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The problems linked below have detailed Teachers’ Resources suggesting how they can be used in the classroom.

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If you try to introduce people to a paradigm shift, they will hear what you have to say and then interpret your words in terms of their old paradigm. What does not fit, they will not hear. Therefore, a change in paradigm cannot be brought about by talking.

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Home

CHALLENGING MATH PROBLEMS WORTH SOLVING

DOWNLOAD OUR FAVORITE PROBLEMS FROM EVERY GRADE LEVEL

WANT GOOGLE SLIDE VERSIONS OF ALL PROBLEMS?

HERE'S OUR GROWING COLLECTION

WANT TO SHARE OPEN MIDDLE WITH OTHERS?

CHECK OUT THESE FREE WEBINARS TO HELP TEACHERS RETHINK CLASSWORK

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CHALLENGING MATH PROBLEMS WORTH SOLVING DOWNLOAD OUR FAVORITE PROBLEMS FROM EVERY GRADE LEVEL Get Our Favorite Problems Take The Online Workshop WANT GOOGLE SLIDE VERSIONS OF ALL PROBLEMS? HERE’S OUR GROWING COLLECTION Get Google Slide Versions WANT TO SHARE OPEN MIDDLE WITH OTHERS? CHECK OUT THESE FREE WEBINARS TO HELP TEACHERS RETHINK CLASSWORK Elementary Version

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We all completed this task together on the whiteboards in Lindsey's classroom. We were able to solve all but two of them in the time we had!

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1. What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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1. What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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Speed-Time Problems at the Olympics printable worksheet

Imagine that you raced in the 200m with Usain Bolt. By what length would he beat you?

Imagine that cyclist A completes a lap following the blue line on the velodrome track. Cyclist B completes a lap 1m inside the blue line and cyclist C completes a lap 2m outside the blue line. How do the distances travelled vary between the cyclists?

Note: In this problem you might not have been given all of the required data and you might need to make estimates or approximations. You should be clear in your mind as to any assumptions that you make whilst constructing your answers.

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Speed-time problems at the Olympics | NRICH

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Have you ever wondered what it would be like to race against Usain Bolt?

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Felt like reading about ourselves.

We all taught like it said: Gave an example, then waited 4.5 mins for students to try the next one on their own.

This is how WE were taught!

Our students ask, “please just show us how to do it!” It is ingrained in them to expect direct instruction.

Ex: Push back against Common Core, while we recognize it is actually a good way to teach.

Parents fight back too when we don’t do mimicking.

This is why we like Math Medic.

Where is the Math Medic curriculum for Science?

Science: design thinking = exploratory first, before giving the answers. This is very aligned with the philosophy of this book.

Design Thinking: a mindset and approach to learning,problem solving… structured and flexible framework…Students enter the curriculum as explorers without any prior knowledge.

Try to have students discover shortcuts

Mimicking is good for fluency once they understand the why

This will be a great curriculum for AVID 9 as well

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2. In this chapter you read about the negative consequences of mimicking. Can you think of any positive benefits? If so, do these positive benefits outweigh the negative consequences?

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2. In this chapter you read about the negative consequences of mimicking. Can you think of any positive benefits? If so, do these positive benefits outweigh the negative consequences?

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Mimicking is good for fluency but now AFTER we understand the why.

I do, we do, you do —> REVERSE it to You do, We do, I do

Fostering an environment to feel failure in a safe way is important so they don’t feel like they have to mimic.

—> Why picking noncurricular thinking tasks is important at the beginning of the year so all students feel stuck, and it’s shown to be socially acceptable.

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3. The Intro mentioned that almost all students who mimic express that they thought this is what they were meant to be doing. This chapter shares that one of the ways in which students come to this conclusion is by having their teachers show them how to do something before asking them to try it on their own. What other ways may we be communicating that mimicking is what we want students to do - even if that is not what we want?

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3. The Intro mentioned that almost all students who mimic express that they thought this is what they were meant to be doing. This chapter shares that one of the ways in which students come to this conclusion is by having their teachers show them how to do something before asking them to try it on their own. What other ways may we be communicating that mimicking is what we want students to do - even if that is not what we want?

