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| K, Katic (Sept. 17, 18, 2016). Relaxing After Birthday Fun and Apple Picking! Nana and Papa's; and Pingle's Farm Market in Hampton. |
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| Katic, K. (Sept. 19, 2016). I Have...Who Has? In Class Ice-Breaker, BrockU. |
I have...Who has?
We began class this week with a great icebreaker, minds-on activity since it involves EVERYONE in the class and, as no calculators are allowed, it's an excellent review of concepts. This can be adapted for every single age, grade and individual, shy or outgoing, everyone is involved and everyone loves it. I love this strategy as an introduction to multiple math lessons in multiple units, I really experienced having my brain get warmed up with math before the lesson began, and this is something that would help our students feel ready to learn, create and explore.
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| Katic, K. (Sept. 19, 2016). Parallel Tasks Activity: Anna Laman's Group. BrockU. |
This concept during this class time was new to me, I had never heard of these types of questions, but upon exploration of them, I really do think these types of questions are crucial to teaching math to our students effectively. Parallel Questions or Tasks are sets of two or three tasks that are designed to meet the needs of students at various developmental levels, but meet the needs of those students through the same big idea and are close enough in context so they can be discussed simultaneously, as a whole class. This integration of all students at all developmental levels is critical as it is inclusive, accommodates everyones needs, and creates an overall positive environment where challenging math can be created and explored freely. In addition, As Pat, our instructor stated, "We're looking for rich discussion in these open-ended questions, these parallel questions, in order to support what you have to say!" Pat, September 19, 2016 in class. This point, of encouraging rich discussion through parallel questions, is so critical in order for our students to holistically, deeply, and fully understand math.
Here is a great example of one of those types of parallel questions we discussed in class:
Choice 1: Jane & Brad delivered flyers. Brad delivered three times as many as Jane. Together they delivered fewer than 20 flyers. How many might each have delivered? Open set of answers.
vs.
Choice 2: Jane & Brad delivered 81 flyers. For each four flyers that Jane delivered, Brad delivered five flyers. How many did each deliver? There's only one answer.
While these might not be the best choice together, the overall expectation is about getting a ratio out of a word problem.
Parallel questions are all about exploring the same concept in a variety of ways, and I personally think it's an absolutely phenomenal way for us, as teachers, to be able to accommodate every single one of our learners. These types of questions allow everyone to feel successful, and they are able to accordingly select a variety of starting points depending on their current comfort level with the concepts. I wish I had been given more of these opportunities as a student! To the right I have included an image of an activity we completed in class, where we were given a set of parallel questions and had to come up with a set of Common Questions and Scaffolded Questions in order to support all of our students and have them challenged while still being able to be successful (I credit this gorgeous chart to Anna Laman's Group, great job guys!). Scaffolding Questions are questions that aid in supporting our learners with completing the problem while Common Questions are questions that allow students to explore the question more in depth and understand concepts deeply.
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| Katic, K. (Sept. 20, 2016). Various YouTube Videos, Screenshot. |
Thank you for reading everyone! If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below. Remember those small, simple joys that we have in our lives and continue to live inspired and freely!
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| Katic, K. (Autumn, 2016). Warm Socks and Hot Coffee Fireside. |
College of Natural Sciences Video. (Oct. 19, 2012). The Second Element of Effective Thinking: Make Mistakes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Txq-bsbbhaY&feature=youtu.be
Sue D. (July 20, 2016). Lesson+3a 360p, How to Learn Math for Students: Mistakes. YouTube Video. Retrieved From
Sue D. (July 20, 2016). Lesson+3b 260p, Mistakes and Life. YouTube Video. Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GoYi3hfiBg&feature=youtu.be
Sue D. (Sept. 13, 2015). Lesson+3c 360p. YouTube Video. Retrieved From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElzFq-G1QmU
Katic, K. (September 17, 18, 2016). Relaxing After Birthday Fun and Apple Picking!© Nana and Papa's; and Pingle's Farm Market in Hampton. Editing Face Tool: https://www.facepixelizer.com/
Katic, K. (Sept. 19, 2016). I Have...Who Has? In Class Ice-Breaker, Brock University.
Katic, K. (Sept. 19, 2016). Parallel Tasks Activity: Anna Laman's Group. Math Class, Brock University.
Katic, K. (Sept. 20, 2016). Various YouTube Videos, Screenshot.
Katic, K. (Autumn, 2016). Warm Socks and Hot Coffee Fireside.©
Hi Kathlene,
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I found very useful about this week's discussion were also parallel questions and tasks. I think this is a great way of teaching and learning. It is a basic and simple question to allow students to critically analyze ideas and think about an answer. But it also provides differentiated instruction and scaffolding. This is great to attend to all learners because you may choose between which question you'd like to work on, choose the way you'd like to answer it, and even have the opportunity to work through both. It is also a very interesting way of implementing that students are capable and should be confident with answering all questions, without discretely stating that!
Thanks for sharing :)