Team Teaching: Factoring Quadratics

THE GOOD:

My peers felt that the use of algebra tiles as manipulatives worked very well in explaining what the factored and expanded form of a quadratic looks like. It kept them very engaged and it was sort of a fun puzzle solving activity because finding the right configuration to get a rectangle was fun. It also helped students realized that there are some configurations that don't really work. As well, they found the lesson to be clear, concise and got the point across well enough.

I felt very much the same about what my peers felt. When Enrique, Nathan, and I were discussing how we would introduce factoring quadratics as such and got to discussing the algebra tiles, I saw that the activity would really engage my peers. I think this would totally work in a classroom one day. In fact, during my practicum, if I'm asked to do an introduction to factoring quadratics like this, I might adapt this lesson plan.

THE NOT-SO-GOOD:

My peers thought that time management was an issue. They also saw that there were some issues with classroom management as some students were chatting and not paying attention after the group activity had ended and some students felt that the group activity should have deserved a bit more time.

I saw the issue with time management as well. We tried our best to get our point across as quickly as possible but I felt that this lesson could have gone a full hour given the activities and the discussions that it could have garnered. I wanted to let my peers figure out the pattern between the two ways of calculating area of the rectangles they formed as this would show them, not only FOIL, but how to factor a quadratic polynomial. But as such, time was an issue and I felt that the point of the exercise was lost due to time constraints.

With regards to classroom management, I think I could have handled myself a little better. There were a couple of times where I "snapped" and shot the infamous "look" but I recovered quite nicely once I got the students' attention again. That might be something I want to look out for in my future practice.