FINAL PORTFOLIO

K A I T LY N G O R M A N

STRATEGIES USED IN THIS PORTFOLIO

(LINKS PROVIDED TO STRATEGY PAGE)

Anticipation Guide
Adjunct Display
Pattern Guide
Jigsaw
Snowball
Split-Page Note Taking
Exit Slips
Opinionnaire
Word Sort
Word Wall
Word Grid
Popcorn Review
Vocab Cards
Tossed Terms
RAFT Writing

LESSON
VOLUME AND SURFACE AREA
S T R AT E G I E S :
A N T I C I P AT I O N G U I D E ; A D J U N C T D I S P L AY

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGIES, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK, RESOURCES,

REFLECTIONS

CONTEXT
Grade Level: 7th grade geometry
Objectives: Students will be able to understand
and compute surface area and volume of basic
geometric solids. Students will be able to read,
communicate, and relate to mathematical ideas.
Time: 5 minutes on before part of anticipation
guide, 10 minutes to read, 15 minutes to discuss
with group, 10 minutes to finish anticipation
guide, 10 minutes to create adjunct display.
Materials: Printouts of text or textbook,
anticipation guides, pens/pencils, notebooks.

ANTICIPATION GUIDE
Theory: Anticipation guides help instill a situational
interest in material in advance of its presentation to
students (Fisher 7).
Strategy: The anticipation guide will be useful because
students will know what to look for and what is
important when they are reading. They will pick out the
important examples and formulas to share with the
class.
Assessment Type: Formative, formal assessment that
helps the teacher see previous knowledge and how the
students progressed over a certain amount of time.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

ADJUNCT DISPLAY
Theory: It is believed that adjunct displays are effective
because they provide the learner with two avenues to memory
verbal (the text) and spatial (the placement of information in
relation to other facts), and that the spatial and verbal
memories work in conjunction with one another (Fisher 3).
Strategy: Students create a visual representation of the content.
It can be a concept map, a matrix, a shape map, a flow
diagram, a cycle map, or a decision tree. It can be any
representation of content that students can create individually
or with a group to display in a presentation or in the classroom.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment since this is a
group activity that is more informal depending on the way it is
used. In this case it is informal.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
Before: Students will be given about 10 minutes to
complete the before section of the anticipation guide.
Read: Students will be broken up into groups of 5 to read.
Each student will be assigned one of the shapes to read and
take notes about. The anticipation guide will be displayed on
the overhead during this time because students will not be
able to use their own.
Discuss: Students will discuss the reading with their groups
and help them understand the formulas for each shape.
After: Students will be given about 10 minutes to
complete the after section of the anticipation guide.
Adjunct Display: Students will create an adjunct display with
their groups and include all of the shapes and formulas.
Vocabulary: Triangular Prism, Rectangular Prism, Pyramid,
Cylinder, Cones

FAKE STUDENT
(ANTICIPATION GUIDE)

FAKE STUDENT
(ADJUNCT DISPLAY)

RESOURCES
http://www.ck12.org/book/CK-12-Middle-School-Mat
h-Concepts---Grade-7/r7/section/10.0/

REFLECTIONS
Anticipation Guide: The anticipation guide helped
me see what equations the students knew
already. Next time I would probably change it so
that it is more application based than
memorization based.
Adjunct Display: Again, this unit should have been
more application based because these days
students are given the formulas on the
standardized tests so students could show some
examples on the display as well.

LESSON
LINEAR INEQUALITIES
S T RAT E G I E S :
PAT T E R N G U I D E ; J I G S AW ; S N O W B A L L

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGIES, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK, RESOURCES,

REFLECTIONS

CONTEXT
Grade Level: Algebra 1
Objectives: Students will be able to solve linear
equations that have more than one step.
Students will be able to teach the concepts
behind solving linear equations and how to get
the solution.
Time: 5 minute introduction, 15 minutes to read
and discuss with their group, 25-30 minutes to
teach the other groups about their topic, 5-10
minutes to share with the class. 5-10 minutes on
snowball.
Materials: Jigsaw Guide, pattern guide papers,
paper for snowball.

