Disclaimer... phone pictures with battery too low for a flash :/ so sorry!! But I can't put off posting these any longer! It's been almost a month that I've benefited from the MTBoS and haven't contributed! :(


Alright, so here's what my Unit 2 includes. This is our table of contents for this unit but it also helps you get a feel for what's ahead.

I'm trying to start every unit with a Unit Overview. This is our overview for Unit 2. I ask the students to revisit the essential questions throughout the unit to monitor their own growth and then formally answer them before our test, kind of like a test review. I hope to continue to get better in this area because it's still not working as well as I envision. Students also complete goals and actions before their unit test. I talk a lot about goals at the beginning of the year because I've found that junior high students don't really know how to set goals. "I want to do well" "I will do well by studying" are typical things I get. I try to teach students how to set measurable goals like "I will answer 3 out 4 questions about perfect squares correctly." And actions such as "I will rework the homework about perfect squares to achieve my goals." Then they can actually assess if they've met their goals. Who knows if they did "well"? What does that even mean? Moving on...

Students are supposed to already know combining like terms and distributive property, but here's my review. Based on awesome ideas: here and here.


Next was the real number system. I used most of this from last year but added a foldable and changed up the right side since it's Math-8 instead of Algebra 1.



Here's the foldable...



And for the right side student's each got a set of 30 cards, cut them apart, and sorted them into rational and irrational. We discussed as a class to make sure everyone had each card appropriately placed and then they taped them all down to the page. The originally sorting idea was inspired by this post. Click on the "rational number" frayer definition to access the sorting activity.

Next was terminating decimals to fractions. I still need to add the second flap for repeating decimals to fractions to this page.

The Irrational Approximations activity came from here.

See what I mean?! I've been living off the MTBoS without contributing. Does this even count as contributing? I'm just showing my combination of all your ideas... oh well!  :)

Next was perfect squares and perfect cubes. We also completed these pages before approximating radicals. We did the real number system, then calculated decimals to fractions and fractions to decimals, then perfect squares and perfect cubes, then back to approximating radicals. I know... crazy and not at all how the pages lay out! By the end, it all came together nicely. :)

Students were just as pumped to have little flash cards in envelopes as these students were last year. Score! And I saw them pulling them out on numerous occasions to study and approximate their radicals with. :) Happy Teacher!!

I printed the cards double sided and the back tells the answer to the root on the front. No chance kiddos are studying the wrong root that way!

Next was solving equations. This was inspired by Sarah's pages over here. Each title on the left flips open to reveal practice problems.

And finally, special case equations. Similar to last year, originally from here.


Alright...there it is! 8th Grade Math, Unit 2.

I'll try to come back soon and upload some documents. I honestly don't have much to upload since my ideas were all pieced together from across the internet. I never like to give freebies on ideas I commandeered (I feel like I pirate when I use that word!) because I don't feel like they're mine to share. Anyway...entire other post there...
We'll see what all I feel like is legitimately "mine" to share.

Happy Sunday! Please leave a comment with a link to how you approach these topics! I'm always looking for new ideas to implement in my classroom. :)

First and foremost... this lesson is not orginally mine!!
Remember when I told you how much I loved this blog? When I was first starting INBs last year, I clung to a few blogs for ideas and tips. Sarah's was definitely one of them! HERE is Sarah's original post of this lesson.

I started with the scales just like she recommended. Your copy is here if you want it.

Students worked for a few minutes individually and then discussed ideas with a partner. Of course #3 and #6 really caused some problems... they don't have a solution! I encouraged students that if they got stuck on any particular problem to skip it and come back. Inevidably #3 and #6 were left til the end!

We discussed all six as a class and wrote the solution types. Our notes looked something like this when we were done.

We talked about one solution, no solution, and infinitely many solutions at this point. This was the first time most of my students had heard these ideas so we talked them through quite a bit. And yes...we wrote them algebraically. At first they moaned and groaned, espeically at the all real numbers, but by the end of the year, after coming back to these ideas repeatedly, they really felt acomplished. They would brag about being able to write things like "real mathematicians." I love math nerds!!! :)

Then we made a foldable, including one of each type of solution set.
**From here on the pictures are tiny. GRRRR. If you click they will enlarge. 



We talked about how the algebraic process of solving relates to the scale. For example, in the equation where the only solution is x=3, when we subtracted 2x from each side the resulting 2x=6 could be seen on the scale where two boxes line up to the 6 box. This really helped students grasp what was happening as they solve equations.

 How have you taught this idea? Got any great foldables or activities to share??