Rich Tasks

This week in math, we focused on rich tasks. No, these are not tasks with a cash reward at the end - they are better! These tasks allow students to feel confident about their math abilities as everyone could be right. Back when I was in school, there was no such thing for "everyone to be right" in math - I wish there was. Therefore, rich tasks give students this positive mentality that they can be right as there are numerous answers to these types of tasks. These task should be: relatable, accessible, creative, have an opportunity for extension, have multiple approaches, and promote collaboration, discussion, and curiosity. This is the secret recipe to create a quality rich task to keep students engaged and tests their knowledge.

Math Class (2017, Sept 26).
What Doesn't Belong Puzzle [Personal Image].

I would like to introduce to the website, Which One Doesn't Belong. This resource contains endless puzzles that requires you to think about what does not belong in the image. An example of a puzzle done in class is shown here. There are numerous possibilities to allow students to not only find one answer but more than one to challenge themselves. I believe this resource is a great way to start a lesson with math by myself when following the Math Daily 3 framework as mentioned in a previous blog. It helps students develop a growth mindset as they gain confidence in their own abilities brainstorming how to solve these puzzles. Students can also discuss these solutions with their peers to see how many possibilities there are and developing reasoning as they can prove why they believe their idea is correct. These reasoning skills can then be transferred to other math problems done in class or other subjects as well.

The online modules touched on the importance of collaboration which rich tasks encourage. Collaboration promoting math talk as students discuss problems and methods to use to find solutions. It allow requires them to apply reasoning as they may have to prove why their idea or solution is appropriate for the problem. The module also looked into reasoning and that these skills are good to develop for future jobs in explaining and selling an idea. As teacher, we should encourage collaboration not only in math but all subjects. This allows students to seeks peers for help, discuss with their peers to solve mistakes together and strengthen their understanding, brainstorm possible approaches to a task, and experience different perspectives on how their peers attack a problem or task that may make more sense to them.

Our math webinar this week from Daniel and Kevin looked at differentiating instruction. This goes along with the idea of allowing students a comfortable environment in finding more than one solution. Differentiating instruction is important for us teachers to be aware of as we can create a classroom that allows all our students to be successful. We can provide problems with varied difficulties or methods so that the students have choice based on their comfort level in which problem they would like to solve. Daniel and Kevin started our webinar with a tic-tac-toe game where we had to solve 3 problems to make a line like tic tac toe. The questions provided in each squared varied in difficulty and the methods needed to use allowing us to have a starting point where we felt comfortable and go from there. This is a great activity for classes ranging in abilities so students can feel confident at the start then challenge themselves to deepen their learning.

Overall, these forms of rich tasks allow students to become confident in themselves and be less frustrated in finding one answer. By providing them tasks with multiple solutions, they retain the same learning but in a more encouraging environment so they can do their happy dance for success.


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