PATTERN GUIDES
Theory: Pattern guides encourage students to focus
on relationships between concepts (Fisher 67).
Strategy: A pattern guide has students match strips of
paper that go together. In this situation one student
would receive a linear equation, another person will
have the first step, and the other person will have the
answer and they will have to find each other.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment, it is
a quick assessment of whether or not the students
understand why their strips were matched together.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

JIGSAW
Theory: Jigsaw was first developed by Aronson (1978, 2000) to
promote social and cooperative development among diverse groups
of students (Fisher 46).
Strategy: The activity starts with multiple groups of students. These
groups will read together about their assigned or chosen topic from
the list. Then they will discuss the topic and become experts
before they move on. Then they will get into new groups with one
expert from each of the old groups. Each person from the group will
teach the other members about their topic so that all of the
students understand each of the topics.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment; It is a quick way
to assess whether students know their topic well enough to explain
it to other students.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

SNOWBALL
Theory: Snowball assesses student learning without knowing
which student did what. It is a formative assessment so the
teacher can tell what the students know and what they dont
know and adjust their teaching from that.
Strategy: When conducting a snowball, you have every
student write down some topic on their paper, then they
crumble it up and throw it so another student will do the
next step and this continues until the problem is done.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment. It is a
quick activity that helps the teacher see how the students
are doing as a whole so the teaching can be adjusted.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
Pattern Guide: Students will be given slips of paper with
different types of two step equations and will need to
match up with the people that have the other steps of the
equations.
Read: Each group of students will work together to read
one of the passages and become experts on their topic.
Teach: Then the students will rotate and each group will
have one person from each of the previous groups. Then
they will teach the other students on their expert topic.
Share: Brief discussion with the class over any other
questions or things they did not understand
Snowball: Students will participate in a snowball activity
while I tell them what to write down.

PATTERN GUIDE RESOURCE

Disclaimer: No example
student work for this
pattern guide because I
did not have a big
enough group to
practice this activity
with.

FAKE STUDENT
(JIGSAW GUIDE)

FAKE STUDENT
(SNOWBALL ACTIVITY)

RESOURCES
Two-Step Equations and Properties of Equality:
http://www.ck12.org/algebra/Two-Step-Equations-and-Properties-of-Equality/lesson/
Two-Step-Equations-and-Properties-of-Equality/r21/
Two-Step Equations with Addition and Multiplication:
http://www.ck12.org/algebra/Two-Step-Equations-with-Addition-and-Multiplication/les
son/Solve-Equations-Involving-Inverse-Properties-of-Addition-and-Multiplication/r10
/
Two-Step Equations with Addition and Division:
http://www.ck12.org/algebra/Two-Step-Equations-with-Addition-and-Division/lesson/S
olve-Equations-Involving-Inverse-Properties-of-Addition-and-Division/r10/
Two-Step Equations with Subtraction and Multiplication:
http://www.ck12.org/algebra/Two-Step-Equations-with-Subtraction-and-Multiplication
/lesson/Solve-Equations-Involving-Inverse-Properties-of-Subtraction-and-Multiplica
tion/r10/
Two-Step Equations with Subtraction and Division:
http://www.ck12.org/algebra/Two-Step-Equations-with-Subtraction-and-Division/lesso
n/Solve-Equations-Involving-Inverse-Properties-of-Subtraction-and-Division/r10/
Solving Real-World Problems with Two-Step Equations:

REFLECTIONS
PATTERN GUIDE: I did not get a chance to test this out
on a fake student because it is meant for a big group of
people and I only had one or two people to help me.
Although this is a great activity that could be adapted
for many different concepts.
JIGSAW: The jigsaw had to be adapted for my fake
student because of the lack of groups but she was able
to go through it pretty quickly. It would have worked
better with an actual jigsaw.
SNOWBALL: The snowball worked well with this subject
because students would solve one step at a time and
move on to a different problem. This is an interesting
activity because students would receive problems of
different difficulties.

LESSON
SIMILARITY AND CONGRUENCY
S T RAT E G I E S :
S P L I T- PA G E N O T E TA K I N G ; E X I T S L I P S

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGIES, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK, REFLECTIONS

CONTEXT
Grade Level: 7th grade Pre-Algebra
Objectives: Students will be able to differentiate
between similarity and congruency of shapes.
Students will be able to calculate which shapes are
similar and which shapes are not similar based on
proportions and ratios. Students will be able to
determine what the scale factor is to get from one
shape to another.
Time: 25 minutes to do split page notes and
examples, 5 minutes to complete exit slip.
Materials: Exit Slip, textbook, notebook, pens/pencils

SPLIT-PAGE NOTE TAKING

Theory: The format is logically organized, it helps learners
separate big ideas from supporting details, which
promotes active listening, and it allows for inductive and
deductive prompting (Fisher 114).
Strategy: Students separate their notes in half. One side
has important concepts and the other side has notes about
the concept that come up in the lecture or textbook.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment; This
activity is almost borderline not an assessment but it can
tell you what the students took away from a lesson.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

