Make it Middle School

Inspired by Building Thinking Classrooms by Peter Liljedahl, this math content bundle encourages your students to think creatively and collectively.  The tasks in this bundle are designed to have your students working together in a vertical learning format.  All 171 problems focus on the standards and expectations in a middle school math class.  These problems, although designed for group work, can also be used for assessment and individual practice.

If you are a middle school teacher, the following list of comments is a must have. The comments are grouped by subject, strand, and level. The Learning Skills section comes with a variety of paragraphs based on skill level and behaviour. Simply copy and paste these comments into your report cards and change the name. These comments are specifically written for students in grade 7 and grade 8.

Problem Solving is the cornerstone of a successful math program. The following 25 problems can be used individually or with groups. A problem solving rubric is included to help assess a student's ability to communicate their understanding and mathematical processes. I have used these problems successfully in my 20 years as a middle school teacher, and I have grouped them according to strand. Enjoy!

If you are a middle school teacher, the following list of comments is a must have. The comments are grouped by subject, strand, and level. The Learning Skills section comes with a variety of paragraphs based on skill level and behaviour. Simply copy and paste these comments into your report cards and change the name. These comments are specifically written for students in grade 7 and grade 8 but they can be modified for other grades. Some of the learning skills paragraphs are also written with t

As a teacher, your job is no easy feat. From developing lesson plans and evaluating student progress to participating in extra-curricular activities and communicating with parents, you have a full plate of responsibilities. And when report card time comes around, it's yet another task to add to the list. To help lighten the load, this database of report card comments provides a head start on your writing. All 4 levels are written with appropriate qualifiers and next steps, and the comments are f

At the best of times, the study of fractions is still a difficult thing to do. The following game is meant to make fractions a little more fun. After you have worked through some of the basic operations and problem solving, this Powerpoint game can be used to assess student understanding. Students can also be put into groups and play against each other. You can modify some of the questions without changing the programming of the game too. It’s both fun and diagnostic at the same time!

These algebra riddles are a great way for kids to think creatively and imaginatively about algebra, variables, and equations.  There are 25 different puzzles, labelled as either easy, medium, or difficult. With medium and difficult puzzles, students may need to go through guess and checks, or they might need to rework equations and substitute into other equations. These puzzles serve as models for your students to create their own.  Although it’s algebra, the themes are meant for kids to have f

The video "Did You Know" has many interesting statistics about the world we live in. Whether it be the number of jobs a person will have in their life, or the number of users on Facebook, the world looks a lot different than it did 30, 20, even 10 years ago! An interesting comment comes up on this video. At one point, there is a suggestion that “we live in exponential times.” The purpose of this data management assignment is to try to understand what it means to live in exponential times. T

The video "Did You Know" has many interesting statistics about the world we live in. Whether it be the number of jobs a person will have in their life, or the number of users on Facebook, the world looks a lot different than it did 30, 20, even 10 years ago! An interesting comment comes up on this video. At one point, there is a suggestion that “we live in exponential times.” The purpose of this data management assignment is to try to understand what it means to live in exponential times. T

This lesson and assignment introduce students to the steps needed to purchase a car. Steps include calculating tax, factoring in a down payment, calculating simple interest on a loan, and determining either monthly or biweekly payments. As with other videos in my distance learning math series, GIFs and music are used to make the lesson more engaging for students.

This is a culminating task giving students the opportunity to budget for a year while traveling abroad. Students must budget for a 4 month stay in 3 different countries: Australia, Japan, and Thailand. Different job opportunities are provided for each country, and students need to source out and budget for expenses such as accommodation, food, entertainment, etc. The jobs students must select are meant to be unique, generating strong interest. The video is fun and engaging, and there is a wo

This instructional video reviews how a scatterplot is used to determine a relationship between two variables. The video reviews how a two variable data set can also be displayed using circle graphs and double bar graphs. Three different scatterplots show the three kinds of relationships that potentially exist with two variables: positive, negative, and no relationship. The possibility of outliers is also addressed. Like my other instructional math videos, music and gifs help to make the mate

This instructional video goes over four different ways that people can manipulate the way you think about an issue by misrepresenting data on a graph. Whether it be manipulating the y-axis or cherry picking data, the manipulation of information on a graph can be difficult to detect, and students need the critical skills and practise to discern when information might not be as it appears. An assignment where students are asked to practise creating altered graphs is included. A rubric is also i

The following video shows 6 different infographics from 2015-2020. Each infographic looks at some of the numbers behind the most popular apps and services on the internet. Students get to connect with their own experience, predict trends, and see if there is a relationship with some of the data be constructing a scatter plot using two variables. A rubric for teachers is attached.