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Pioneer 5th Grade Math League overview

Goals

Meetings

Fridays in room 35, 2:10–3:00pm.

Overview

I believe that competition can be a great motivator for the kids—especially the over achievers that are likely to be in this program. Still we have to be careful that no one feels disheartened or left because they are “losing”. For this reason, I propose that we track both individual and team scores as we progress through the year. At the end of the year, we can do some sort of awards for the top team and top individual performers. Having fun solving challenging problems should be the primary motivation for active participation however.

It would be nice to establish teams that are well balanced in terms of ability. Ideally, each team should have a balance of players with different skills and abilities. In order to assess ability I would like to give a half hour written assessment test (that I will create and submit to you for review), and use the scores on this test together with overall average scores from last year’s Continental Math League (for those that have such a score). The size of the team will depend on how many students participate. Probably 5 or 6 teams of 4 or 5 students on each team would be best.

Unlike last year, I think the teams should remain relatively fixed throughout the year so that team members have a chance to develop some camaraderie. Also players may be less likely to be absent if they think they might be letting their team down. Similarly, students might be motivated to be more involved if they feel part of a team rather than being on their own. We should allow trading of members if all involved parties agree to it.

I would like to have a schedule where we alternate between playing the team game and individual assessment/learning. It could work like this:

Week 1: Words of introduction. Explain what to expect and what is expected of them. Give the half hour initial assessment test.

Week 2: Tell them what the teams are. Give them a chance to trade if they really want. Let them come up with team names. Play a variation of the glass token game. Record team scores.

Week 3: Give a 20 minute assessment test. Go over two or three problems from the test. Give a mini lesson on some topic. During the next game session, questions will be related to that topic. Give bonus problem to ponder until next week.

Week 4: Game session. Collect bonus problem solutions. Distribute initial tokens (with additional tokens for correct solutions to bonus problem). Play the game. Record team scores.

Week 2n − 1: 20 minute test. Discuss problems on test. Perhaps have students describe their solutions on the board. Give mini lesson. Give bonus problem.

Week 2n: Game session based on mini lesson from previous week.

At the end of each test session give a challenge problem for them to ponder until the following week. Only written solutions (in students own handwriting) will be accepted. For correct solutions, add one token to initial number of tokens for that player’s team during the next game playing session. Bonus problem will be related to mini-lesson.

Record both individual and team scores in an excel spreadsheet for data analysis. We may show aggregated statistics of these scores with names removed on the website.

Team token penalties may be assessed for infractions like talking out of turn, cheating, or other sorts of unsportsmanlike conduct. The token penalties should be described up front so the students know what behavior is expected. For example:

There are a variety of topics to select from for mini-lessons for after the tests on test taking weeks. These lessons will probably be only about 10–15 minutes in length but will describe what kinds of questions they can expect in the next week’s game session.