Spiralling MDM 4U - Term 1 review

It's now been a full term of spiralling through MDM 4U and I thought this would be a great time to reflect on what has gone well, what were some struggles, and where I'm heading with the course. 

HIGHLIGHTS:

The students' involvement in classroom discussions and willingness to try even if they are unsure if they are correct have been highlights of the course thus far. The students have been engaged in the activities we have done in class and were able to clearly show their knowledge of games of chance in their "Unfair Game" project. 

It has also been interesting to easily connect terms and concepts that would be separate in the textbook in different sections. In particular, it was great to see the connection between permutations and combinations and how their formulas are so interconnected.

We ended the term with a review sessions where students were asked to work in pairs and write down all the terms and concepts (with formulas) that we had covered since the beginning of the term. Here is an example of one list:

After the list was made, students were asked to self-assess their confidence with each topic. They were asked to put a check mark beside concepts they knew, a - beside concepts that they needed a bit more clarification with, and a 'x' beside concepts that they were still struggling with. It was interesting that most of the concepts that had 'x' beside them were concepts that we had just recently introduced in class. 

STRUGGLES: 

One of the most common comments from students is that they are struggling to keep track of what we are learning in each class. In previous mathematics courses, students would have been given worksheets to fill out and that dictated what they were learning and what they needed to know for assessments. One of my dilemmas with spiralling has been how to keep track of our learning without filling in a worksheet. It's not that I am completely opposed to worksheets (I use them in my other courses) but I feel they defeat the purpose of discussion based learning. With a worksheet, students only want to know what to fill in on the worksheet and not explore the concepts being taught. With my approach to MDM 4U, I want the learning to be authentic and the students to be in the learning driver's seat. 

I do write key terms on the board and we often work through examples as a class but I believe the concern is around what students should write in their notes and quite simply how to make a proper note in math that is not a worksheet. I believe I may have a solution to this dilemma that I will be implementing in the new year upon our return from the holidays. My plan is to use a sheet like this:

Students would have access to these sheets at the beginning of class and would then fill it in as they need as the concepts arise. A summary would then be emphasized at the end of the lesson or the beginning of the next lesson so that it is clear what concepts are being covered. 

WHAT'S NEXT:

The remainder of the year will continue to be activity-based and discussion based learning in this course. We are moving towards more statistics based concepts and not as much of a focus on probability. My goal is to create at least one 3-Act math task to use in a lesson to either introduce a new concept or reinforce a concept.  

Students have also selected their topics for their year-end project. It will be exciting to see them collect their data (either primary or secondary data) and apply all their skills from the entire course to analyze and answer their key questions.