This week, we will be starting our new chapter: Decimal Fluency. Students will begin with the basics of decimals, such as vocabulary and converting fractions and decimals. Students will receive a Ticket to Test on Wednesday which will be due on Friday. Our first quiz over Decimal Fluency will be on Friday. Please be sure to check your student's grade for the Dividing Fractions unit in Powerschool. I will have these entered by the end of the week. |
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This week, students will be taking the College and Career Readiness test through Acuity. This test is a measure of where he students currently are in their level of knowledge in Math. Students will take this test three times throughout the course of the school year to measure growth and monitor areas that may need more instruction in the classroom. Between the online and paper portions of this readiness test, this will likely take at least two days to complete during math class. Because this is a three and a half day week for students, and most of that time will be spent on Acuity testing, the students will not have homework (Ticket to Test) this week. There will still be a short quiz on Thursday during our 20 minute class period. This quiz will include the 4.0 level problem for the Dividing Fractions unit. With midterm grades being run tomorrow, I wanted to be proactive in clarifying the Powerschool gradebook. Below are some questions and answers you may have as you look at your student's math scores.
What are the weekly work points? Do they affect my student's grade? Weekly work points are calculated from homework (Tickets to Test) and bell work each week. 5 points are awarded for homework completed at the required 80% level. 5 points are awarded for a full week of bell work - one point per day. These points do not affect the overall grade; however low weekly work points can be an indicator as to why the overall grade is low. If the students are not doing their homework and bell work, they are not getting the practice they need to do well on the weekly quizzes. How is my student's grade calculated? The grade, on the 4.0 scale, reflects each student's level of understanding against that standard. Mastery of the 2.0's and 3.0's are used to find the grade. Why does my student have a 0 on a 2.0 or 3.0 skill? A student who has not passed a particular skill twice will be scored at a 0 for that skill until it is passed twice. How does my student earn a 3.0? To earn a 3.0, students must show mastery (pass each skill twice) of all 2.0 and 3.0 skills for that standard. Please comment on this post or emif you have any other questions.
One additional note: I will be updating the gradebook this week to reflect the students' level of mastery with Multiplying Fractions. With midterm right around the corner, it is important that students check that they have demonstrated mastery over this content to the best of their ability. Multiplying Fractions will be the only Standard Score in the gradebook when grades are sent out for midterm even though some students will have begun to show mastery of Dividing Fractions. If you have any questions about your student's grade in PowerSchool, please let me know.
This Thursday I will actually be gone for the day to attend a PDC workday, so the students will have a sub. They will continue reviewing the concepts from this unit that we have previously covered. Students will continue looking at vocabulary, converting between mixed numbers and improper fractions, and finding reciprocals.
Friday, as usual, will be classroom PAT (Preferred Activity Time) followed by the weekly quiz.
This week, I am proud to say that my 7th hour class earned the most PAT with 19 minutes earned total. In a close second are my 2nd and 4th hour classes, each with 18 minutes. All classes will play common core-aligned math games for the length of time they have earned today during the first half of class. Way to go 7th hour students!!
Because this is a short week with no school on Friday for the students, we will move up our weekly quiz one day. Students will be given their Ticket to Test on Tuesday, August 26 rather than Wednesday to still allow them two days to complete it. The weekly quiz will be on Thursday this week rather than on Friday. Remember we have no school on Monday for Labor Day, so we will continue exploring multiplication and division of fractions on Tuesday next week. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Wednesday and Thursday will center on practicing reciprocals of both proper fractions and mixed numbers. Students can expect some kind of review activity on Thursday over this week's content. The weekly quiz on Friday will cover improper fractions, mixed numbers, and reciprocals; these are all 2.0 skills for Chapters 5 & 6. The Ticket to Test will be handed out Wednesday and will be due Friday as discussed in the class syllabus. There are video examples of these 2.0 skills under the Resources tab for more explanation or practice.
Looking ahead at next week, we will dive right into the basic (2.0) skills of Multiplying and Dividing fractions. We will be covering improper fractions, mixed numbers, and reciprocals during the week next week. Students can expect their first Ticket to Test as homework on Wednesday (due Friday), and their first weekly quiz on Friday. Remember, this Ticket to Test must be completed with 8 out of 10 correct in order to take the weekly quiz.
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April 2015
Weekly WorkEach week a "Ticket to Test" will be assigned on Wednesday and will be due on Friday. Each Friday will be a weekly quiz over the week's material. Categories |