of students received grades in the 80's.
 * We also began the Trig chapter this month. (Chapter 8). The kids really like trig, but I spent a great deal of time focusing on "function of an angle" because it is such a new concept. They get SOH CAH TOA easily, but knowing which side is opposite or adjacent and that it changes depending on the angle you are looking at. Also, I spend more time discussing what trig means and why we use it.
 * Chapter 8 is a short, quick chapter. Applications of trig goes easily when the actual picture is drawn out for them instead of just making a right triangle. I think the students are doing well so far, and have been getting the homework correct.
 * The chapter 8 test went very well. I had several high grades and only a few lower ones. Again, I think focusing on the meaning of trig and why we use it instead of SOH CAH TOA, helped them.


 * We are starting off chapter 14 well. The students are understanding how to reduce algebraic fractions. They still don't like to determine a value of "x" that makes the fraction undefined. They understand an undefined fraction has a zero in the denominator, but cannot apply that information to a polynomial in the denominator. Multiplying and dividing fractions is also going well. They are really getting the idea of "cousins". However, they want to make a+b and b+a "cousins". Division was really no problem at all since they did really well with multiplication. It seems that as far as factoring goes, they like to forget GCF all the time.
 * Adding and subtracting algebraic fractions is going OK. I really had to start with the basics of how to add or subtract regular fractions. This way, they recall the steps needs. So in essence, I make them come up with the steps, since they are identical to the steps for adding and subtracting algebraic fractions. They are really doing well with determining the common denominator too! Occasionally, they will reduce before they combine the fractions, but I continue to go back to the basics so they understand they cannot do that.
 * The chapter 14 quiz was again, OK. The grades were pretty even throughout each interval. They struggled with undefined fractions again and cousins. Most forgot about "cousins"
 * Solving fractional equations and inequalities is going well. We have now switched from gettting a common denominator and keeping a denominator to getting rid of the denominator by multiplying by the LCD. I know, however, that once we put this topic together with adding and subtracting, everything will fall apart.
 * The word problems in the chapter were very diffucult. They could get the number, ratio and work, but money and investment, age and mixture were terrible. Even using the tables proved to be difficult. I made them stop after the words "In three years..." so they could finish the tables for the age word problems. That seemed to help, but still had much difficulty setting up the equations. The same holds true for investment problems. Setting these up were very difficult. We spend time on understanding what investment means. Maybe more time is needed on basic investment problems like "I invest $100 at 5%, what is my income?"
 * We took 2 days to review for this chapter 14 test and they needed every minute of it. Putting all this hard information together was very hard for them. I had several students stay with me for extra help throughout the chapter and especially right before the test. They were getting better, but still struggled with the difference between adding and subtracting and solving equations. I repeatedly told them to "get rid" of denominators for equations and keep the denominators for adding and subtracting. Those who worked, did well on the test, those that did not get extra help, clarification or corrections on hw did not do well. No surprise there I guess.


 * May started off with chapter 15. This is our probability chapter. Basic probability was fine. However, they had no idea what biased means. Therefore, I spend a great deal of time going over example after example of bias. I did this on almost a daily basis. Also, they were weaker than I thought at tree diagrams. I think I need to spend time on more examples of tree diagrams. The counting principle worked well. The understand the idea of using spaces, however, they are fighting me with it because I never see the spaces on their papers! I tell them every single day to use spaces and yet I still dont see them on homeworks and they do the problems wrong. Yet, when I walk them through the problem using spaces, they get it!