EXIT SLIPS
Theory: Exit slips are a quick and easy way for students to
maintain involvement with a lesson even as it ends (Fisher
27). Exit slips also help teachers assess the students and what
they retained from the lesson.
Strategy: An exit slip assesses what students know at the end
of the lesson. It is their ticket out of the door so that teachers
are able to get an accurate representation of what the students
retained from the lesson.
Assessment Type: Formative, formal assessment. This activity
is formative because it is something that is done along the way
to adjust teaching. It is formal because it is an actual activity
that is turned in and not collaborative.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
Split Page Notes: I will be teaching the students
about similar and congruent shapes and I will have
them fill out a split page notes sheet. This way they
can write down what each means and some
examples on the side so they are able to decipher
between the two concepts.
Exit Slip: The exit slip at the end will tell me what
they grasped from the lesson. Students will
complete an exit slip with a few problems that deal
with similar and congruent shapes.
Vocabulary: Similar Shapes, Congruent Shapes

FAKE STUDENT
(SPLIT PAGE NOTES)

FAKE STUDENT
(EXIT SLIP)

REFLECTIONS
SPLIT PAGE NOTES: The split page notes were
okay but I would add a little more next time. I
would probably make a more guided version of
the split page notes so the students knew exactly
what I was looking for because it was hard to
dictate what it was supposed to look like to my
fake student.
EXIT SLIPS: I really like the idea of exit slips
because it is a good formative assessment for me
so I know how to adjust my teaching the next day
or what I need to go over. It can be used for any
subject and can be as formal or informal as
necessary.

LESSON
DATA ANALYSIS AND PROBABILITIES
S T RAT E G I E S :
O P I N I O N N A I R E ; W O R D S O RT

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGIES, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK, REFLECTIONS

CONTEXT
Grade Level: 7th grade mathematics
Objectives: Students will be able to evaluate their
own knowledge about data analysis and
probability.
Time: 30 minute lesson; 15 minutes for
opinionnaire, 15 minutes for word sort. (Rest of
class time can be spent going over homework
and a warm up.)
Materials: Opinionnaire, cards for word sort.

OPINIONNAIRE
Theory: An opinionnaire is a tool for eliciting attitudes about a
topic (Fisher 64).
Strategy: This opinionnaire assesses the students knowledge and
helps me to know what I need to work on throughout this unit. This
opinionnaire asks students what topics they know and feel
comfortable with when it comes to probability and statistics. It also
has a few statements that are either true or false and the students
need to decide whether they agree with the statement or they do
not so I know what they understand and what they do not.
Assessment Type: Formative, formal assessment. This is formal
because it is something that students turn in, although it does not
have to be taken for a grade but that is to be decided by the
teacher.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

WORD SORT
Theory: Word sorts can provide students with a way to
arrange and rearrange words in ways that mimic the
critical thinking processes they use in comprehending new
texts
Strategy: Students are given a number of terms that they
can sort into different categories based on their
understanding or thoughts about the terms.
Assessment: Formative, informal assessment. Informal
because it is not something to be taken in for a grade, it
just helps the teacher see what the students understand
about the vocabulary word.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
After going through the homework and the warm
up/opener, I will hand out the opinionnaire on
probability and statistics for the students to fill out. I
want to find out what they have learned previously
about this topic.
After this students will break off into groups and each
group will receive a stack of vocabulary words and
they will sort this stack into categories. This way I can
see what they understand about the terms.
We will go through each groups card sort as a class
to see what each group did and what their reasoning
was. This helps me understand what they were
thinking when they sorted the cards.

FAKE STUDENT
(OPINIONNAIRE)

FAKE STUDENT
(WORD SORT)

REFLECTIONS
OPINIONNAIRE: The opinionnaire was interesting but
it was not something I would use all of the time in
my classroom, it is a good formative assessment so
that I know how students feel about the topics so I
know what I need to make more interesting and
adjust from there.
WORD SORT: The word sort was a little more direct
in this case and there was less room for creativity
because students would group pre-made vocabulary
into categories. It went well with my student
because she created groupings that made sense.