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4. You have read in this chapter that curriculum is inherently spiraled and, therefore, there are very few example where you would introduce a topic for which students have no prior knowledge upon which such a script can be built. Can you think of some examples of such situations in your curriculum? If you can, is there really no prior knowledge that can be drawn upon?

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4. You have read in this chapter that curriculum is inherently spiraled and, therefore, there are very few example where you would introduce a topic for which students have no prior knowledge upon which such a script can be built. Can you think of some examples of such situations in your curriculum? If you can, is there really no prior knowledge that can be drawn upon?

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5. In this chapter it was shown that students perform better on scripted curricular tasks if they first experienced three to five classes of working on highly engaging non-curricular tasks. How do you feel about giving up this time? What are the barriers for you to do this? What do you stand to gain? What do you stand to lose?

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5. In this chapter it was shown that students perform better on scripted curricular tasks if they first experienced three to five classes of working on highly engaging non-curricular tasks. How do you feel about giving up this time? What are the barriers for you to do this? What do you stand to gain? What do you stand to lose?

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Hardest thing is to find and implement the tasks, not the time

Need to curate and assign tasks to grade level and subject so students never repeat them

Need to go slow to go fast

Then, throughout the year, do open-ended warm-ups

Science: Case studies can be used in a similar way. Some details can be removed so they are made to be more open-ended

Need more hours to collaborate and create these for August

Maybe beginning of August we have set aside some hours to meet and curate these

We can also research these at the AVID conference in July (we wish we would all attend the conference but not all of us will be there this year)

Need to be paid more hours to contact parents

Need to discuss at Parent’s Summer Bridge that students may be moved due to NWEA scores

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6. What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

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6. What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

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Peter Liljedahl, PhD Professor Faculty of Education Simon Fraser University 8888 University Drive Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada Voice: +778-782-5643 Email: liljedahl@sfu.ca

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Slow Reveal Graph is an instructional routine that promotes sensemaking about data. This highly engaging routine uses scaffolded visuals and discourse to help students (in K-12 and beyond) make sense of data. As more and more of the graph is revealed, students refine their interpretation and construct meaning, often in surprising ways.

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Improve math literacy in the classroom with Kelly Turner's Graph of the Week

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5 non-curricular tasks in the first 5 mins before next meeting

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5 non-curricular tasks in the first 5 mins before next meeting

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Create scripts for topics coming up in your classes

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Create scripts for topics coming up in your classes

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Want to learn more? Take the free workshop. All 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th Alg 1 Geom Alg 2 Stat Calc Water Leak Will service arrive in time?Car Ramp How far did the ca…

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Listen to my interview with Peter Liljedahl (transcript):
Sponsored by Listenwise and Wipebook

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This post was supposed to be just for math teachers. I was going to share an instructional approach that, as dramatic as this sounds, has taken the math world by storm. The methodology is called Thinking Classrooms, and now that I have gotten a closer look at it, I can see that it could work in just about any content area. Built on 14 key practices, it's a way of teaching that gets students up on their feet, collaborating and thinking through challenging problems on a daily basis.

When I first saw a video of this strategy in action, I was immediately captivated. Take a look:

The more I learn about the Thinking Classrooms method, the better it gets. Thousands of math teachers are already using this approach, and it's spreading to other subject areas as well.

Joining me to talk about this on the podcast is Peter Liljedahl, professor of mathematics education at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia, the creator of the Thinking Classrooms method, and the author of the book, Building Thinking Classrooms in Mathematics, Grades K-12: 14 Teaching Practices for Enhancing Learning ( Amazon | Bookshop.org). In our interview, which you can listen to above, Liljedahl talked with me in depth about the Thinking Classroom. Some key points are summarized below.

How Thinking Classrooms Got Started

Liljedahl began to formulate his approach after spending hours observing in dozens of different math classrooms. What he saw was not surprising: classroom after classroom of students who were not engaged and not actively learning.

