S17: Blog 9: Emojis and Math

This past week I got the opportunity to plan a math lesson to introduce my 5th graders to finding and plotting points on a coordinate grid. 5th grade is the first time students are introduced to coordinate grids, focusing only on Quadrant 1, where both the x and y coordinates are positive numbers.

I decided that, since this would be a brand-new concept to most of my students, the first 20 minutes of the lesson would be whole-group instruction that focused on building vocabulary. I created a coordinate grid on the floor of my classroom using blue painters tape to make the x-axis and y-axis. I used a dry erase marker to write the numbers for the graph, as well as to plot points on the graph that I labelled with letters. I also made index cards with vocabulary terms that I wanted to go over with my students, including: x-axis, y-axis, origin, x-coordinate, and y-coordinate.

For the next portion of the lesson I wanted to do an activity like one that a neighboring teacher had shown me on an Instagram page. A coordinate grid was covered with different emojis at various points. Students had to select which emojis from the grid they wanted to use to create a story. They would have to create a story around the emojis they selected, the trick was that instead of writing the word for the emoji in their story, they would instead write the coordinate where the emoji could be found on the grid.

I made the coordinate grid with emojis with the help of Sara, my fellow resident and frequent partner in planning. I also decided to create a model of the activity for my students, so that they would be clear about what they needed to do and what my expectations were. I selected emojis from the grid, wrote down their coordinates, and created my own story.

I expected that this activity would take up the rest of our math blocks, however, I made sure to have a website ready that I could have the students go on that would allow them to have more practice with coordinate grids if they finished quickly.

When it came to teaching my lesson, I had more fun than I’d had in quite a while! I had students stand around the coordinate grid I had made on the floor of the classroom and began the lesson by asking them if they knew what it was called. I found that in the 3 classes I taught the lesson to, I had only a handful of students who had any familiarity with coordinate grids. In my first class, I had a student easily tell me that it was a coordinate grid. In the next class, I ended up having to provide my students with the term. I then asked students what they noticed about the coordinate grid. They pointed out its different features, like the numbers and letters. At this time, I introduced the terms “x-axis” and “y-axis” and had the students label the axes with the index cards I had made. I then began the conversation about plotting points by asking students to tell me where Point A was on the coordinate grid. Many students easily recognized that it was at (1,1). This led us to be able to have a conversation about how we write coordinates (also called ordered pairs) using parentheses and a comma. It also led to a very important conversation about how order matters, the x-coordinate, which indicates how far over the point is, always come before the y-coordinate, which denotes how far up the point is. This was something I made sure to be increasingly explicit about as I taught the lesson multiple times, because it was definitely the biggest source of confusion that my students had. Students then discussed with each other and with me the location of other points that I had drawn on our floor coordinate grid.

It was then time to show off my model to my students! I had placed pictures of my model onto Classflow in order to easily be able to share it with my students in a way that they could clearly see what I had done. I showed students the front page, with the emoji grid and explained how they were to choose emojis to use for a story and write them and their coordinates on the back of their paper. I then read my story aloud to my students, ensuring to point out how I had replaced the words of the emoji with its coordinates.

I then released student to work on this activity. I wanted each student to complete their own story, but allowed students to talk and think-aloud together during this time, because I know how much it helps me to be able to talk over ideas with my friends. During this time, I circulated around the room and discussed story ideas with my students. This was also the time where I found that I had to go over with the students the importance of putting the x-coordinate first in their ordered pair. Their mistake made sense to me, because I can see how it would be easier to find how far up something is, but I made sure to take the time to explain that first we look over, then we look up!

Near the end of math time, I asked students to volunteer to share their stories. Oh, how much I laughed!! I was so impressed with my students’ creative writing skills and their ability to be creative in how they interpreted the emojis. I have to call a lesson successful when my students tell me how much they liked it! Next time though, I would definitely make sure to hit the “x first, then y” concept a little harder in the beginning to save all of the re-teaching later on.

FEAPS: 1a - Aligns instruction with state-adopted standards at the appropriate level of rigor

1c - Designs instruction for students to achieve mastery

1d - Selects appropriate formative assessment to monitor learning

1e – Use diagnostic student data to plan lessons

2c - Conveys high expectations to all students

2f - Models clear written communication skills

2g - Maintains a climate of openness, inquiry, fairness, and support

2i - Integrates current information and communication technologies

3a - Delivers challenging and engaging lessons

3b - Teaches literacy strategies across the curriculum through explicit instruction

3c - Identify gaps in students' subject matter knowledge

3d – Modifies instruction to respond to preconceptions or misconceptions