Swainsboro Middle School 7th graders learn to “Express Themselves”

Seventh graders at Swainsboro Middle School had the chance to “express themselves” as they

engaged with a task created by the Georgia Department of Education in Dr. Thomas’s math class on October 31 and November 1. The students were working on solving linear equations, and the task required a sequence of steps, multiple modes of learning, and various forms of practice to complete. According to the DOE website, the task is “intended to determine how well students can form, write, and solve linear equations using factoring and the distributive property, and also use variables to represent equations in real-world problems and represent word problems in equivalent equations.”

The engagement portion of the task included evidence-based instructional strategies such as

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scaffolding, collaborative pairs, and independent and whole-group practice. Also, a student-generated product was created by the end of the task.

At the beginning of the task, each student was given a whiteboard and a Ziploc bag with the materials necessary to complete the task as they made their way to their various stations set up in the classroom. Dr. Thomas projected a word problem-style riddle on the board, and the students were required to read it and determine which algebraic expressions would answer the riddle correctly. Using their whiteboards, the students worked through this portion of the independent practice, but soon, they transitioned to the work session with a partner in their student group.

The content of this activity was scaffolded by providing the students with a portion of the steps

required to complete each algebraic expression and fewer and fewer steps until no steps were provided, and the students had to determine all the steps for themselves. Each portion of this process was documented on an oversized Post-it note used by each collaborative pair. During the reflection portion of the activity, the students were allowed to engage in “Math Talks” with other student groups to compare and contrast the steps used to solve each problem and gain a deeper understanding of materials they had never engaged with before. These “Math Talks” included small debates about the final products and how the problems were solved, leading to a rich experience and a solid understanding of algebraic expressions.