Real Number Project - Day Two

Okay, this project is going to be a hodge podge of a mess! We actually started it last Thursday with the students receiving the category that they were going to become an expert in. We reviewed what it meant to be an expert and then they went to a fur.ly address (fur.ly/1uh5 to be exact) to gather information on their real number category. They completed a graphic organizer which included a description/definition, how their category relates to the others, a real world example, number examples, and non-examples.

On Friday, we didn't have class as we attended an Author Presention in Sterling and then for the remaining hours, we watched a film to jump start our Awareness Day project.

Today, Monday, we continued with the Real Number project. I decided we needed to review the group roles again. This time each group only had a leader, recorder, and a technician. I want to see everyone do something in the presentation this time. After reviewing the roles and what they look like, we looked at the storyboard (see handouts) and again described what these are for. Some groups fill these out diligently before using the laptops, whereas others I have to redirect, as they want to jump right to the technology! We went over the rubric as a class. This is important I believe here at the beginning. Students don't know how to read rubrics. Today our emphasis was that it served as a checklist to make sure all aspects of the project are covered. This rubric was two part. 1) It had all the math information and what I was expecting to see plus 2) it held some presentation items such as everyone presents, the delivery is audible, and something new as far as technology was used in the creation of the project. As far as applications/software, I pretty well left this open for students to decide. It surprised me when a group said they wanted to use ComicLife. We'll have to see if this was an appropriate choice to include all the information.

When comparing this project to the first one we did on Central Tendencies, I have several thoughts:

~ They are rather similar:

1) Students have a choice in what technology software/application to use

2) Students are presenting information to the class

3) Both require the assignment of group roles

4) Both have rubrics

5) Both used storyboards. Students have been reluctant to use these in both projects.

~ They are different:

1) Students are presenting NEW information to the class

2) Students will be taking notes on the NEW information they learn from the presentations

3) Students didn't jump at using the flip cameras and video cameras this time...must have learned that they take more time than the deadline allows for!

4) Students had to first learn the material that they must present.

In looking ahead at our hodge podge week:

Tuesday/Wednesday: Awareness Day math connection - using the data collected in science class on the True Colors of all 8th graders, students will tabulate data of various school groups at RVMS, and by using excel will create a graph and write conclusions based on their findings.

Thursday: Back to the Real Number project - finish creating the presentation

Friday: Awareness Day - No math classes this day.