Describe one thing you learned from this course about Algebra and how it applies to your classroom.

Describe one thing you learned from this course about Algebra and how it applies to your classroom.

Discussion 1

In at least 150 words, please respond to the following:

New Year’s resolutions are usually reserved for late December/early January. But, as teachers, our new year starts in September. Each year, I always choose one thing I want to improve about my teaching and think about how I can accomplish that.

Did you have one for this year? If so, what was that resolution and how’s it going so far?

If you did not have one, we’re only a few weeks into school, what is one thing you would like to improve upon?

Discussion 2

In 200 words or less, please respond to the following:

Describe one thing you learned from this course about Algebra and how it applies to your classroom.

Describe your idea for your final lesson plan with your classmates. This is your opportunity to get any last minute feedback from your peers on your lesson plan – WITHOUT sharing the entire thing, just a summary/abstract of what you intend to submit.

Peer Response 1

One thing that I learned from taking this course is that algebraic concepts can be taught to students in grades as young as pre-k. As a pre-k teacher, I learned that I was already teaching certain algebraic concepts such as sorting and patterns without even realizing that these concepts had anything to do with algebra.

The idea that I came up with for my final lesson plan was to have students sort counting bears by color. I would introduce the lesson with a book about colors: Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr. I would then show the students a video on how to sort objects by color.

I would give each student yellow, blue, red, and green counting bears along with bowls that corresponded with each color. The students would have the task of placing the colored bears in their corresponding bowls.

The algebraic standard for my lesson would be the following: Understand patterns, relations, and functions.

Peer Response 2

The most important thing I learned from this course is that when teaching algebra to young students, it is important to make sure that the lessons are centered on algebra instead of arithmetic. That is, students should not just continue to extend patterns step by step, but should make a connection between the step number of the pattern and the number of objects in that step of the pattern.

My final lesson plan was a practice understanding task on graphing linear functions. Students play a modified game of “Battleship”. They draw three lines on their paper without showing it to their partner. Then, they take turns guessing coordinate points. If the point is on their partner’s line, their partner says “hit”. Once they have figured out their opponent’s line, they guess the equation of their partner’s line. If they get it right, they “sink” that line, and they win once they have “sunk” all of their partner’s lines. This lesson gives students practice in finding the equation of a line from a graph.