Top 8 Text (2) Quadratic Formula Song

Ever had a song stuck in your head??
Was it One Direction??  

MathMinute has created a video so our One Direction fans, and others of course, can remember the Quadratic Formula.  A little doesn't hurt when you're trying to get kids to remember a formula that will last from middle school up to college.  The quadratic formula is another tool to find where the Parabola (derived from a quadratic equation) crosses the x-axis.  One of the popular formulas that students will continue to use throughout their math secondary and college life.

If you're not familiar, 

One of the best ways to get students to remember something is for them to learn through a jingle.  One Direction has song called "One Thing" and MathMinute has created a song for the Quadratic Formula for students who need a beat.

Simply put, this strategy would be for students who like music and catchy beats.  This is it.  I would play this song while the students are walking into class to catch their attention.  Once their attention is there, I will ask them to recite the quadratic formula to see if the jingle helped.

A link to the song is below....ENJOY! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwz6d9NYz0

URL:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwz6d9NYz0

Article Title:

The "One Direction" Quadratic Formula Song

Website Title:

YouTube

Top 8 Text (1) Shmoop.com

A fun way to get all students involved is to show animations.....VIDEOS!

Shmoop.com!

Since 2007, Shmoop has been a digital publishing company with a point of view. Their teaching method revolves around the basic idea that learning is often too hard—so we carry gallons of academic WD-40 to squirt on the tracks whenever they can. And as an added bonus, they're funny.  They own 100% of their content and present both a consistent voice and a distinctive product offering. Shmoop free Learning Guides, Online Courses, College Readiness Prep, and Test Prep balance a teen-friendly, approachable style with academically rigorous materials to help students understand why they should care. By the way, that's a clickable link :)

When to Use: Shmoop.com is a 24/7 device that can be used as in-class instruction or student at-home homework help.  If you think like every other teacher, you'll look for a way to reel in your students when you're about to start a new lesson...this is it.  They have tons of videos to help guide your students through rigorous content, as well as basic or simple mathematics.  All of the videos are loaded with animations of characters and real-life plots.

I would use Shmoop.com to "hook" my students in before lessons.  The great thing about this website is the concepts taught are at a pace that are beneficial for all students and you can get a great Quick Write from your students.  I would offer an assignment to students to research a particular lessoned video before the next class, and bring their new learnings to class the next day.  It would be a great conversation started into the lesson.

Another way to incorporate this website and its videos would be to watch as a class, and have the students develop their own skits (of course after the lesson so they can incorporate all of their learnings).  Instead of a paper formative assessment, the students can demonstrate their learnings, as a group of individual.

http://www.shmoop.com

URL:

http://www.shmoop.com

Article Title:

Shmoop: Homework Help, Teacher Resources, Test Prep

Website Title:

Shmoop.com

Publication date:

2008-11-11

How I wold

Top 8 Strategy (2) Comparison Matrix

Here's another strategy that will help your ESL students, too.

Most kids need to see words and a picture.  So, use something that links the words or skill with a picture.  This won't even take 30 minutes of instruction.

The table shows a table called Comparison Matrix.  A Comparison Matrix is a tool used to commonly used as a Graphic Organizer for comparison.  It will illustrate a more detailed approach to comparison than a Venn Diagram in that it poses the student to find characteristics to compare.  Teachers use slightly more detailed directions for students when they use the comparison matrix.  See below

The great thing about using the Comparison Matrix is in the long run, it will help your students when you guys get into Word Problems.  The key words like increased, decreased, added, less than, or more than, etc. are words used to solve word problems, as well as simple equations and inequalities.

When to Use:  The best way to get the full benefits from the Comparison Matrix is to use at the beginning of a lesson, or big ideas.  For example, even with 9th graders, this tool is useful at the beginning of the semester as a reminder of how to use the symbols and words related to the mathematical term.  See completed example below. 

How Does it Work:  Students use this tool as a way to help remember how to use mathematical terms and symbols.  This is an easy way to quickly link the symbol to meanings and methods.  Students are to fill the table in (probably with a partner).  If I were to edit anything on the table, I would delete the Relationships box and only use symbols, related vocabulary and methods.  The latter are more useful when attempting to get students to drill into what they've been using for years.

Mathematics
	Addition	Subtraction	Multiplication	Division
Symbols	+	-	* or ()	/ or
Related Vocab	Increased Add or added …more than	Decreased Subtract or Subtracted …less than	Times Multiplied Per Each	Per Divided
Methods	10 more than 8	5 decreased by 2	Pencils are $2 each, find the amount for 4 pencils	Todd jogged 70 miles this week.  Find out how much he jogged per day.