Countdown to the Holidays!

You know how I love nrich.maths.org for rich problems to solve.  Well--today I saw that they have an advent calendar for elementary students.  Each day has a rich task that accompanies it.  The problems are not holiday based; only the design of the calendar is.

You might just refer to it as a holiday countdown calendar, but no matter what you call it, it should lead to some good student thinking!

https://nrich.maths.org/14060

3 Act Tasks: Have you tried them yet?

3 Act Tasks offer our students such an engaging opportunity to make sense of math! However, as teachers, sometimes we are afraid to try something new not knowing where it might take us and scared that something bad might happen.  I just heard an analogy recently about this being like being at the top of a rollercoaster:









via ytCropper
And, while it might have twists and turns and dropoffs, not to mention bugs in the face, it also brings an excitement and thrill that we rarely find doing a traditional math lesson. We need to think about putting ourselves in that precarious position at the top of the rollercoaster; it's what we ask our students to do on a regular basis so that they can grow.  We should try it, too!

3 Act Tasks are real-world problem-solving scenarios which require students to make sense of what to do.  During Act 1, they use the reading skills of visualizing, predicting, and inferring in a math context.  They figure out what they need to know to solve the problem. In Act 2, students work to solve the math question in a way that makes sense to them. They discuss their thinking with a friend and compare their answer to their estimate.  Act 3 is exciting because that is when they find out if they were on the right track!  

While they are working during Act 2, you are monitoring (and asking questions that help them understand--not helping too much).  You are monitoring to see the methods that students used in order to solve the problem.  During Act 3, it is your job to have students share ways that they solved the problem.  These should be sequenced so that you can show connections between different methods. Be clear on what your math target for the lesson was and be sure that your models and discussion help that math target to be evident to everyone.  You synthesize the learning at the end of the lesson.

3 Acts are very visual and often use videos to help students better understand the situation. They follow more of the format of "you do, we do, I do" rather than the traditional layout of "I do, we do, you do."

Typically, a 3 Act Task in K-2  about 20-30 minutes.  In 3-5, a task usually takes about 4o minutes.  As students get stronger and more comfortable, the time needed for a 3 Act might decrease.

I am happy to come and model a 3 Act Task for you and your class, but I know that many of you can do them without my support.  You just need to put yourself on the rollercoaster!

At the top of this blog, you will find a tab labeled 3 Act Tasks.  This will take you to a large number of standards-aligned tasks that I have organized using SMART Notebook (and sometimes Google slides).  They are by a variety of mathematicians; I just put all of the pieces together into one format.  You can also find more great tasks by clicking here or here or even by Googling 3 Act Tasks.

As always, share with me your questions, struggles, or successes and let me know how I can help!

Would You Rather? -- Holiday Edition

If you are looking for some problem solving to get your students thinking and proving themselves while mixing in some holiday cheer, maybe these Would You Rather problems will work for you!

Would You Rathers are something that students are very familiar with, and these just include a mathematical twist.  Students can choose whichever option they want, but they need to have a mathematical explanation of why that is what they chose or didn't choose.  They can be used with students of all ages and offer great opportunities for collaboration.

If you like these, you can find more like them at this site, but I am betting you can come up with some good ones of your own!

Holiday Would You Rather 1

Holiday Would You Rather 2

Holiday Would You Rather 3

Holiday Would You Rather 4

Holiday Would You Rather 5

A Stepping Stone to a More Student-Driven Workshop

If you are still looking for ways to make your math workshop more about collaboration and problem-solving rather than about independent work and computation, a Week of Inspirational Math by Jo Boaler/Youcubed might just be the ticket!  If you have done any of these lessons before, you know how awesome they can be!  Well--she has recently posted her WIM #4!  That's right--4 weeks of math explorations and engaging lessons that you can use to build your mathematicians.

These engaging lessons are organized by grade level strands and are grouped into a week's worth of lessons.  They are great to use a week at a time, but you certainly could use them independently if you needed to.  They embody the paradigm shift in math education with a focus on growth mindset, visual math, patterns, and collaboration.

Besides that, each lesson will really engage your students for at least math period.  (Oftentimes, students keep working on the problem after class...) Each lesson begins with a video that you can show if you wish.  It helps to build the growth mindset in your students and presents them with mathematical thinking that helps them to see math is all around them.  After the video, there is a lesson (with full lesson-plan) that you can have students work on in small groups and share out with the class.  You can learn so much about your students as you circulate the room listening to their thinking, and they will learn so much about themselves as mathematicians!

With the craziness of the holidays, you might find a few days where some WIM activities are just the ticket, and they might cause you to begin rethinking your workshop!  They might be a good way to spend your math time during those days right before holiday break, but they might also be an awesome way to set the tone for 2019!

I have blogged about WIM before, but I can't tell you enough how much they can invigorate and change your classroom, your student's thinking, and your own thinking!  Time well spent!

Building Collaborative Thinkers

Are you giving your students enough time to work with each other to solve problems?  This is an area of growth for many of us.  Consider the following problem.  How could you build it into your math workshop?  In what ways would you anticipate that your students would be able to prove their answer?

Thanksgiving in the US has been declared to be the fourth Thursday in November.  This year, Thanksgiving is the earliest date it can possibly be.  What is the latest date Thanksgiving can possibly be? Be prepared to prove your answer.

I'd love to hear your results!