LESSON
TYPES OF TRIANGLES
S T RAT E G I E S :
W O R D WA L L ; W O R D G R I D S ; P O P C O R N R E V I E W

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGIES, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK(word wall and word
grid only), RESOURCES, REFLECTIONS

CONTEXT
Grade Level: 7th grade Geometry Unit
Learning Objective: Students will be able to
differentiate between different types of triangles
and recognize similarities and differences
between each.
Time: 20 minutes; 5-10 minutes on word grid; 5
minutes on word-wall; 5 minutes for popcorn
review.
Materials: Paper for word wall, grid for word grid;
markers, pens/pencils, textbook (if available)

WORD-WALL
Theory: teachers also use word walls to highlight
vocabulary that is related to a unit of instruction. (Fisher
150).
Strategy: Word walls are a display of vocabulary words
that are made by students. These vocabulary words are
related to a unit that students can refer to throughout the
unit.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment. The
word wall is informal because it is not taken for a grade
and it is a way to see what students know about the word
they were given or picked.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

WORD GRIDS
Theory: A word grid provides students with an organized
framework for learning related terms through analysis of
their similarities and differences. (Fisher 140).
Strategy: A word grid relates similar terms by
demonstrating their similarities and differences. This can
be used for similar terms that are from the same
categories like angles or shapes etc.
Assessment Type: Formative, formal assessment. The word
grid is turned in for a grade (completion or graded) but it is
not a summative assessment of an entire unit or chapter.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

POPCORN REVIEW
Theory: A popcorn review creates a novel context for
generative, student-directed rehearsal of newly learned
content (Fisher 74).
Strategy: Students stand up and say a fact that we learned
today and the other students follow what the previous
student said. This will continue until the teacher decides it
is good enough.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment. This is
not something that is taken for a grade, it is a quick way to
see what students know about the topic in just a few
sentences.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
Students will have read whichever resource they decided
to look at the night before and come in with some
knowledge about triangles.
Students will use their textbook or previous knowledge to
define the terms for the word-wall. (5 minutes)
Then students will use those terms to fill out the Word-Grid
that displays different properties of the triangles. (10
minutes)
Then we will discuss the word-grid and any difficulties the
students had on it.
After this we will do a short popcorn review where students
will stand up and name a triangle then other students will
name the properties etc. (5 minutes)
Vocabulary: Right triangles, Acute triangles, Obtuse triangles, Scalene triangles,
Isosceles triangles, Equilateral triangles, Equiangular triangles

FAKE STUDENT WORK

(WORD WALL)

FAKE STUDENT WORK

(WORD GRID)

RESOURCES
http://www.mathsisfun.com/triangle.html This is more of a reading
textbook format that can take the place of a textbook if there is not a
classroom set.
http://
www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-fourth-grade-math/cc-4th-geometry-topic
/cc-4th-classifying-shapes/v/scalene-isosceles-equilateral-acute-ri
ght-obtuse
This is a link to a video for students that are more visual and auditory
learners. It is for 4th graders but since this is more of a review of
triangles for this class it is appropriate for this lesson.
http://
www.mathwarehouse.com/geometry/triangles/triangle-types.php This
is another resource that has a lot of practice problems for students
that need to practice in order to understand material.
http://www.coolmath.com/reference/triangles-types.html This website
is a little more fun for students to look at. It is a little shorter and
more to the point for students that need things laid out for them.

REFLECTIONS
WORD WALL: The word wall went really well with the
class, word walls are only useful when you refer to them
in class and continually use them. I was able to do this
activity with a class of fake students and it was beneficial
for me because I could refer to the word wall when I asked
the students questions.
WORD GRID: The word grid could have gone better than it
did. I think students misunderstood instructions so that is
one thing I would improve next time for this activity.
POPCORN REVIEW: A popcorn review is helpful for a unit
like this to review all of the types of triangles. Since
students have learned them before it is nice to review at
the end so we can move on to the next topic.

LESSON
TYPES OF ANGLES WITH PARALLEL LINES AND A
TRANSVERSAL
VOCAB CARDS; TOSSED TERMS

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGIES, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK, RESOURCES,

REFLECTIONS

CONTEXT
Grade Level: Eighth Grade Math (Pre-Algebra)
Learning Objective: Students will be able to identify
different angles with parallel lines and a
transversal line.
Time: 45 minute lesson; 15 min homework review;
20 min vocab cards; 10 min tossed terms.
Materials: Computers/iPads (access to the internet)
or textbooks, notecards, paper to make cubes.

