I'm very excited to bring you this guest post from Mandy at Math Dyal. I so admire Mandy for her creativity, her work ethic and her ability to reach students who are afraid of math. Her post is about self-checking math activities for middle school.
Mandy's students love her! She's one of those teachers who just knows how to get through to kids because she listens to them and allows herself to learn from them. So without any more gushing, here is Mandy's guest post on self-checking middle school math activities:
The days leading up to Christmas break are hectic. Some kids are excited about Santa, some are excited to be away from school, others are not at all excited about being home. This all leads to a giant soup of emotions that can be really hard to manage. In this post are a bunch of Christmas math activities especially made for this time of year.
This linear equations project was one of my favorite things about teaching algebra. My students would run into the room and right over to the windowsill, excited to see their grass and about taking the day's data.
When you ask adults what they remember about geometry, they almost always answer, "A squared plus B squared equals C squared." And when you ask them about algebra they think of solving equations.
In this post I round up a bunch of solving equations activities that I have made and that some of my friends have made. Some are paper, others have been updated with digital links, all will work to engage your students as they learn, practice and review solving equations.
"My students absolutely LOVE these pennants! And I hate decorating bulletin boards so this is a painless way to keep [things] festive!" -iheartmath
This solving 2-step equations math pennant is a free download by subscribing to my blog.
Students solve equations, color their pennants and then decorate the classroom with their work. I have seen so much benefit come from displaying student work that I wanted to make a solving equations activity that doubled as classroom decor.
Both the printable and digital versions are included in the same file so that you can choose which to give to your students based on whether you are in school, following a blended learning model or teaching remotely. I have updated most of my algebra activities to now include digital links.
To meet the needs of classrooms with technology, I've been making these super-engaging digital math escape rooms. The one above is a screenshot from a Solving 2-Step Equations Digital Math Escape Room.
I use this solving equations graphic organizer with students who are having trouble solving equations. It gets kids solving equations fast when they have no idea where to even start.
Kara from Learning Made Radical and I have been collaborating on these partner scavenger hunt activities that get kids working together. The one above is 2-step equations partner scavenger hunt.
My friend Alex from Middle School Math Man and I have been working on a new collaborative math game series called Voyage to the Treasure!In this game, students are on the same team, working together to solve their math problems to beat the Math Monster to the treasure.
This Algebra Activities Bundle w/ digital updates includes all of the solving equations, slope, functions, linear inequalities, linear equations, quadratics, systems of equations, systems of inequalities, domain and range and polynomials activities I have made. The bundle is updated whenever I create a new algebra activity or update an activity with a digital link.
More Solving Equations Activities
I've made a bunch of friends through this blog and my work with tpt. I reached out to some of my "math friends" for their solving equations activities. Here is a roundup of the ideas they sent:
The Sum-em activities from Karrie at Mrs. E Teaches Math are amazing in how they get students collaborating as a team. Students work in groups of 4, each getting a card. When everyone completes their problem, they sum their answers. If the sum is correct, the group is correct! If not, the group members help each other until all equations have been solved correctly. The cards above are for solving multi-step equations. Mrs. E also has a Sum-em activity for equations requiring distribution.
I love the looks of Karrie's colorful 2-step equationstask cards, which can be used as practice or assessment.
"You've got math talent!" I love, love, love find the error questions because of the way they foster higher order thinking. Especially with all that can go wrong with solving multi-step equations, finding errors is a super important skill to develop. The solving equations error analysis sheets from Amanda at Free to Discover work great as warm-ups, student practice, stations and homework.
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When I think of Jennifer from Smith Curriculum and Consulting, I think of her mind-blowing interactive notebooks. She runs workshops all over the country, teaching teachers about INBs. This flippable for solving equations is part of a mini-unit that also includes task cards and practice.
Here is the inside of the flippable.
Jennifer has also been making these Spin to Win games that are pretty cool. Here is a photo of one in her 8th grade set for solving equations.
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Kara from Learning Made Radical's no solution, infinite solutions and no solution cut and paste activity is a perfect way to hit 8.EE.C.7. It also requires the students to pause, think and really analyze the equations they are given.
Every activity in Kara's store is fun, including this scavenger hunt and a set of Google slides for solving equations with variables on both sides.
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My favorite thing about Alex from Middle School Math Man's math games is that the student who solves the fastest doesn't automatically win, helping all students feel included and like they have a chance. This is one of his newer games that covers multi-step equations.
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Mandy from Math Dyal has created a bunch of self-checking solving equations activities, which is important as students learn to solve (and super time-saving for us). This puzzle asks kids to distribute and combine like terms.
Mandy also made this beautiful coloring activity for 2-step equations that is also self-checking. Best yet, kids can choose their own colors, upping the buy-in.
