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.


via GIPHY

Keep Student Minds Churning To Deepen Their Learning

This week as I continue my path in math, opened my eyes to a variety of concepts that I see valuable as teacher. The main theme of the week that I noticed from class, during the webinar, textbook readings, and online modules was to challenge our students to allow them to think deeply and deepen their learning.

We can promote a growth mindset by differentiating the content, process, and product of a task which parallel tasks allows us to do. The content is the task they are given to do. Parallel tasks basically consists of giving the students choice by providing them 2 or more options in how they can solve a problem. The different questions provided to the students ask the basic same idea but are different ways to actually solve them. I love this idea as it gives students choice - and students love choice! It allows them to choose the problem that they feel comfortable solving or gives them the opportunity to challenge themselves and deepen their learning. There are a number of ways the students can solve these problems representing their process. Lastly, there can be more than one product of these tasks which challenges students to find more than one solution if they can.

Math Class (2017, Sept 18).
Creating Common and Scaffolding Questions [Personal Image].

In addition, these tasks can be consolidated by proposing scaffolding questions to the students. It challenges the students to think about their math process or other possible solutions and gain a greater understanding of the concept. In class we were given the task to create both common questions that a student may ask about our problem we chose in addition to scaffolding questions to allow students to reflect on the mathematical components of solving the problem. This is a great reflection piece for students to reflect on their learning and the math concept.

I was pleased to participate during our first webinar this week as I learned about Math Inquiry from Teresa. She explained many valuable points about why this is important to include in the classroom and how it can be orchestrated. Allowing students to wonder helps deepen their learning as they think beyond what is being taught to them gaining an interest and curiosity. One point that stood out to me is that students need to have a general understanding of what is being taught first before being open to question and analyze concepts. This makes sense as once they have an understanding of something, they may be more curious or be able to think more deeply about that concept.

Our online modules also followed this trend of deepening student learning through various ways. It is important for teachers to understand how valuable mistakes are. Creating challenging and open ended questions make mistakes more probable from our students. Therefore, through this process, they will learn to overcome these challenges and apply different strategies to solve the problems. As a result, students will learn more from this process. Another important concept from the module is to allow students time to complete their work. It is shown that those who are slower at doing math are not necessary bad at it. In fact, those who are slow may just need time to make connections and apply their understanding to solve problems. Thus, even though a challenge can be frustrating, our students will learn more from resolving their mistakes through critical thinking.


via GIPHY

Think "I Can"

As I continue on my path this week, there was a large focus on creating a growth mindset for students. A growth mindset is believing you can do something and not giving up on yourself. As teachers, it is our role to help set the stage for our students to have this mindset. 

In class this week, we learned about Math Daily 3 which is a framework that includes three different components to a lesson. It was not till after the class until it hit me.. this helps forms a growth mindset! The three components include starting a lesson with (1) Math by Myself, followed by (2) Math with Someone, and (3) Math Writing. So in short, a lesson starts by an individual review of past concepts where it may make them feel confident in their abilities. After reviewing on their own, students then move to doing an activity in partners where they will be learning a new concept and can use each other to push themselves and learn from mistakes. Lastly, the students complete a question by writing about their understanding of solving similar questions to express their understanding. This lesson framework is a great model to work from as it allows students to be independent but also using student centred learning. By starting with something that the students are familiar with, it helps them gain confidence before they gradually learn a new concept so that they believe in themselves with an "I can" attitude. 

After completing the online modules this week, there was a common theme of teachers playing a key role in how students think and apply themselves. As teachers, we need to speak wisely to our students. Praise should be given to a student who demonstrates working hard so that they continue to challenge themselves and learn from their mistakes. Telling students that they are "smart" praises them for the wrong reason. There was a video that showed students being praised for hard work wanting to work on a challenging question whereas those praised for being smart chose to work on the easy problem. Those being praised for being smart may feel pressured to continue to get the right answer. They then may avoid challenging themselves so they take an easy route where they have a smaller chance of making a mistake and can get to the right answer quickly. Therefore, it is our role as teachers to show to our students that we believe in them and tell them we are confident in their abilities so they can be confident in themselves. If we show them that we are confident in them and appreciate their hard work, they will continue to push themselves during their learning process. 

Therefore, it has come to attention how much of an impact teachers have on how students perform. Using our words wisely to encourage our students and creating an environment to promote a growth mindset by welcoming mistakes will help our students grow and continue on an upward path to learning. A story that came to my mind as I reflected on this week was The Little Engine That Could. When faced with a challenging obstacle, the train believed and told herself the classic line, “I think I can, I think I can” resulting in her getting over the hill. This is a great example of perseverance and having a growth mindset to overcome challenges and trying hard to achieve their goal. 

Back on Track

Hello and welcome to my blog! Here I invite you to join me as I continue to document my path in math where I have taken a short break but looking forward to get back on track to learning the new effective ways of teaching math.

Coming into teachers college last year, I was very nervous to teach math as I thought it could be tricky to teach and I am not too confident in my own knowledge. However, last year taught me numerous ways to create an engaging math class through the use of manipulatives, hands-on activities, and student centred learning which sparked my creativity side. After learning this, I was excited to try this new approach in my placement for my Grade 6 class. Luckily, I was able to implement a lot of these new teaching strategies where it allowed me to be creative. I absolutely loved teaching this subject (something I never thought I would say) and I received a great amount of positive feedback from the students where they never thought math could be so much fun. This moment made me realize how important it is to create that enjoyable and engaging environment as it has a large impact on how it motivates them to learn helping them grasp new concepts. This year, I look forward to learning even more strategies to use that help contribute to create an engaging class where my students will enjoy math.

As one week has gone by, I have already learned a lot, but with the mentality that comes with learning math. Growing up, math was always portrayed as being boring as I recall doing worksheet after worksheet. This made it hard for me to stay focused and motivated. An important idea that was made clear to me during our Math Mindset Modules is having that “I can” attitude that comes with having a growth mindset. The video states that anyone can learn math and mistakes and challenges is where we learn the most. I believe this is important for students to know so they do not give up on a concept or themselves during a challenging time and should know they can do something and succeed. How you mentally think affects your abilities to accomplish something so this video explains that if anyone has the ability to learn math when they put their mind to it and actually believe they can. Therefore, we as teachers should create that environment where we stress to our students that anyone is capable of learning math and welcome mistakes. If we do these things, students will be more willing to make mistakes and learn from them helping their brains grow. As Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus always says, “take chances, make mistakes, get messy” holds true to this statement as she encourages students to not shy away from trying something new and that it is ok to make mistakes.

I cannot wait to continue my path in math where I will “take chances, make mistakes, get messy” in order to learn and improve my teaching methods to make them even more effective in the future.