Reflect after reading the Introduction and Chapter 1:
Why do the types of tasks matter in math classrooms? Why is the delivery important?
Consider the following questions:
- What is resonating with you from the reading?
- What caused you to pause and think during this section?
Respond and Interact
After reading these chapters, please post your response to one {or more} of the prompts above. Read our colleagues' reflections. Feel free to respond to someone by sharing a comment, insight or interesting possibility.
I have been excited to read this book since I spoke with Shawn Seeley last spring. I asked Fritz to buy books for all of my grade level teammates who teach math. As soon as my book arrived, I went home and read the foreword and introduction immediately and was motivated to read more, but then we adopted a new math curriculum and I got distracted. My two grade level teammates who also received the book participated in the summer book study and loved the messages and macro- and micro-moves so much that they keep sharing what they are doing with me. Needless to say, I am hopeful for what I will learn and be able to apply to my classroom and teaching strategies, while still feeling a little anxious about balancing my workload.
ReplyDeleteTwo big questions were going through my mind as I read the first chapter:
1. What rich tasks could I implement with my students as I teach our new curriculum Imagine Learning?
2. How will I know that I have chosen a rich, highly engaging, thinking task?
These thoughts also wove through my mind several times as I read:
1. How many tasks have I given over the years that were not rich, where I taught students to mimic what I showed them?
2. How many problem-solving books do I have stored in my closet that should be thrown out, or are there some rich, thinking, non-curricular tasks in those books that I could utilize?
My cross-district grade level team, who are the early adopters for Imagine Learning, met the other day and were discussing how we will assess problem-solving [for the report card]. I am inspired to find and use some non-curricular, rich tasks to assess my students' problem-solving skills. I am thinking of starting with the intermediate task shared on page 21. I am also wondering about those students who seem unmotivated to work or think - how will they respond to solving these types of problems? I anticipate that the answer will be in the additional macro- and micro-moves shared by Peter Liljedahl in the upcoming chapters!
After publishing my post, I went online to look for some rich tasks and discovered there are many sites, and several of the sites I have used in the past provide rich tasks. Here are some I found:
ReplyDeleteThis site provides links to several other sites (scroll to the bottom of the page): https://mathforall.edc.org/rich-problems-part-1/
This specific task from one of the sites looks intriguing to me: https://nrich.maths.org/5633/note
Here is one from Dan Finkel “Math for Love” site: https://mathforlove.com/lesson/penny-nickel-dime/
Another task many teachers have done before: https://mathforlove.com/lesson/broken-calculator-warmup/
Tasks from Peter Liljedahl: https://www.peterliljedahl.com/teachers/numeracy-tasks
Thanks for sharing these, Julie! Great resources!
DeleteOne thing that caused me to pause and think was when the chapter talked about forgetting curriculum to engage students in thinking. I was trying to picture what that would look like in my classroom this year. One thing I was wondering was could I choose tasks that are related to standards, but not curriculum and would it still engage more students than if I designed a thinking task based off of the curriculum?
ReplyDeleteSomething that resonated with me was actually to get students thinking instead of them mimicking solving problems. I have used mimicking in some of my lessons, and exploration in others, but I want to be better at using tasks to get more students engaged in thinking rather than following steps. The types of tasks matter because they have to know that it is okay to fail, and if they see everyone failing first, then they know that to be able to solve a problem, they will have to fail before becoming successful. That will help with resilience in a student. The delivery of a task is important because what students do after depends on how it was delivered. If you show a problem and solve it, and then give students a new problem they are likely to mimic. However if you give them the problem and answer and ask them to get there, they are more likely to think and solve on their own.
Wow. It didn't take long for Liljedahl to capture my attention. There is so much that resonated with me.
ReplyDeleteIn the introduction, I was really drawn to the descriptions of "studenting" and how so much of that takes away from actual thinking each day for kids.
I love the quote on page 19 - "If we want our students to think, we need to give them something to think about." It seem so simple, and yet it's not! After team teaching for so many years, this is my first year teaching fifth grade math. It's challenging. I have a huge learning curve. And yet it's exhilarating, all at the same time. The best moments are those when kids are truly THINKING. I can definitely get behind this book, and I have SO much to learn.
I was nodding as he was describing the "studenting" behaviors as well. I also felt convicted when I read, "Thinking is a necessary precursor to learning, and if students are not thinking, then they are not learning." It reminded me of so many math lessons where I just stood up there and asked kids to do what I was doing. They weren't thinking at all - they were just mimicking me. 😳 I hope they had a better teacher somewhere down the road. lol.
ReplyDeleteLiljedahl captured my attention right from the introduction. I was immediately interested in the idea that students aren't really thinking. He says multiple times that "Everywhere I went I saw the same thing - students not thinking and teachers planning their teaching on the assumption that students either couldn't or wouldn't think." I already want to know what Liljedahl suggests to change this! I also related to the idea of 'studenting'. I haven't heard that exact term before but how he describes it seems very accurate. I am looking forward to reading this book and learning from it!
ReplyDeleteFrom the introduction to the end of this book I was hooked. I liked the way they presented the information and research to get my brain thinking. And the goal of doing this class for me was to get my students thinking. I liked how they cut to the chase by using the term "studenting behavior." It started right away to make me aware of areas that I was doing all the thinking and I believe this book is about to turn all that around. I'm excited to learn strategies that can benefit my students ability to think instead of react.
ReplyDelete