Monthly Archives: January 2016

Generating questions

MTBoS blogging initiative, week 3!  This week’s prompt focuses on questioning.

betterquestionsMy colleague, who teaches the grade 6 and grade 7 math courses at my school is in training to run a marathon.  He has put together a training program for himself, which includes a schedule of endurance-building, and he has been collecting data with a GPS watch.  As he examined the data, he thought that this might make a rich exploration for his students and we have been working together to set up a project  for them.

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Here is what the raw data looks like

We started with the driving question: How long will Mr. Feutz take to complete the Limassol marathon? and then we began by brainstorming questions together.

  • How long will Mr. Feutz take to complete the marathon?
  • How many steps will he take to complete the marathon?
  • How many calories will he burn during the run?
  • What percentage of his overall time will be spent moving?  (Compared to taking breaks)
  • What will his average heart rate be during the marathon (In B.P.M.)?
  • What will be the shortest/longest mile time, and what is the range between these?

We tried to analyse which questions are actually interesting, and what might we be able to ask kids to do with them.  While running, he found that he was constantly doing math of one sort or another.  How much further will I run today? When will I arrive back at home?  Things that he had genuine curiosity about, and questions that math gives us the power to answer.

We set up a graphic organizer, and decided to ask our driving question directly.  Here are some of the kids’ initial responses.

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They always manage to think of something that we haven’t anticipated (…which is why we love kids!).  “Will you be listening to music, because if it’s like… Taylor Swift, you wouldn’t be as inspired as if it was like… hard rock.”  Students were given a graphic organizer and asked to write their first guesses.   As they acquire more information, they will refine their estimates.  Part of the beauty of this work is that they will get to actually test their prediction, and compare their answer to what actually happens.

Students will revisit this project over the next weeks, and will be asked to refine their work.  They have already studied unit rates, and are moving into work on ratio and proportion next.  We are hoping that more questions will arise as we continue this work.  My favorite so far is, “Given a start time, time spent running so far, and a map of the run, can you figure out where Mr. Feutz is now?”

Here is our Graphic Organizer – totally open to your critique and suggestions.  What questions can you add to our list, and how do you come up with your project questions?  We would be most grateful if you share your curiosities or strategies in the comments.

Related:

Create Suspense – MTBoS Week Two: My Favorite

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For week two of our blogging challenge, we were asked to write about one of our favorite lessons, games, resources, tools or strategies. It was tough to pick one.  I have so many excellent resources and tools, that as I reflected on what to write about, it made me once again realize what a great time is it to be a math teacher and just how lucky I am.  What a hard but awesome job, and what a generous and sharing community we have.

I really like keeping students in suspense.  If I can set up a situation where students want to know what’s coming next, that often translates into engagement and the desire to learn.  When you watch your favorite TV show, and it ends on a cliff-hanger, you make predictions and you think about it in between episodes.  You are connected to and invested in the story, and you can’t wait to see what happens next.  I want my classes to have at least some of this kind of anticipation.

I also like to create some public presence for math in my school, and I try to create a bit of suspense around this as well.  Typically, a few days before we publish our work on the math wall, I will put up a provocative question, or something to generate interest. This week I just put up a funny title with a big question mark, and listened for the buzz..

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As a culminating activity of learning about graphing linear equations, I asked Algebra 1 students to create “math faces” through drawing with graphs. They used Desmos (…it was very tempting to write a series of “my favorite Desmos” posts – everything those guys do makes my classroom better!) to create their works of mathematical art, to practice transforming linear equations, and to solidify their understanding of domain and range.  I ask students to make sketches ahead of time to ensure that they are purposeful in manipulating their equations.  This is an activity
conceived of by the incomparable Fawn Nguyen, and one that I use every year.  I have written about it before as well.  This kind of task gives all students an easy entry point, but allows for real complexity for those who are ready. This low entry, high ceiling aspect of drawing with graphs makes it a rich and motivating activity that we can return to with students again and again.  Although the Des-Man activity is not currently available through the teacher dashboard at Desmos, I have heard that it is getting a make-over and that they will be bringing it back again.  Each time, I am amazed at how motivating this activity is for students.

After a couple of days, we published our process and our results on this year’s “Sweet Wall of Math!”

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How do you create suspense and anticipation in your classroom?

2016 MTBoS Blogging Initiative: The One Good Thing Glow

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As a math teacher, it’s really fun to work with students who come to my classes already loving the subject, students who have already mastered the content from last year’s course so they are ready to dig deeply into novel problems in our courses, and students who feel really good about themselves as math thinkers.  Doesn’t this describe most of our kiddos?

The reality is that a large part of my job ends up being working to alleviate the trauma that students bring with them to Algebra 1 or Algebra 2.  They have known since second grade that they are not a “math person.”  They feel that they are not as good at math or as fast at math as others around them.  Many of their mathematical experiences have left them feeling inadequate, and math has been a place where their self esteem has been eroded.  Not a big surprise that they have trouble accessing the beauty of the subject.

One of my grade 10 students showed up this year with all of the marks of earlier trauma.  She was reluctant to speak in class or even when I worked one-on-one with her.  When she did answer a question, it always sounded like she was asking rather than answering (…y’all know that “I have no idea if what I’m saying is right” tone of voice).

This week, she had a perfect score on her linear systems and inequalities assessment.

And this wasn’t an easy test.  I always include some questions that ask kids to synthesize and apply, and to recall ideas from earlier work – typically, I have very few 100%s.  In fact, hers was the only perfect score in the class.  Although I generally avoid comparing students to each other, I couldn’t resist sharing this with her.  You should have seen her trying to pretend that she wasn’t beaming!  I wrote a note the her mom, to share how proud I was of this effort and of her success.  When I saw her mom the next day in the school lobby, there were tears in her eyes while we spoke about this.  She said that her joy had nothing to do with the score.  She didn’t care about the test score, but she could see and feel the difference in her daughter’s confidence and sense of self.  I couldn’t agree more.

What a wonderful way to begin my Thursday.  The One Good Thing glow stuck with me all day!

2016 Blogging Initiative

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I am participating in the 2016 MTBoS Blogging Initiative.  I am doing this in part in to open my classroom up and share my thoughts with other teachers. I hope to accomplish this goal by participating in the January Blogging Initiation hosted by Explore MTBoS

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I’ve just dusted off my “About Me” page to include the schools at which I’ve taught, and I’m excited for the next month.  You, too, could join in on this exciting adventure. All you have to do is dust off your blog and get ready for the first prompt to arrive January 10th!