The Evolution of My "Post It! PROVE It!" Idea

First of all it is so nice to have time to sit down and write a blog post.... :o)   Time has been my enemy lately...

Wow.... I can't believe the 1st Semester is already over. It has been a busy year so far.  Not only have I been super busy updating and tweaking our 8th Grade Common Core Math Curriculum, creating unique and engaging 1:1 lessons, I have also taken on a few other responsibilities. I have become a member of the Instructional Leadership Corps which is a team of California teachers giving professional development workshops to help other teachers in California with the Common Core Shifts.  I have also become the Technology Lead Teacher at my school and as part of this committee we are designing a technology integration model for our district.

I have been reflecting on the first half of this year and thinking about all the new ideas I have implemented.   Over the summer I put a lot of thought into ideas that would help take my students to the next level and teach them to think critically. One of my new ideas was to implement a daily "Post It, PROVE It".  I have previously blogged about my "Post It, PROVE It"  problem.  This idea was based on doing the daily problem as a team and having one student be the "Recorder/Reporter" and the team would discuss and solve the problem as a team, and then write a written justification as a team.
This is an example of one of my "Post It! PROVE It" problems.

Here are some examples of my students doing the daily "Post It! PROVE It" problems.

The Evolution of My "Post It! PROVE It"
I originally came across this idea and tweaked it because I wanted the team discussion and written explanation to be the center of the strategy.  I started implementing this strategy by having the students discuss and solve the problem as a team, then "Post" their team's answer on the board, and then write the team's "PROVE It" written explanation.....  That evolved into using Promethean Clickers to "Post" the team's answer and then write the team's "PROVE It, written explanation....  I soon realized that students were discussing, solving, "PROVING" and then "Posting" their team's answer....  And this evolved into having the students "Post" their team's answer on their whiteboard with their team's "PROVE It" written explanation.

I soon realized that I don't really need the "Post It" part of the strategy.  I realized that what I really liked about the idea that I found was the "PROVE It" part, because I wanted to develop my students written justifications.  The two most important parts are: solving the problem and the written explanation.  So now my "Post It! PROVE It" has evolved again..... Starting after break, it will be called "Solve It! PROVE It".....  I don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place. LOL

This is an example of one of my new "Solve It! PROVE It" problems.

Throughout the first semester I have recorded a lot of video of my students developing their mathematical discourse.  It has been super awesome to see them grow throughout the year.  The day before break I asked my students to list 5 classroom strategies that helped them the most this year. It was unanimous, every team commented on how the "Post It, PROVE It" strategy helped them to explain and prove what they did to solve the problems.  It was nice to have validation that my idea was as effective as I thought it was..  I am so excited to start this new version of my favorite strategy.  :o)

Thanks for stopping by and reading my blog.... :o)