Anchor Chart for Surface Area and Volume of Prisms

Today, I decided to create the following anchor charts for my geometry resource classes. The purpose of creating these charts was to give students an additional tool to support instruction and to move the students towards achieving success with finding the surface area and volume of prisms. I'm going to ask the librarians at my school to print these out as half size posters and laminate them for me to hang them up around my classroom for students to reference. It's faster for me to create this anchor chart digitally than to handwrite it.

This is my first year teaching a geometry resource class and I did not realize how much assistance and supplemental aids some of these students need. My resource classes are very small and one class has 8 students and the other class has 5 students. Last month, I learned that my school district is getting rid of these geometry resource classes so this has me scrambling to come up with ways for these students to be successful in my on-level classes for next year. I think I am going to create these charts for every topic in geometry and have them spiral bound for students to reference.

Any feedback or suggestions are welcome since this is my very first "digital" anchor chart. 

Here is the file if you would like to use:

• Surface Area and Volume of Prisms Digital Anchor Chart

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Differentiation with Warm-Ups

I'm trying something new with several of my classes this unit and I'm really liking it so far! During the past 2 years, I don't really give my students "warm-up" questions when they walk in. Normally, students walk in, cut out their foldables, and set up their interactive notebook. 

This year, I have issues of several students not turning in assignments and I really need to receive feedback (other than quizzes and tests) to assess their understanding. However, student's level of understanding vary GREATLY in my classes this year. I have pre-AP drop outs or students who should be in pre-AP but do not want the extra work. I have regular on-level students who rarely need assistance. I have special education and ELL students who need A LOT of assistance. If I give all students the same worksheet, I would have students done with 10 minutes left and some that will need to bring it home for an extra 30 minutes. 

I created these differentiated warm-ups so all students will finish around the same time. The one with the most arrows are for my higher level students and the one with the least amount of arrows are for my special education/ELL students who are not really understanding the concept. I put the arrows so students couldn't really see that they were receiving A, B, and C forms. 

So far, I really like how the warm-ups are going since all students are taking the same amount of time.... but, it's taking A LOT of time for me to create them! How do you "differentiate" in your classroom? 

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Geometry English/Spanish Glossary Project

Below are some pictures of my current Geometry project... An English/Spanish Geometry Glossary.

OPTION A

OPTION B

OPTION C

I request all of the language learners in Geometry because of my family's history with learning a different language. I have several relatives in Mexico who came across to the United States to receive a better education and more than half of those relatives dropped out of school to receive their GED. One of my aunts told me that she HATES math because every single math teacher that she had always put her in the back of the classroom and ignored her. This is extremely sad and I know of several teachers who still do this, which is why I am planning to receive my ESL certification.

I have about 10 English Language Learners in my classroom each year and the only glossary that students have access to is in the back of our textbook. My first year teaching, I did not do interactive notebooks and my ELL's grades were pretty low. However, once I introduced INB's, all of my students grades drastically improved (another reason why my love for INB's is so strong). Students  are not allowed to use their notebook on tests so I wanted to create a glossary that I can give to my ELL students to use. I will be creating a cover and I will make about 10 class sets and 10 personal sets (depending on the number of students I have this upcoming school year). 

I narrowed it down to 3 options:

Option A: Definition and diagram are already drawn for students

Option B: Definition is given but teacher/student has to draw the diagram

Option C: Only Definition is given but, teacher/student can draw diagram under term (when applicable)

Disclaimer: Definitions/Terms in Spanish may be incorrect in the above pictures. I am going to finish and then ask my awesome spanish-speaking mom to proof-read for me. :)

Any thoughts or opinions? I am hoping to be done with this by the end of July!

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