A Tale of Two Tasks by Cecilio Dimas

Expressions and equations (page 1

2019-05-08 16:41:50 UTC

Expressions and equations (page 1) was most likely quite successfully completed.

2019-05-08 16:41:51 UTC

Mapping the movements of the 3 travelers probably was an obstacle.

2019-05-08 16:42:38 UTC

Most Ss could solve for area of triangle (page 1) and reflection (#2) BUT when asked to dialate the triangle was probablywhere Ss became confused.

2019-05-08 16:43:34 UTC

Most Successful

2019-05-08 16:48:13 UTC

We think that these questions were more intuitive proportional reasoning with a lower cognitive load. Questions 1 & 2 were more straightforward; question 3 required more quantitative reasoning & making sense of the quantities/relationships & what they mean (ie, they might conclude that 15m in 1 second was quicker because 15 < 18).

Least Success

2019-05-08 16:48:59 UTC

Fractions, negative numbers; subtracting negative numbers is already very challenging, but then you must also do fraction division, AND THEN add fractions with negative numbers. On the back, plotting 3 1/2 can be challenging for students because they might not even realize that 3 1/2 is a number that can be plotted (ie, they've only had experience with the coordinate plane with whole numbers).

most successful

mbabat — 2019-05-08 16:49:00 UTC

tidy numbers (everything divided cleanly) allowed students to have multiple approaches and easily check for sense-- these were somewhat intuitive

Least Successful

2019-05-08 16:50:40 UTC

We think that students would have a tough time with labeling the 5 angles in the circle and might not be able to sort all of the polygons by their angles. Additionally, many teachers don't address geometry until the end of the school year so students may still be unaware of some of these concepts at this point in time.

least success

mbabat — 2019-05-08 16:52:11 UTC

least successful

mbabat — 2019-05-08 16:52:12 UTC

the mix of negative and positive numbers added a level of complexity with finding the differences, which was already a challenging ask with the fractions in place

"The total distance was 865 miles" This might be confusing if Ss aren't considering the three travelers.

2019-05-08 16:52:20 UTC

We selected this task for most successful because the tasks were discrete and did not build on each other as much as the holiday travel problems. Has visual to help solve.

sarah_tellez — 2019-05-08 16:54:16 UTC

Most Successful

2019-05-08 16:55:13 UTC

Much of the number line is already completed so we think that students would be able to easily see that there were 1/4 intervals and that information really helps them to complete the remainder of the tasks. With the exception of #5, we think that students would be fairly successful with this task.

Least Successful

2019-05-08 16:56:27 UTC

Creating expressions and equations may be difficult

Least Successful

2019-05-08 16:58:01 UTC

May be more difficult to create expressions, equations and then build a visual representation of the work done in the task.

least successful:

2019-05-08 16:58:20 UTC

language lift
context complexity
diagraming and keeping track of who is where.

most successful

2019-05-08 16:59:32 UTC

if geometry unit experienced by this time

Least Successful

2019-05-08 16:59:43 UTC

We think that students would have a difficult time on this due to their lack of knowledge of geometry concepts. They have to pay attention to the names of the shapes the characteristics of the angles and measurements. Another problem is that geometry is typically taught at the end of year.

Ss who draw to visualize the math problem were probably more successful on this one.

2019-05-08 17:00:40 UTC

Least Successful

2019-05-08 17:00:52 UTC

Language barriers

Most successful

2019-05-08 17:02:08 UTC

IF geometry vocab has been addressed

Most Successful

2019-05-08 17:02:14 UTC

This task is a linear concept. Students are able to calculate numbers to complete questions.

2019-05-08 17:04:18 UTC

Language and diagram