And what could be more fun than this battleship activity partner game from Tyra at Algebra and Beyond? The most determined multi-step equation solver (with a sprinkle of luck) wins. Students love this game.
If your students are struggling with the steps of long division, there is a cheat sheet linked in this post that shows and explains the steps. I once joked to another teacher that I'd be happy sitting around making math cheat sheets all day. It was June, the building was probably 150 degrees and we were in the middle of a rational functions unit, which, ironically, is related to long division.
Later when I thought about it, I realized that maybe I wasn't totally joking. It's not so much making the sheets themselves (though formatting is strangely addictive), it's making something that a kid can use to help lower stress and build math confidence. No cheat sheet ever takes the place of a teacher, but sometimes every little bit helps when a kid is frustrated and on the verge of giving up.
With integer multiplication and division, the rules are clean and concrete. A negativetimes a negative is literally the "opposite of a negative" and the rules are pretty simple to remember. With addition and subtraction the rules are a whole lot looser. For students who like things nice and clear, integers can be a real sticking point. In this post, I wanted to share a free integers graphic organizer to help kids with this tricky topic.
For a year between teaching general education high school math and teaching special education high school math, I tried teaching middle school math. My husband and I had moved further out from the city, the job was listed as an 8th grade algebra position, I love algebra, it was closer to our new apartment, what could go wrong?
Everything. Everything could go wrong. I got eaten alive.
You middle school teachers-- hats off to you. The math was familiar, everything else was like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Kids were arguing about stolen pencils (with grins on their faces, of course), this girl made fun of this other girl's boot liners (an intervention was called). I felt I was pausing class every 10 minutes to catch a confused kid up to speed. I was low woman on the 8th grade math team so nothing I said held any weight. All in all, it was a miserably eye-opening experience for me. My brother teaches middle school math. I don't know how he does it.
Ms. Baily's middle school math word wall
This was a year before I made the decision to decorate my classroom with math word walls. Looking back, I know they would have helped curb some of the interruptions and boost the confidence of the kids who felt confused.
Some time after sharing photos of my my math word walls on social media, a teacher emailed asking if I could make her an 8th grade math word wall. Soon after, another teacher asked for one for 7th grade, then 6th grade, then even 5th grade.
In this post I want to show photos of the word walls I have made for you marvelous middle school teachers with the most impossible jobs in teaching!
UPDATE: All math word walls in this post are now also available as no-prep digital math word walls, built in Google Slides. The digital versions are completely interactive and are linked inside the printable PDFs so that you have access to both the printable and digital versions.
Clicking on the images brings up larger versions of the images. Students then click the "back to class" button to go back to the main "classroom". The digital versions are nice references for students working at home and a support for parents. I wrote a post explaining how to share the digital word walls with students here.
Now I'd like to show you some of the pieces of the word walls I have made for middle school math. The photos in this post show the black & white word walls that I colored by hand. Since taking these photos, I have added color versions to each of the word walls.
I made this 8th grade math word wall with thoughts of my former 8th graders in mind. These are the references I would hang on my walls were it possible to go back in time for a do-over. Above are references for systems of equations with proportional and not proportional shown in context.
Scatter plots even come up in our 10th grade state exit exam here in Massachusetts. This reference shows a positive correlation, outlier, cluster and line of fit. I just added Spanish translations of the vocabulary words that can be hung alongside their English counterparts.
Here is a reference section for function vs. not a function.
There are way more representations of slope that I had ever imagined before making this word wall for 7th grade! Constant of proportionality, unit rate, scale factor... Wowza!
Here is a reference for scale factor.
And integers.
And Geometry! The colorful poster at the bottom is a reference for angle types. This word wall has had its vocabulary translated into Spanish as well.
Data, data, data! Topics like box plot, histogram, mean median, mode, and range are all topics covered in this 6th grade math word wall.
Here is a box and whiskers reference.
Multiplying and dividing fractions.
And nets. In 6th grade I was happily practicing my long division and doodling on my worksheets. That was the 1980s. Things have changed a lot since then!
Here is a video showing a little of the 6th grade word wall's digital version.
Though not for middle school topics, the references in this 5th grade math word wall may help some students link back to previous learning. Above are references for graphing with additive and multiplicative patterns.
In my algebra 2 classroom we have algebra 1 references that we refer to pretty regularly so I know how many kids we see can be a year or two behind.
References for improper and proper fractions.
Adding fractions.
And quadrilaterals.
All of the word wall references in this post (and a lot more) are included in this bigMath Word Wall bundle. Every word wall inside comes in color, black and white and interactive digital in Google Slides. All updates are always free.
I also put together smaller 4-grade bundles that can be mixed and matched, including these for grades 5-8 and grades 6-9.
