This is my second semester through spiraling the Grade 9 Academic course (MPM 1D). For the most part, I have kept the sequence of activities the same, but I did change a few things. Some activities that we did later in the course (when the weather was nicer), I am moving to earlier cycles while the weather is still nice.
We just finished our first cycle and I am so happy with the test results. The overall average was 85% (Number Sense – 89%, Linear Relations – 79%, Measurement – 87%). The test covered quite a bit of content: scatter plots and LOBF, trends and relationships, graphing simple lines, exponent rules, ratios and rates, surface area and Pythagorean theorem. One thing I have noticed since beginning spiraling, there were no blank answers on any of the tests. In addition, the students seem far more confident in their abilities.
We recently received our EQAO data from last year. We spiral both the grade 9 academic and applied courses at our school. Our applied math scores were up 5% from the previous year and our academic scores were up 4% from the previous year. Spiraling for the win!
If you are interested in spiraling other courses, a colleague @MisterTieGuy is blogging about his MBF 3C (Grade 11 College Math) course. I highly recommend you check it out.
Hogg's Blogg 