King Week 11

Nothing very worthwhile in terms of worrisome or overly exceptional mathematics happened this past week. On Friday, the class was given the opportunity to play a math game called Angle Tangle in which the students paired up and took turns drawing angles then estimating and measuring their partner's angle. Students then got points for the difference between their estimate and the actual measure of the angle. They play five rounds and whichever student has the fewest points wins. For example, say student A drew an angle and student B estimated the measure of that angle to be 60 degrees, student A then measures the angle and finds that it measures 50 degrees, student B would get 10 points and then the two students would switch roles. One round consisted of both student A and student B drawing an angle and estimating the measure of their partner's angle.

I required students to play at least two whole games if they had time to play more than one game. The two most interesting outcomes of this game was my ESL student no only participating in the game, but the fact that he understood how to play, which is a statement to the growth in his understanding of English, and one student who drew a reflex angle and as I was walking around monitoring game play, he was able to tell me that he had drawn a reflex angle when I asked him about it.

One thing I could have done to further student thinking for those students who understood the game and were able to progress through the 10 rounds(2 games of 5 rounds each) quickly would be to have them play a game using only reflex angles. This would further their thinking by allowing them to get more practice using their full circle protractor, more practice drawing reflex angles, and more exposure to what various angle measures look like.