Coordinate Grids and Plotting Ordered Pairs

Students took their first test of the school year in math today and the preliminary results are sobering. The topics were limited to what we have covered thus far this year and students were provided with sufficient time to perform. Results show that students are not yet proficient in the areas of integer operations, writing variable expressions and evaluating expressions using order of operations.

At this point it is likely that factors which may have caused poor performance could include:

1. careless mistakes undermining answers
2. fear of using math aids like number lines or the letters PEMDAS
3. lack of notation skills like rewriting an expression step by step until a solution is found

Students were reminded that the objective of this class is to enable them to become better indepedent problem solvers and these math mechanics are part of that vision. Tommorrow's class will involve suggestions for addressing weak areas but focus more on strengths that already exist and how to capitilize on these.

Students were also sent home with a labor-intensive graphing activity which is designed to help me understand ability level in regards to graphing ability.


Home Nugget #12
Assigned on Monday September 25, 2006
Due Tuesday September 26, 2006
Two Coordinate Grid Activity Sheets "Hot Dog" and "Pretty Kitty" where students must first solve problems, then plot ordered pairs to form two images.

Focus Correction Areas
2 points: all problems solved
2 points: the two images are accurately graphed within reason