Raps, Posters, and Mobiles, Oh My!

I have really been struggling to motivate my Pre-Algebra class to do, well, ANYTHING. They were not doing their homework, participating in class, or studying for any type of quiz or test. So, I decided to try a different approach. I assigned them a project that, I hoped, would motivate them enough to take some initiative to learn the material.

The project was all about choices for them. They got to choose between 4 different projects: rap, poster, poem, or mobile. They also were able to choose their groups and to choose between 5 different topics. These topics were: GCF of monomials, LCM of monomials, combining like terms, solving multi-step equations, or solving multi-step inequalities. I provided all the materials they would need and let them work on them during 2 class periods.

I have to say that the kids were thrilled about the projects and really put a lot of effort into them. Each student worked hard and put a lot of individual effort into making their projects fantastic. Most of the students chose to do posters, but I had 1 group do a mobile and 3 groups do raps.

All of the students grasped the topic of their projects, and they had to present and explain them to the class. This provided a great review of all of the different topics we had discussed. All though all of the groups did a fantastic job, there was one group that shined above the rest. This group called themselves “The Big Nerds”, and they presented a rap explaining multi-step equations. One of the members even dressed up with big glasses with tape and suspenders. It was fantastic.

Here are some pictures of the projects that the kids presented.

I also had my 7th grade Math classes create different types of graphs using different types of data. They did such a good job, I just had to make a bulletin board out of it! Here is the "graphtastic" bulletin board.

On a different note, a few of my 7th period students left me a beautiful picture one day while a sub was covering for me for professional development. It warmed my heart, so I had to take a picture of it!