"By and large students spend most of their class time not thinking, at least not in ways we know they need to think in order to be successful in mathematics." Liljedahl explains. "If they're not thinking, they're not learning. And everywhere I go classrooms look more alike than they look different: Teaching and learning in math classrooms adheres to a set of normative structures that date back to the dawn of public education over 170 years ago. We're going to have to break through some of these normative structures because they are actually creating environments that are not conducive to thinking."

What followed was a 15-year process figuring out how to break down these institutionally normative structures that were, as Liljedahl puts it, "holding non-thinking in place." Breaking those norms down means putting in place other practices that have now become foundational to the Thinking Classrooms approach.

The Practices

A Thinking Classroom is built on 14 practices, many of which were developed by looking at what was already happening in typical classroom, doing the exact opposite, and seeing what happened. Some of the key practices are summarized below.

Thinking Tasks

Unlike in a more traditional classroom, where the lesson might start with direct instruction from the teacher, a typical day in a Thinking Classroom starts with the teacher assigning thinking tasks for students to work on in groups, and direct instruction is only given on an as-needed basis.

"In a traditional classroom," he explains, "we show the students how to do it, then we do one together, then they practice it on their own, the classic I do, we do, you do, which promotes - whether you want it or not - a form of behavior called mimicking. So these students are just going to mimic their way through. In a Thinking Classroom, in order to get students to think rather than mimic, we have to remove the I do."

When they are first introducing this approach, teachers are advised to make the thinking tasks non-curricular, fun challenges that will help develop a culture of thinking. Once students are used to the format, the tasks become curriculum-based, often the same kinds of problems you'd find in the resources you'd normally use, but Liljedahl points out that they are carefully sequenced, "very carefully constructed," he says, "whereby the tasks are getting incrementally more challenging and are being given to students as their abilities are incrementally developing."

Vertical, Non-permanent Surfaces

Probably the most distinctive feature of a Thinking Classroom is the use of vertical, non-permanent surfaces, where students do the tasks, standing up, in groups of three.

Why vertical? "When it goes vertical, everyone has the same orientation to the work," Liljedahl explains. "When it's vertical, they can see each other's work, which promotes knowledge mobility and gives greater access to more ideas. When it's vertical, I can see everything. I don't have to wait for that quiz next Friday to see if the students understood it. I can see right now, and then I can intervene right now. I can't do that if they're horizontal."

But there's one more benefit of vertical surfaces that Liljedahl learned from interviewing students, one reason he felt eclipsed all the others. "It turns out that when students are sitting, they feel anonymous. And the further they sit from the teacher, the more anonymous they feel. And when students feel anonymous, they disengage. What standing up did was took away their anonymity. It made students not feel invisible, and then they didn't disengage."

The other important feature of these surfaces is that they are non-permanent. Unlike paper, which can't be reused, an erasable surface like a whiteboard or chalkboard turns out to be more conducive to thinking tasks. Liljedahl and his colleagues found this out through experimentation.

"If we compared a group working on a whiteboard versus a group working on flip chart paper," he says, "the group working on the whiteboards, they'll start within 20 seconds. They'll start making notations on the board. They'll try anything and everything because they feel like they can just erase it if it's wrong. The students who are tasked with working on flip chart paper, they will not make a single notation for upwards of three minutes, because 'This is not erasable. What I put here has to be perfect.' So there's a lot of agonizing, and that hesitation leads to a lower form of thinking."

Visibly Random Groups

Students collaborate on tasks in randomly assigned groups of three, and that randomization has to be visible. Liljedahl explains why on the Building Thinking Classrooms website:

"Whether we grouped students strategically or we let students form their own groups, we found that 80% of students entered these groups with the mindset that, within this group, their job is not to think. However, when we frequently formed visibly random groups, within six weeks, 100% of students entered their groups with the mindset that they were not only going to think, but that they were going to contribute. In addition, the use of frequent and visibly random groupings was shown to break down social barriers within the room, increase knowledge mobility, reduce stress, and increase enthusiasm for mathematics."

