Weeks 6-7 reflection

Weeks 6 and 7 were a little tougher than the previous 2 weeks. the content was great and was explained very well, but it is always tough to come back from reading week! I have to say however, that it is bothering me how some of my classmates seem to be losing patience recently and get overwhelmed without trying the content. There were a couple cases in class during the past couple of weeks where students were not initially understanding ratios and proportions and let their emotions get the better of them. They would almost come into the lesson with a closed mindset and began taking it out on the instructor. I just wanted to start off this reflection with stating that the instruction has been very good, the content has not been too difficult and I think some people need to take a step back and try to understand and hear concepts out, before freaking out over the difficulty.

Week 6 was a very interesting week! We started out, as always with our group learning activity, which was very engaging. Our leader for the week, Mike, was very thoughtful and engaging in his activity. He had us looking at ratios and proportions and made it relevant to the Halloween through Harry Potter and potions. Mike started out the activity by explaining the overall and specific expectations for grade 4, as well as giving us a base potion. He said the potion fed 3 people and asked us to figure out the ingredients needed to feed 1 person and then 9 people. We then went into the lesson and talked about the overall expectations more in depth. Them being;
- Demonstrate an understanding of proportional reasoning by investigating whole number unit rates. (grade 4)
- Demonstrate an understanding of proportional reasoning by investigating whole number rates. (grade 5)
- Demonstrate an understanding of relationships involving percent ratio and unit rate. (grade 6)
- Demonstrate an understanding of proportional relationships using percent ratio and rate. (grade 7)
- Solve problems by using proportional reasoning in a variety of meaningful contexts. (grade 8)
After this, we spent the rest of class doing many different examples with our groups and then shared the answers and strategies with the class.

retrieved from: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Silent-Teacher-Poster-Ratios-and-Proportions-2017093

Week 7 was a fun week and started off with an amazing group learning activity. This week we learned about patterning and algebra. The activity included a minds on component of looking at number patterns and then moving into the core activity of patterning with shapes and colours. After the activity we went over strategies to help students problem solve when trying to figure out patterns. We talked about concepts like investigation and extending and how/when to apply these concepts. Moving forward we talked about the Ontario curriculum expectations for patterning and algebra;
- Describe, extend and create a variety of numeric and geometric patterns, make predictions related to patterns and investigate repeating patterns involving reflections. (grade 4)
- Relationship in growing and shrinking patterns involving translations. Understand use of variables in expressions. (grade 5)
- Use variables in simple algebraic expressions and equations to describe relationships. (grade 6)
- Represent linear growing patterns using concrete materials, graphs and algebraic expressions. (grade 7)
- Represent linear growing patterns using concrete graphs, algebraic expressions and equations. (grade 8)
Once again, we then spent the remainder of class, building on these concepts and using manipulative's to express our understanding (my favourite part, as I always learn a new way to teach and explain myself).


Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No4VLQLrdr0