VOCAB CARDS
Theory: When Students create vocabulary cards, they
begin to see the connections between words, examples
of the word, non-examples of the word, and the critical
attributes associated with a word (Fisher 135).
Strategy: Vocabulary cards are a way for students study
the vocabulary by writing examples, what the word isnt,
the definition and their own description of the word.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment. This
is because vocab cards are more of a tool for students to
learn from rather than a complete assessment.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

TOSSED TERMS
Theory: Tossed terms is a routine that can be used
to review ideas before a test or as a way to help
students acquire essential vocabulary (Fisher 133).
Strategy: Students will create a cube with all six
terms on it. They will get into groups of 4-6 and toss
the cube and define the word that lands face up.
Assessment Type: Formative, informal assessment.
The only assessment going on is making sure
students are answering it correctly.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
About 15 minutes will be dedicated to completing
a warm-up and reviewing the homework.
Students will be given about 20 minutes to look
up the vocabulary whichever way they choose
and complete the vocab cards.
Students will be able to use a laptop or computer
to look up the vocabulary. They are allowed to
watch educational videos, read articles and
websites to get the vocabulary.
Students that do not want to use a laptop can
look at a textbook (if there is one)

LESSON CONT.
When students have finished they will get into
groups of 4-6 depending on class size and setup.
Each group will get one cube cutout to fill out
with the six terms. Then they will put the cube
together.
Students will be given 5-10 minutes to toss the
cube in their group to review the terms. (students
will do this without their vocab cards).

Vocabulary: Vertical Angles, Adjacent Angles, Supplementary

Angles, Complementary Angles, Alternate Interior Angles,
Corresponding Angles

FAKE STUDENT
(VOCAB CARDS)
Example work by:
Bianca Lev

FAKE STUDENT
(TOSSED TERMS)

RESOURCES
http://
www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/parallel-lines.html
https://
www.khanacademy.org/math/cc-eighth-grade-math/c
c-8th-geometry/cc-8th-angles-between-lines/v/an
gles-formed-by-parallel-lines-and-transversals

REFLECTIONS
VOCAB CARDS: The vocab cards were good for
this lesson because students needed something
for them to decipher between the different types
of angles.
TOSSED TERMS: I adjusted this activity because I
wanted students to learn what the terms were
before going into depth with them.

LESSON
PROBLEM SOLVING
S T R A T E G Y:
RA FT W R IT IN G

INCLUDES: CONTEXT, STRATEGY, LESSON, FAKE STUDENT WORK, RESOURCES,

REFLECTION

CONTEXT
Grade Level: Algebra 2 (sophomores or juniors)
Learning Objective: Students will be able to use
problem solving skills, the quadratic equation,
and knowledge about area and perimeter to solve
equations. Students will be able to use writing
skills to compose a letter.
Time: 30 minute lesson: 15 minutes to solve the
problem; 25 minutes to write the letter.
Materials: Writing utensils, paper or computers if
available. Calculators if needed.

RAFT WRITING
Theory: [RAFT] provides an opportunity for students to
focus on perspective writing while sharing what they know
about the content at hand (Fisher 85).
Strategy: R=Role, A=Audience, F=Format, T=Topic
Students will have a role, then there is an audience they
have to write to, there is a format for the writing (i.e. letter,
postcard, etc.) and a topic of what they are writing about.
Assessment Type: Summative, formal assessment. This is
more of a end of unit project for students rather than an
activity in this case.
STRATEGY HOMEPAGE LINK

LESSON
Students will solve the following problem: A large farm
field is next to a river. Farmer Joe has 900 feet of fence
and wants to fence in as much area as possible in a
rectangular shape. Because the river is there, only 3 sides
of the field need to be fenced. What do the dimensions of
the fence need to be to fence the greatest area?
Following the problem, students will be given time to
write a letter to the fake farmer telling him what
dimensions the fence needs to be and why. They can also
add more details and pictures to the letter.
Another possible way to do this lesson would be to find an actual farmer that could
come in and ask the students to figure out what the best possible solution would be for
him and write out the solution for him.

FAKE STUDENT
(RAFT)

RESOURCES
Problem: http://
www.math-prof.com/Alg2/Alg2_Ch_05.asp

REFLECTION
RAFT: I really liked this RAFT activity for many
reasons. It is a good way to show students that
math is used in real life. Students that really
enjoy writing will have fun with this activity as
well. My fake student is a journalism major and
really enjoyed the writing part of this activity.
This activity reaches out to a variety of students,
ones that enjoy solving problems and ones that
enjoy writing. RAFT gives students a chance to be
creative with math which will ultimately help
students learn the content.

CITATIONS
Fisher, D., Brozo, W.G., Frey, N., & Ivey, G. (2007).
50 Content Area Strategies for Adolescent
Literacy. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall.