Navigating a Class Through a Differentiated Task


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 …

Examples of Differentiated Tasks: A Way to Meet the Needs of a Range of Abilities in One Class


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 …

Mathematical Mindsets


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 …

Why Is It So Important To Use Manipulatives In Math Classes?


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 …