Another important feature is that each group only gets one writing instrument; this forces members to collaborate, rather than work in parallel.

Consolidation Practices

Once students have worked through the assigned tasks at the boards, they transition into what Liljedahl calls consolidation, activities that reinforce each individual student's learning.

"It turns out that there's a difference between what we call collective knowing and doing and individual knowing and doing. Working collectively at the whiteboards and working individually are actually very different modalities; there needs to be some sort of a transfer."

The consolidation practices that facilitate that transfer are:

guided gallery walks, where the teacher points out key elements of student work on the vertical surfaces

note making, where students construct their own meaningful notes: "They take their learning from the day and find a way to represent that in such a way that they can in part have a record, but more importantly go through that process of reification, where they are taking these ideas that started very informal and unstructured, became more formal and structured through the consolidation and now become even more formal and structured through their note making activity."

check your understanding questions, a form of self-assessment students do on their own to determine how well they have grasped the material

How to Get Started

The book (linked above) is a great place for math teachers to start, but if you're not a math teacher, that shouldn't stop you. "These practices are being enacted in every curriculum now," Liljedahl says. "Language arts, social studies, science. There are slight variances to it, but fundamentally what changes is what constitutes a thinking task, which is Chapter 1 of the book, and what constitutes a sequence of thinking tasks, which is Chapter 9. Everything else more or less stays the same."

Interested teachers should also join any one of the online communities of teachers who are already running Thinking Classrooms of their own. The largest is the Building Thinking Classrooms Facebook group, but Liljedahl says there are many others.

"Try it," he says. "The book gives you plenty of resources and ways to enact it in a way that's almost guaranteed to have some early success so that you can see for yourself what this looks like. I always say that my book has stories and data in it, but those are my stories and my data. The real data, the real stories that are going to impact your practice, that are going to sustain your practice, are the story and the data that happen in your own classroom, right. Give it a try. See what happens."

Come back for more.
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The Thinking Classroom: An Interview with Peter Liljedahl

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In too many classrooms, students aren't really thinking. It's time to try something different.

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1. What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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1. What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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Joy: Changed from using PowerSchool to playing cards

Students won't believe it's random until they see it's random

Book says it'll take 3 weeks for students to get used to. Lindsey said it took much less.

Students who originally doubted their ability to work together actually acknowledged learning from each other later.

Students gave feedback on how each other worked and give different perspectives on each other.

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2. What is the worst combination of students that can come together in random groups? What is this perception based on? Is there any possibility that this could go well?

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2. What is the worst combination of students that can come together in random groups? What is this perception based on? Is there any possibility that this could go well?

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Friends

Girls that dislike each other

Quiet kids

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3. Can you think of some students who would benefit greatly from visibly random groups? Would it still be good for them?

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3. Can you think of some students who would benefit greatly from visibly random groups? Would it still be good for them?

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Friends

Girls that dislike each other

All quiet students

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All quiet students

Friends

Girls that dislike each other

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Shy students

Students who don't know how to pick groups

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4. Can you think of some students who will likely not enjoy random groups? Would it still be good for them?

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4. Can you think of some students who will likely not enjoy random groups? Would it still be good for them?

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Uncomfortable for students who are used to only working together in cliques

Shy students

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ClassDojo helps teachers, parents, and students build amazing classroom communities.

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Flippity.net: Flashcards and Other Resources for Educators and Learners

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Create an interactive virtual breakout activity.

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Determine a visibly randomization strategy that works in your classroom. 

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Determine a visibly randomization strategy that works in your classroom. 

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Matching the visibly random groups to whiteboards. Lindsey matches the numbers on the desks to posted numbers on the whiteboards, which match the group numbers assigned on Class Dojo. Joy does a similar approach with the desks and her playing cards.

Introducing this initially, especially in the middle of the year if students are not used to it

Some students initially complain about standing.

Some students initially resist working together, but later acknowledged that they learned from each other (Joy)

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1. What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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1. What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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We need to encourage students to not erase their work.

