Sometimes we have to relish in the little things, right?
This is a warm up I gave to my Algebra II students, just a couple days after they had first been introduced to i:
While I do like the warm up, what I'm really quite proud of is how I implemented/graded it. When students felt like they had finished the warm up, I had them let me know. I checked their work quickly. If I liked what I saw, they were given the day's assignment (and a 100% for the warm up). If not, they were given some verbal questions from myself, such as...
"You say i is imaginary, but you also say it's equal to -1? Are you saying it's impossible (not real) to lose a dollar (-1)?"
"i is equal to the square root of 1? But the square root of 1 is...? Oh, so we need two symbols for the multiplicative identity now?"
"i is equal to i? Try again. This time tell me something."
Yes, I was harsh and sarcastic. But this is an important concept.
Eventually, everyone had true sentences on his/her paper (which means everyone who came to class got a 100).
Each day I've been doing an "EOI Preview" as a warm up and I've been taking the highest 3-4 grades for the week. This warm up gave everyone a chance to get an excellent grade in for the week, and I didn't let students move on until they could articulate the truth.
I know, I know...I really need to switch to Standards-Based Grading. Sigh...
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