Math Journal Sundays - Patterning

This week's Math Journal Sundays post is all about patterning.  We have been working on creating and extending numerical patterns, identifying the pattern rule, and making a table of values for a pattern, so I tried to incorporate all of that into our entry for the week.

We started out on the right side of the page with our learning goal in curriculum language.  After discussing what it meant, students completed a student-friendly learning goal on the left side of the page (their output) - we came up with the goal together and everybody used it in their journals.  We then discussed "what I already know" and added that below on the left side.

For the foldable, we used a small rectangle (1/4 of a piece of paper) and cut five strips almost to the edge of the page (leaving about 1 cm - this is the part that was glued to the journal).  On each of the strips, we wrote a number pattern.  I modelled the first one, then I asked for volunteers to come up with the patterns and we all wrote them down on our foldables.  Under each strip we wrote the pattern rule.  From there, we took one of the patterns and turned it into a table of values - with the term number on the left and term value on the right.

Once the right hand side of the page is complete (the input) we go back to the left side of the page.  This time I asked the students to independently come up with their "what I learned" statement - related to the information they just learned through the lesson.  (I do a gradual release of responsibility for the left side of the page - mid way through October, they are expected to do a little more independently on the left side of the journals).  From there, they had to do their proof of learning - I reminded them that the proof had to be directly related to what they wrote for "what I learned" - this allows for differentiation because they are coming up with a problem and solving it at their own level.  They also completed this part independently.  For the reflection, I wrote down a question related to the entry, and they answered the question in writing.

Happy patterning!