FAQ pg. 64: knowledge mobility is not the same as cheating. Students take it upon themselves to ask other groups' questions and to help other groups if they notice mistakes.

Students can teach and help other students.

Encourage students to ask each other before the teaching.

The students' off-task behavior decreases when they are standing.

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2. What must change in your room in order for you to gain the wall space necessary to get all of your students working on VNPS?

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2. What must change in your room in order for you to gain the wall space necessary to get all of your students working on VNPS?

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Have a system for assigning groups to whiteboards in the classroom: Number magnets on the boards, or college pennants matched to groups, colors, etc.

We need to assign groups to a whiteboard across the room from them, so they are forced to stand up.

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3. Which strategy for moving the marker around did you like the best and why?

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3. Which strategy for moving the marker around did you like the best and why?

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Using predetermined methods like "x partners have the marker first", or "all hearts have the marker first" work well.

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4. Think of all the different types of things you ask students to do in their notebooks. Which of these, other than doing thinking tasks, can you imagine having your students doing on VNPSs?

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4. Think of all the different types of things you ask students to do in their notebooks. Which of these, other than doing thinking tasks, can you imagine having your students doing on VNPSs?

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Some students write down the work on the whiteboards into their notebooks so they have "examples".

But this is mimicking.

We need to help students to break the habit of note-taking and mimicking for every problem.

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5. What else happens in your classroom that can be enhanced by having the students work on a VNPS?

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5. What else happens in your classroom that can be enhanced by having the students work on a VNPS?

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Non-curricular thinking tasks

Performance Tasks

Tutoring!

Khan academy/ExactPath - have students show work from chromebooks on whiteboards

presenting/share-outs

gallery walks

Student writing: Have students write a one-sentence justification on the whiteboard, and give feedback to each other on their writing.

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6. What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies from this chapter? What are some ways to overcome these?

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6. What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies from this chapter? What are some ways to overcome these?

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7/17 Update: Strategies we tried and liked...

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7/17 Update: Strategies we tried and liked...

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Flippity

Cards

Random number/sequence generator

Class Dojo

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How do we distribute the problems to the students?

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How do we distribute the problems to the students?

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Some of us are giving worksheets with numbered problems. Others are doing timed stations. We need to continue discussing methods for distributing problems (which will be a topic later in the book).

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How are we grading or giving feedback on group work done on VNPSs?

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How are we grading or giving feedback on group work done on VNPSs?

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We are in agreement that we'd like to give more immediate feedback during practice time, such as by making answer keys available for students to check. Less reliance on formal grading as a method of formative feedback.

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We are not allowing students to wear earbuds/airpods in class. Phones should be on silent, away from sight or in allowed charging station.

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1. Determine a system for visibly randomizing students, and assigning groups to vertical whiteboards in the classroom. Implement this in the first week of school. 

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1. Determine a system for visibly randomizing students, and assigning groups to vertical whiteboards in the classroom. Implement this in the first week of school. 

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Ryan may need more whiteboards in his classroom.

Do all STEM teachers have enough whiteboard space?

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We noticed that the randomization provides more opportunities for all students to participate. Shy students speak up more, and low-achieving students are helped by high-achieving students without becoming dependent on them since they know the groups will change next class.

Students are more on-task in random groups, because they feel responsible for contributing since the group is only composed of 3 students.

More academically rich conversations from the students in random groups.

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2. Collaborate in Math Subject Teams to decide on thinking tasks to implement in the 1st week of school (see Google Doc)

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2. Collaborate in Math Subject Teams to decide on thinking tasks to implement in the 1st week of school (see Google Doc)

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Solutions for Thinking Tasks in the book

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Solutions for Thinking Tasks in the book

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This resource was made by a teacher and shared online. I have not personally checked all of the solutions. If anyone finds an error, please comment here on the Padlet to let us know :)

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Lindsey: Random groups of 3 with Dojo, two thinking tasks (first day and last day)

Joy: Random groups with Olympic Thinking Tasks, with cards, and a picture logic puzzle

Nancy: Random groups of 3 with Dojo, tables with group numbers. Olympic Thinking Tasks. Escape room task with logic puzzles. Encouraged other students to help each other if they finished early.

