Hello once again to my readers! It is so
incredible how fast this school year has been going but I am delighted to share
with you some of the knowledge I gained this week.
Rich Tasks
This week in class we spent a large
portion of our time together discussing how teachers can create rich math tasks
for their students. In order to help me learn more about this topic I researched
into other avenues of information to see what other experts say about this
concept of rich math tasks (see link). What I learned was that there are
certainly some differences in the way people define a rich task and the
criteria needed to create one, but there were some key themes demonstrated.
One key theme I found to be incredibly
important was that the task has to be engaging and meaningful. I believe that
these two are interconnected because if you can achieve one you are most likely
achieving the other. Too often I remember when I was a student answering
repetitive math problem in order to develop my ability to grasp the concept.
This was not only boring, but it also restricted my ability to use my knowledge
to struggle with a meaningful problem. I would argue that students are much
more engaged in their learning when they believe they are solving a real
problem that could occur outside the classroom.
Another important point is that the
problem must allow for all students to be able to participate no matter what
their achievement level is. It should be easy enough so that any student can
begin, while challenging enough for the students at a higher level. I believe
that too many math problems are created where the student either feels it’s too
easy and therefore pointless or too difficult that they cannot get started.
Multiple Avenues, Same Destination
We also learned this week about how
there are multiple avenues that students can take when they answer a solution.
For instance, we were asked to answer 18x5 without a calculator and I was
amazed at the number of methods people used to solve the problem. It is
critical that teachers be more open to the way students arrive at an answer and
be able to anticipate the way they might do so. I remember when I asked my
students in my teaching block a question that compared ratios and had them
answer it in small groups. After they found a solution I asked them to write it
on a poster and explain it to the class. Not only did the students all arrive
at the same answer using multiple methods, they also were able to teach their
classmates different forms they could use to answer the question (decimals,
fractions, percentages, etc.).
Conclusion
Through my teaching experience and my
learning this week I have seen the connection between creating rich tasks and
allowing for different strategies in that it shows how math does in fact allow
for creativity. Too often math teachers instruct math in a way that is too
rigid when really it is a subject that allows for students to solve meaningful
problems in creative ways that make sense to them.
Here is a video I hope will inspire you to know your students and allow them to learn in a way that best helps them.
Great post and reflection this week my dude. I am glad that you are seeing the connection between the rich tasks and the use of different strategies. When teaching math the teacher also has to be open to different strategies in order to foster the use of different strategies by learners. Really good connections Zach! Keep it up.
ReplyDeleteHey Zach,
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing that link! What is and isn't considered a rich task was somewhat confusing in the classroom this week. Maybe the slides were just moving too fast for me. This link is great!
As a young student, I don't remember a single engaging math lesson. Maybe there somewhere deep, DEEP, in the back of the ol' noggin; maybe not. I'm glad that we're seeing and leading the shift to a more engaging math class.
I also really enjoyed the multiple avenues portion of this week. I hadn't thought about having students teach their peers how they arrived at their answer. I thought the task of teaching several different methods to be daunting, but why not have the students teach each other?! Brilliant.
Hey Zach,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I loved the video you shared. One of the young students says "It makes me feel sad when you tell me to try harder, even though I've already tried as hard as I could." As a teacher, I found this particularly powerful because it addresses the concept of self reflection. If a student could understand what you're explaining to them, don't you think they'd choose to do it? You can't become frustrated with a student who doesn't understand what you're trying to explain. It simply isn't fair to them. As teachers, we need to reflect on our own instructional strategies to ensure that we're constantly providing our students with what they need to succeed and not hindering them with our own stubbornness! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Zach,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really liked the idea of the multiple avenues, same destination outlook you wrote about. I myself found myself amazed with the different ways that people found the answer in the video. When I was solving the 18x5 problem myself, I did it the traditional way because that was the only way that immediately came to mind. I think that as teachers, the traditional way of learning is not going to work for all students so its important to find other ways to teach it for students to understanding. These videos do a great job of making us reflect on our own experiences and change or modify for today's generation.