Wow!! I really stink at keeping up with this. So my Algebra students are learning about factoring right now. I remember when I learned about factoring with a>1 I only learned guess and check. I was so frustrated and was never very good at it. I have since learned several methods, but the one from this year is by far my favorite. I got it from Math Equals Love: Slide, Divide, Bottoms Up and the X-puzzle. I have used the X-puzzle in the past, but then used factoring by grouping. I have to say my kids LOVED it. I never thought I would hear, "That's it? This is the easiest thing we have done all year." I attribute most of that success to the fact that we did X-puzzles just as a warm-up/we have 5 minutes left activity since the beginning of this chapter. I cut up old transparencies into fourths and wrote an X-puzzle with permanent marker on it. When we had extra time I would pass them out to students to finish using a wet-erase marker. Students got really good at them and even began to race each other on them. I never connected them to a specific concept; I simply called it a puzzle and said we would use it later on. To help navigate the signs, I created a signs flowchart. Every time was solved a puzzle as a class I would force students to drag them out and answer the questions. By the time we got around to actually factoring my students were experts on finding the appropriate pairs. I also used the 1/2 sheet resources found on Math Equals Love. The only thing I might change is teaching a=1 and a>1 separately. I think that with the way that I approached factoring with the X-puzzles I really don't need to break it up. To give my classes so practice used QR codes and played Battleship.
I made up some factoring problems and put a QR code with the answer at the bottom. I let students work in pairs and gave them each 3 cards. They had 4 minutes to solve the cards and check their answers by scanning the QR code with their phone. After the 4 minutes were up we rotated the cards around the classroom. The students loved that they got to use their phones in class and they were feeling really successful. I laid down a few ground rules for the activity. Phones had to only be used to scan the codes. (Timing my students definitely helped with this.) They also had to show their work and be able to defend answers when I came around. If they didn't finish all of the cards that was okay with me as long as they were following the rules and participating. I loved that I got a chance to work one on one a little more without the students who don't need the extra help getting bored or calling out all of the answers.
Today we played Battleship. I gave students a grid that had answers to factor problems on one side and the corresponding questions on the other side. Students chose 10 spaces to place their "battleships" then took turns factoring an equation and calling it out to their partner to see if they had sunk a battleship. This gave them instant feedback just like the QR codes and also gave them LOTS of practice factoring. I am definitely glad that I took the time to laminate the cards and had students use overhead markers to write with. It seemed to get them more engaged and saves me time in the future. I think that next year I want to add look for a GCF as my first step before they slide. Students often forgot this step and I think they will see the chapter as connected lessons that build on each other instead of 6 individual lessons/skills. I definitely want to get better at previewing/reviewing and connecting back next year. I need to look a bit further ahead in the chapter and see how I can tie it all together. Overall I feel pretty darn good about this lesson. I guess I will know for sure on Wednesday when we quiz.
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