Mike: Random groups of 3 with Dojo (x, y, z) matching the students. Logic puzzle thinking tasks. Focused on identifying different solution strategies. Escape room task.

Brie: Random groups to complete an activity. Completed an inquiry-based activity on discovering the reason behind an exploding can phenomenon.

Yvonne: Every day students are in random groups, organized in different ways. This week, they used name tents. "Subversive lab grouping game" for students to create groups by finding connections between academic vocabulary in their groups. "The case of the missing computer chip" (a nature of science activity) - students examine a case, map of the area, scenario, get clues, make a hypothesis, etc." Goal was for students to learn 1. What we are going to learn, 2. How we are going to learn it, and 3. Then do the science. Did it a logic puzzle"The polar bear dice game" riddle. Also recommends doing a patterns activity (demonstrated in our session today - see pictures).

Steve: Turner's Graph on the costs of the Olympics, students worked on the whiteboards to write their answers and shared out with the class. Die Hard jug puzzle done on the whiteboards too. Randomized alphabetically. Will start randomizing with Flippity (?) later.

Lisa: Olympic task; found a lot of thinking tasks on NCTM if we are members we can use them. Alphabetical seating chart; writes (x,y,z) on the screen so they know where to sit (desks have x,y, or z on them). Paper airplanes icebreaker activity as well.

Ryan: Random groups made through a word connection game (like the game "Connections), groups of 3's or 4's. Reviewed and debriefed observations of how the groups experiences successes and challenges in their collaborative activity with the whole class.

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Bring pictures of your defronted classroom, and of your students working in groups of 3 at VNPS's.

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We visited all of the classrooms at the SOAR Annex to see their classroom setups.

We discussed how our classrooms are all defronted to an extent, but also has remnants of fronted classrooms due to Prometheans, etc.

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What are some things that immediately feel correct from this chapter?

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We all tend to do some version of the questioning and answering in this question

*Joy, Lindsey, Nancy, and Mike are giving the answer keys in the middle

Joy: Purposely not giving enough time, so they get comfortable with not finishing and they cannot waste time.

We all agree that students can struggle with time management, and prioritize the wrong things (like making the graphs perfect, rather than thinking about the concepts)

We discussed how to debrief after the group work.

We discussed the roles of each group member. How one student should have the marker in each group, and the other two should be telling them what to do. Lindsey: Uses the "Puppet Master" strategy for giving directions so the x partner is the puppet.

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In what ways (other than those discussed in the chapter) do our interactions with students reduce or remove their need to think?

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What other institutional norms or instructional practices stop student thinking?

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What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies suggested in this chapter? What are some of the ways to overcome these?

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While I've curated this list with high school students in mind, many of these tasks could be done with middle schoolers or even with adults. The inspiration for these questions came from all over this great big internet, but have been adapted and reformatted for classroom use. So, without further ado, here are my (current) top 10 "interesting problems" to do on the first day of school.

Solve the problem yourself first! We are purposefully not giving solutions here , so make sure you've wrestled with the problem yourself before handing it out to students.

Be ready with some extensions for groups who finish early, but make sure they understand what "done" means. Have they clearly communicated their strategy? Have they convinced themselves and others that their strategy will hold up? If giving an extension, make sure it's related to the given task, not just a different task. It's important that students are challenged in the depth of their reasoning, not in the quantity of problems.

If you're looking for more tasks like these, I highly recommend the from the University of Cambridge.

While I've curated this list with high school students in mind, many of these tasks could be done with middle schoolers or even with adults. The inspiration for these questions came from all over this great big internet, but have been adapted and reformatted for classroom use. So, without further ado, here are my (current) top 10 "interesting problems" to do on the first day of school.

Solve the problem yourself first! We are purposefully not giving solutions here , so make sure you've wrestled with the problem yourself before handing it out to students.

