Algebra I Resources
KCM wants to help teachers establish thinking communities in their mathematics classrooms. Rather than teaching algebra procedurally, we suggest that you help your student to focus less on what they are supposed to do next and more on actively making
Algebra I Resources
KCM wants to help teachers establish thinking communities in their mathematics classrooms. Rather than teaching algebra procedurally, we suggest that you help your student to focus less on what they are supposed to do next and more on actively making sense of mathematics. Using rich mathematics tasks is one strategy algebra teachers can implement to engage students and build a thinking classroom culture that focuses on algebraic reasoning and sense-making.
Rich Tasks: Developing Deep Mathematical Reasoning in Students
Rich mathematics tasks engage students in exploring, noticing, discussing, conjecturing, explaining, generalizing, convincing and persevering. Students focus on the mathematics while the teacher focusses on observing and supporting the learners to make their own discoveries. On its own a rich task is not rich unless the classroom culture is one in which learners are not passive recipients of knowledge, but rather are curious, reflective constructors of their own understandings.
Rich mathematics tasks are:
Accessible to all learners ("low floor, high ceiling")
Real life task or application
Multiple approaches and representations
Collaborations and discusion
Engagement, curiosity, and creativity
Making connections within and/or across topics and domains [Boaler, "Mathematical Mindsets"]
Opportunities for extension
adapted from Heinemann at http://www.heinemann.com/blog/6-characteristics-rich-math-tasks
Suggestions for implementing rich tasks
Students work with a partner
The task is introduced to students and time is given for the students to make sense of the problem.
What norms need to be established for students to feel safe in trying?
In what ways will students be continually engaged in the learning?
Students are given time to work on the task with the teacher rotating around the groups, asking questions and encouraging productive struggl