I was looking at the lessons on Quizizz to provide my students something quick so as to introduce them to congruent and similar figures. Just an intro to the vocabulary. The problem was all of the lessons I saw on Quizizz were SERIOUSLY BORING! No wonder kids hate math! NONE of them followed the 5 E's lesson plan model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Evaluate. NONE of them provided context. "When will we use this" is all I would hear with those sample lessons.
BE CRITICAL!
Dumpster diving the internet for lessons and activities will often result in poor quality resources. We must analyze what we find and make adjustments as needed. Here is the first lesson on Quizizz.
- No graphic on the first slide. Consider having a picture to bring context (and not a math problem)
- Jumps right into a textbook definition of Angle Angle... NO opportunity to explore or find patterns of what similar even means.
- Uses a lot of jargon. Assumes the students know what those vocabulary words are (and they might, I have no way of knowing what the kids did before this Quizizz lesson)
- After a bad tile of explanation, it gives a boring textbook math problem of 2 triangles with NO CONTEXT!
- This is not a lesson, it is a worksheet!!
- After several worksheet practice problems it gives another terrible instruction slide that looks like it is is a snapshot from a textbook. Far from a good explanation ... it expects students to understand the proportions laid out on the slide. Then students just jump to worksheet problems.
What Are the Students Doing?
Every lesson, every assignment should have the STUDENTS doing the 8 mathematical practices. I label all of my assignments with the MP (mathematical practice). In a lesson go for MP6 and MP7. This is where students FIND PATTERNS. They make sense of the math by exploring and observing... NOT being directly told what to think.
Start a lesson with students thinking, making observations, trying to discern a pattern, and if possible that they can derive the formula or rule.
Google Slides
This is not perfect. I made it really quickly before school at my kitchen counter after finding no acceptable Quizizz lessons. Ideally I would have given students pictures and shapes that were congruent and ones that are similar ... along with non examples... and tried to get them to give me the definition of congruent and similar. That we would engage in a discussion. Engage students with real examples of congruent and similar. Have students explore what those definitions mean. 3rd... explain what they did not explain or figure out. Extend... practice congruent and similar math problems. Evaluate... give students a project, activity, quiz, or test to make sure they understand the concept.
In my Google Slides I have students create congruent and similar figures. This provides them a context for when will they ever get to use this. Unlike a worksheet or textbook example, the students get to make a decision about what shapes to create. My goal when students do an activity is that they are not doing the exact same thing as the person next to them. This is why I love Google Slides. It allows them to use images or different fonts that lets them be more creative... even if it is just a little bit.
This is just an exit ticket to quickly introduce them to the concept. It is not a full lesson. I do though, want to introduce it at the end of class very briefly. Let them sleep on it, and then come back the next day with more on the topic. Giving students brains a break and then coming back to topics is better for learning.
Spaced repetition is better than mass practice.
Leave comments in this post with thoughts or questions.