Be ready with some extensions for groups who finish early, but make sure they understand what "done" means. Have they clearly communicated their strategy? Have they convinced themselves and others that their strategy will hold up? If giving an extension, make sure it's related to the given task, not just a different task. It's important that students are challenged in the depth of their reasoning, not in the quantity of problems.

If you're looking for more tasks like these, I highly recommend the from the University of Cambridge.

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10 Math Tasks for the Beginning of the Year

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Our curated collection of interesting math problems - perfect for the first day of school!

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Lindsey/Lisa/Joy/Mike/Nancy = posting worksheet problems in erasable pockets on whiteboards. Not verbally right now....

Joy - hints on board before the group starts.

Algebra 1 -/ Geo: need more verbal directions, since they struggle with interpreting the written PT's. Lack the perseverance reading all the directions.

Students need to annotate and practice reading textual prompts.

Ryan - constrained by small room dimensions. May need to remove a desk or two so there is more space. More open space is preferable according to the text.

Brie - made the change this year from groups of 4 to groups of 3. Noticed less students off-task this year.

Lindsey/;Joy - feedback to us from Mark White was to make more of our Math Medic lessons into stories in our initial delivery

Ideas for supporting the transition from verbal to text - making cartoons to diagram the steps and directions for a lab (Brie); reading and discussing/debriefing with a group and the whole class; annotating (Joy)

Geo: Comfortable Horse Stalls thinking task

Common issues noticed: units conversions, understanding what units represent, dimensional analysis, and distance/rate/time

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What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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What are some of the things in this chapter that immediately feel correct?

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We value learning over knowing (the process over the grades)

Rebrand makes sense: Check for understanding instead of "homework"

Nancy & Lindsey changed their "homework" to "practice quiz" this year

Not so sure about eliminating the word "practice"

CYU better than CFU (Check Your Understanding)

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Matt - this year's 7th-graders exhibit a lot of learned helplessness

Quit after 1 or 2 attempts, or even 0

Ask 3 - Then Me to encourage more group accoutnability for their learning

"If you knew what to do, what would you do?"

How to promote more metacognition among our students so they know what they don't know

This may relate to their lack of patience and critical reading skills. So many students don't read or know what the question is asking when problem-solving.

Instant gratification in our culture may contribute to this problem as well.

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Lisa & Joy will update their homework policies for 2nd Semester: They're going to do check-for-understanding questions and a daily quiz at the start of class on those CFU questions.

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Which of your students do their homework, and which do not?

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Which of your students do their homework, and which do not?

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Of those who do their homework, why do they do it? If you consider yourself usccessful at getting students to do their HW, what is your messagjng?

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Of those who do their homework, why do they do it? If you consider yourself usccessful at getting students to do their HW, what is your messagjng?

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Contrast your answers to Question 3 with the reasons for why you want your students to do your HW

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Contrast your answers to Question 3 with the reasons for why you want your students to do your HW

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Does practice invoke mimicking? Is practice an effective learning tool?

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Does practice invoke mimicking? Is practice an effective learning tool?

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What do you think about the reality of some students not doing the CFU questions? How will you cope with this?

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What do you think about the reality of some students not doing the CFU questions? How will you cope with this?

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What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies in this chapter? What are some ways to overcome them?

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What are some of the challenges you anticipate you will experience in implementing the strategies in this chapter? What are some ways to overcome them?

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Responses to Survey of our Common Practices (Math Dept)

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Responses to Survey of our Common Practices (Math Dept)

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BTC Survey of Common Practices (Responses)

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How to remind students of group expectations & norms

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How to remind students of group expectations & norms

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^ Lindsey's norms (from Math Medic) self-assessment

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We answered these questions (on the back) in our groups today on the whiteboards in class. Source: https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2012/07/which-undergraduate-majors-lead-most-secure-jobs-infographic

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We will all try to implement the practices from Chapters 1 - 7 (for the most part) in S2. We will restart the book study in July next year for Chapters 8 - 15. 

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We will all try to implement the practices from Chapters 1 - 7 (for the most part) in S2. We will restart the book study in July next year for Chapters 8 - 15. 