Letting students struggle, persevere and even fail is integral to helping them learn problem solving skills. Helping students improve their problem solving abilities can be done by learning how to question and guide students through problem solving activities that help them to develop better understanding. We also need to give them the time to …
Read More “Navigating a Class Through a Differentiated Task”
What is a differentiated task? A differentiated task is a question or activity that allows for multiple entry points as well as multiple ways to solve. One of the purposes of using differentiated tasks is to meet the needs of the varying ability levels of students that we often find in a single math …
The changes in the math curriculum might seem small but they represent a very large philosophical shift. The traditional approach to teaching math has been to focus on procedures. We taught students how to do the math but there wasn’t a big focus on when we would use the math or why the procedures …
Read More “A Math Class Make-Over: A Current Approach to Math Education”
I recently finished Jo Boaler’s new book ‘Mathematical Mindsets’ and was, as always, blown away by her work. I learned a lot from the book and as a result am going to create some add-ons to our lesson plans and videos. Firstly, if you haven’t already been using the differentiated tasks that are in …
Hi everyone! Brain research indicates that the brain learns first at a concrete level (hands-on manipulatives), then at a pictorial level and finally at an abstract level (Souza, 2008). Furthermore, we also know the more senses that are involved in learning, the more powerful the learning becomes. Differing Learning Styles So when we use …
Read More “Why Is It So Important To Use Manipulatives In Math Classes?”
