Geometry Unit Booklets

Please ignore that one of my kids spelled geometry wrong. 

Last year when I taught the Geometry chapter to my 6th graders I felt like we had so much wasted time. There were so many definitions for them to copy down and explain. That was the only thing we could cover in a class period. We barely got to application of the vocab so they struggled. This year I decided I needed to do it differently. I tossed around different ideas such as vocabulary tests, just typing the vocab words, and more. All these just didn't sit right with me because I wanted something better.

 I then stumbled across I Speak Math and her cover photo was of Geometry books. I loved it and she mentioned they worked fantastic in her classroom. Check that out here. I have heard of flipped classroom but have never found a good time to try it out. The way I used the geometry books was sort of similar to that. I did homework in class and some learning outside of class. I had the students copy down the definitions for the next section the night before for homework. This gave them time to look at the material that was coming up and process the big pieces. They were able to learn most of it at home. When they came to class we were able to get straight to the application of the vocabulary words. I gave them what would have been their homework and together with their partner they were able to work through the worksheet. I was able to see the places they got stuck and work through those issues with them.

I went ahead and wrote each word I wanted them to write the definition for and the section they were in and printed all the pages for them so I could tell them to turn to page 6 and we would discuss triangles. 

Things I loved about it:
- The students felt like the homework wasn't hard so I didn't have any complaining and for the most part everyone did it
-I was able to correct mistakes right away instead of them doing the homework at home and continually making the same mistakes and the student not knowing they were making mistakes. In class when they corrected one problem then they didn't miss it on the next. I would just walk around and take questions when they arose and the rest of the time checked answers they had written down.
-They loved being able to be creative and design a book. Some were wonderful and some were not but it let those who are creative express that.  It was great because I had a half day (30 minute class) the first day of the unit so we able to create the book instead of waste a day.

Things that could have gone better:

-Some students put way more effort into each definition than others. Next time I would set guidelines like include a picture, definition, example problem.
-Over the whole unit I had about 3 students who didn't do their vocab the night before. This hurt the lesson because they had a harder time trying to contribute conversation with their partner. The partner pretty much had to drag them along with. Maybe next time stress the importance and have something such as lunch detention to catch up.
-Not bad but I would type it up. It saved me time not having to figure out how to create it pretty on word but it would look nicer not having my terrible handwriting on the pages.

overall success.