Task Cards in Algebra 1

Wow! It's been a while since I have gotten on here, but I am going to try and get better about that. Let me give you a quick update on my career change, and then I'll get into the topic at hand.

Math was my FAVORITE subject as a student. I had an INCREDIBLE Algebra 1 teacher and I was one of those kids who was SO much better at Algebra than I was at Geometry. When I got to college, the upper level math classes seemed overwhelming and I had a heart for reaching all students in my classroom, so I majored in Special Education. At the time there was a huge push towards inclusion, so I chose this major to learn more about how I could reach EVERY student in my classroom. I took the classes necessary to get my K-6 certification and graduated with dual cert. My first job was teaching 6th grade math, science & technology at my old K-12 school. I loved it, but through that year of teaching a technology elective, I fell in love with tech. At the time, I was also getting my masters in Educational Technology. I was the Ed Tech Specialist at my school for 3 years while teaching a plethora of electives and overseeing the iPad classroom for our K-5 teachers (see all my previous blog posts about iPad apps). Well my Algebra 1 teacher announced she was retiring last March and told me that I should consider the position. I looked up what it would take for me to get certified, talked to my husband about it, and asked the High School principal for the job the next day. A few weeks later, it was mine and I could not have been more excited. Fast forward to August, my class schedule is Algebra 1, 8th Grade Math (for non Algebra 1 students), and Math For College Readiness (a Florida class basically for HS kids who need a 4th math and don't want to take pre-cal). Another cool thing that came out of this? My mom is doing my old job (6th grade math & science) - so we get to teach and muddy these math waters together. It's seriously amazing.

TASK CARDS -
Now we're moving into where task cards come into play. When I was in math, class ran the same way every day (minus a random assessment day) -

1. Check Homework
2. Introduce New Lesson
3. Guided Practice
4. Independent Practice
5. Homework

This worked for us back then. It doesn't work for most of our kids now a days. My students can't sit still for 50 minutes of a math block. I wanted to keep the same format essentially, but knew I couldn't do that from their seats. Soooo I brought out the task cards (and by brought out, I mean I have spent HOURS creating task cards to use). So this is basically how my classroom now runs -

1. Walk in & check homework answers on the board
2. Answer questions related to homework
3. Introduce lesson (& notes with practice problems)
4. Task Cards (or other activity)
5. IXL (or other activity)

I'm just going to share a couple ways that I use task cards to get students moving in the middle of math class. Here are some examples:

• Hang throughout the room. Let students walk around your room to locate all of the task cards. They need to solve each one in the box provided. Once they have found all the task cards, have them return to their seats. 
• Lay all of the cards out on student desks. Have them pass the cards to the left as they finish (think like the game spoons). When all of the cards get back to them, they are done. ** Sometimes I even move my chairs around or have students sit on the ground in a circle for this. They like the change of scenery. 
• Shown one at a time on the Smart Board or Document Cam. They each work it out on a scrap of paper/device/white board and show me the answer once they have it. 
• Hand out one to each student. Have them solve it on a sticky note and leave it in their pocket as an exit ticket. 
• Have students work in pairs to solve the problems. 
• SCOOT: 
• Directions: Start at your desk. Look at the number at the top of the card you are answering. Write the answer to the question on the card in the corresponding box. You will have about 15 seconds at each seat, then the teacher will call SCOOT. When she calls SCOOT, you will “scoot” to the chair next to you and answer the question on the card at that seat. You will continue until your sheet is full. If you land on a card that says break, take a break until the teacher says scoot again. **Break cards are used if you have more than 30 students in your class to use each chair in the room. 

Here are some stunning pictures (LOL) of me with hours worth of task cards & lamination - but I'm praying it all pays off when they are all prepared for next year. Also, major shout out to my service worker (who will probably never see this) who does the majority of my printing, laminating, and cutting - YOU THE REAL MVP, ABBEY. Anyways, I would love to hear how you use task cards in the classroom, if you use task cards in the classroom. 

If you want to hear about my lessons daily or how I use each set of task cards, follow me on Instagram where I do updates on what we are covering & using almost every day! && as always, if you want to find any of the task cards that I use for my Algebra 1 classes, you can find them all here! 

- Hilary