Improvement of Instruction Lessons

This last week I had a graduate class, Improvement of Instruction through Doane "University." This class focuses on the 4MAT method which is the learning types and using whole brain instruction to teach to students.

Here is an example of the 4MAT process with regards to assessment:

In our class we had to make two lesson plans here are the two:

Subject: Math: Algebra 2

Grade Level: 10th and 11th

Concept: Character

Topic: Properties of Real Numbers

Length of Unit: 6 Days

Essential Question: How do you characterize properties of real numbers?

1R (Connect)

Objective: Students will connect to characteristics by completing the ‘Guess Who’ game.

Activity: Play ‘Guess Who’ with partners.  Then as a group play ‘Guess Who’ with the teacher.  Student’s will try to find the teacher’s character.  Each player starts the game with a worksheet that includes cartoon images of 24 people and their first names. Each player selects a character of their choice from the group containing the same 24 images. The object of the game is to be the first to determine which card one's opponent has selected.

1L (Attend)

Objective: Students will make meaning of characteristics by reflecting in their journal.

Activity: Students will journal how they found characteristics of the teacher’s character and/or their partner's character.  Students will also journal other characteristics of different characters in the “Guess Who” game. What made selecting different characteristics better than other characteristics?

Assessment: Teacher will check for understanding by analyzing the student’s journals.

2R (Image)

Objective: Students will see a relationship between numbers and having characteristics.

Activity: Students will be put into groups and given different numbers in an envelope.  Student’s will look at each number and put the number into a group.  They can put them in any type of group, but will have to defend their answer when talking about where they placed their number.

Assessment: Teacher will check will for student engagement through observation of student participation.

2L (Inform)

Objective: Students will acquire knowledge of properties of real numbers through lecture.

Activity: Lecture to students the difference between rational and irrational numbers.  Students will be able to classify numbers (such as: integers, whole numbers, natural numbers, irrational numbers, and rational numbers.) There will be a discussion on the differences and similarities of rational and irrational numbers.

Assessment: Teacher will check for understanding through analysis of student’s notes.

3L (Practice)

Objective: Students will show their understanding of real numbers by completing card sort.

Activity: Students will have to determine whether a number is rational or not and why, this aims to identify and assist students who have difficulties in classifying numbers and moving between different representations.

Assessment: Teacher will measure proficiency by recording the card sort performance. See attached card sort and assignment.

3R (Extend)

Objective: Students will make decisions on property of real numbers.  Students will create an infographic showing their understanding.

Activity: Students will create an infographic of the properties of real numbers.  This infographic will include a flow chart of finding the right property based on the yes/no questions of the flow chart.

Assessment: See attached rubric.

4L (Refine)

Objective: Students will edit and rehearse their infographic for accuracy.

Activity: The students should examine their projects and make sure it is complete. Once they are done they should rehearse their presentation for their infographic.

Assessment: Teacher will meet with students to answer any questions and to check for understanding on the infographic.

4R (Perform)

Objective: Students will present their project.

Activity: Students will present their infographics to their class, as a class we will test the flow chart with 2-3 example numbers to make sure they have the correct properties.

Quizalize: The Good and The Bad

My students and I tried Quizalize for the first time this week.  I gave them a 10 question quiz over rational exponents, I replaced a mid-chapter quiz that was about 5 questions longer than last year with this short assessment.

The Good
I felt that Quizalize was different enough from Kahoot! and Quizizz for students.  Students play in teams instead of individually which was a major downfall of Kahoot! where students played individually and scores of kids who did poorly were also shown on others tablets.  All you see now is how much each person got right on one question as they progress through the quiz.

Another great thing about Quizalize from Kahoot is that I gave a reward for being in the Top 5, where as I gave a reward to half my class even if some students did poorly they still part of the winning team.


Another great part of Quizalize is that it gives teachers automatic feedback on the "6 need help part."

It breaks down students into 3 categories, students who got it, who almost have it, and students who need help.  As a teacher this provided me a great formative assessment and I could split students into three different categories and gave them individual attention and personalized instruction.

1. Students who got it, didn't have homework. (I am a big proponent of not giving homework if students know how to do the problems.)
2. Students who needed some help had a front and back assignment where they only had to do the problems they didn't know.  If they did need help they had to find one of the students who didn't have work to do and ask them.
3. Students who needed help had both pages, but had all the questions and we sat in a different corner of the room and got 1-1 instruction.  Students had whiteboards and we went over 1 question in each section and students did the other problems.

The last big thing that Quizalize does different from the other two big formative assessments, is that at the end of the quiz you can see what students missed each question.

I could tell that students had a tough time going from exponential form to radical form, we addressed that the next day with a small mini-lesson, 5 question homework, with an exit ticket before moving on to the real lesson.

The Bad
Another improvement on Quizizz is that all the questions are on the students iPad when playing this game. It doesn't have the cool functionality of Quizizz with the memes, but does have some cool fireworks when a student gets the correct answer.

The only real problems I had was in the question editor mode.  When putting pictures in, it made my pictures smaller and some students had a tough time seeing it on their iPads.  Lastly, the math editor on Quizalize didn't make editing the questions any better.

The only thing in math editor was that it gave me an answer explanation which would be good if students had an un-timed quiz or were doing more of an inquiry quiz.

Great tool though that has a ton of features for using data-driven instruction.  Lots of good things to come from Quizalize.