While teaching my year 8 class yesterday I used the last ten minutes on this plenary activity. Our lesson starter asked them to draw lines from their equations (for example, y = 2x + 3), and I managed to draw out some ideas about perpendicular lines and reciprocals. Then in the main part of our lesson we were working on a Maths Trail concerning systematic working. Students had to use a logical system to draw as many reflection patterns as they could, following a set of restrictions.
Here are some responses from the Plenary Pyramid.
I was surprised that:
- There were so many possible reflection patterns.
- Working systematically makes my head hurt.
- Multiplying two reciprocals always gives the same answer.
- Reciprocals are cool!
- There were less than 100 but more than 50 [reflection patterns].
Questions:
- What makes reciprocals so important?
- How many reflection patterns are there?
- How do we know for certain?
- How much time would it take?
- When are reciprocals used other than straight lines?
- How to know the equation of a line.
- Who made up the idea of perpendicular lines?
I learned:
- What perpendicular means.
- What systematically means.
- That a rotated triangle does not count as a separate shape.
- Shade triangles in a smart way.
This little activity for the end of a lesson helps me discover what went well and the students get to reflect on how successful they were. It lets me praise students for all they have learned. And I love it when students come up with interesting questions; it shows they are thinking mathematically.
What methods do you use to get feedback from students?