Carrie's OHVA UDL PLC Blog

Last week we started a unit on lines and angles. Every year that I have taught this unit I have used the same guided notes (slightly revised each year, but the bones have remained). This unit is very vocab heavy, including but not limited these terms:  Supplementary angles Complimentary angles Corresponding angles Vertical angles Adjacent angles Transversal Parallel lines Triangle Sum Theorem and more!  The guided notes usually take an entire lesson and sometimes spill into the next day, without actually applying any of the information. This year I scrapped all that. What vocabulary do they need to know to be successful in this unit? They don't need the textbook definition of "vertical angles." They need to be able to recognize angles that across from each other when 2 lines cross, and understand that those angles are congruent. So I think in all these discussions about academic vocabulary, we also need to keep our eye on the ball. What do students need to know to be succ...

 Last week (week of Feb 24) we wrapped up our unit on the Pythagorean Theorem. We spent a good deal of time reviewing key vocabulary, predominantly "leg," "hypotenuse" and "square root." I found myself intentionally adjusting my speech when making sure to use the proper vocabulary word, while sometimes I find myself rapidly thinking out loud during more basic explanations. For example, I don't worry too much about slowing my speech when I say, "I'm going to add 2 and 3." I say it as fast as I can write it on my screen. But by the end of the unit, I had found a cadence with saying at a specific tempo, "A squared plus b squared...calculate...take your square root...round correctly," and students were building fluency by those repeated instructions.  I digress. So I presented them with this question:  "On the coordinate plane, what is the length of the line segment that connects points at (-1, 0), and (6, 2)?"  I displaye...

 I actually can't take credit for this, it was already an existing template in Canva, but there's honestly nothing I would change. So I'm not claiming that I created it, but it's what I would use if I needed an infographic on the Pythagorean Theorem. 

 I need to not wait a whole week to do these reflections. I talked to another math teacher about teaching explicit vocab. I kind of like how I started doing it this year as the 8th grade math team has really stepped up the rigor of the types of practice problems we do in class. I have a lot of chats with the students about the skill needed versus the wording of the question, especially the questions on the state test. We take a moment to digest the literal words in a complex question and we talk about how it's asking the students to do something they've done a hundred times, even if the wording is more complex.  As far as data tracking, I honestly do not look at my students' grades as an accurate reflection of their mastery of the standards due to the large amount of "cheating" happening by students looking up answers. The proof will be in the pudding when I get the state test results back this summer. 

 It was nice to see a larger group than I was expecting. I am looking forward to collaborating with other educators for the purpose of our own learning. I love the kind of PD where we have all chosen to be there, rather than forced by higher-ups who may be disconnected from what we really need to be sinking our teeth into. There seems to be a wide range of comfort with using Engageli. I've been using Engageli all year, so I hope to learn some new tips n tricks while helping others who haven't taken the plunge yet (hopefully everyone knows Newrow is going away after this year).