engagement

Corner to Corner – 3 Act Lesson

by Jon Orr

I was recently in a cross panel learning team meeting and we were discussing open questions/problems to give our students. A fellow teacher, Marcus, gave the following problem to his class:

Find the distance from one corner of the box to the opposite diagonal corner.

Using this idea, along with the learning team’s focus on getting students to estimate before solving problems [as a way to engage all our students] I created the following 3Act math lesson. (thanks Dan Meyer for the tips)

Act 1- Corner to Corner
Give your students the weird little video.

Ask students What do you wonder? Or What would you like to know? Or What questions do you have?
Take the questions from students (all of them, write them on the board).

If the question: How long is the string? does not come out from them, pose it to them and say you would like to solve that one first!

Ask them to guess the length of the string, record guesses on the board.

Ask students to discuss with a partner and then share with you what information they would need to find the distance.

After they ask for the dimensions of the room share with them (one at a time) these pictures.

Screen Shot 2014-05-16 at 2.07.44 PM

 

 

Screen Shot 2014-05-16 at 2.07.57 PM

 

Screen Shot 2014-05-16 at 2.08.10 PM

After each picture get the students to guess the lengths….then reveal the values. This part will be engaging for all! Hopefully they cheer or boo when after you reveal the lengths.

and the reveal……

String---Width

 

Classroomlength

 

classroom-height

 

Once the lengths are revealed, either discuss or teach the Pythagorean Theorem. Give them time to develop the answer!

Reveal the answer after students find the length.

Download All Files 

Mobile Summit 2014

by Jon Orr

Most of the resources below I have discovered because of twitter.

Follow me:

twitter-logo

@MrOrr_geek

Below is a list of resources I like and use. It is a hodgepodge of good stuff for teaching math with video and images.

 Math Teaching Resources Menu

Appetizers:

Estimation180

Estimation180 is great for warm ups but even better for getting students to practice predicting their answer which allows them to decide if their answer they calculate makes sense. Screen Shot 2014-04-10 at 4.16.41 PM Here is an example:

Estimate: Day 151

What is the value of pennies in the glass?

estimation Questions we ask to get students thinking of reasonableness of their answers. Give an estimate that is too low. Give an estimate that is too high Give an estimate that is just right.

Video Answer

Would You Rather

ASKING STUDENTS TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN PATH AND JUSTIFY IT!

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.30.14 PM

 Great way to start a topic/or lesson. Students are eager to justify their choice. Relevant problems.

 Here is another example: Would You Rather

Would You Rather

 

Visual Patterns

Fawn Nguyen’s site has 140 different growth patterns. Find the correct equation!

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.34.01 PM

Here are a few examples:

 Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.34.22 PM

or

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.34.45 PM

or

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.35.19 PM

Along the same lines as this are ….

Vine Videos created by Nat Banting

Click here to go to his blogpost on this… He takes a pattern like this one from a textbook: and turns it into this….   or one like this….

and turns it into this…   Here is one my students made…


   

Main Course

Engaging Math Problems vs. Standard Math Problems

 

3-Act Math Problems

Original concept from Dan Meyer – Read about it – The Three Acts of a Mathematical Story

  Here is the Corner to Corner  3 – Act Math Task – http://www.101qs.com/2998-corner-to-corner  Here is another…

Act 1: The Water Balloon

Did you wonder when the balloon will blow? Give an answer too high, too low, just right.

Act 2:

Act 2:

Act 3:

  Here is the same problem from a standard Math problem from grade 9

A water balloon is filled at a rate of 0.22L/s If a standard balloon will hold about 14L of water, how long will it take until it bursts?

 

101qs.com

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 10.02.47 PM

 Desmos.com

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 10.11.48 PM Online free graphing calculator – enough said!

 

Desmos Function Art Assignment

Grade 11s use their knowledge of functions to draw a picture. Modelling Modelling

Examples:

Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 9.49.35 PM   Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 9.51.05 PM   Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 9.53.09 PM   Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 9.55.16 PM

Explain Everything as a delivery tool

We began many classes by grabbing an Explain Everything file from our Google Drive. Here is a picture of that file. 20140218-205634.jpg 20140218-210420.jpg Here are some more examples of using Explain everything as a “digital worksheet”   20131201-105523.jpg   or 20131201-105614.jpg or 20131201-105645.jpg

Thanks!!

Follow me:

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@MrOrr_geek

 

OAME2014 – Using Videos/Images to Engage. Whatcha Thinking?

by Jon Orr

Most of the resources below we have discovered because of twitter.

Follow us:

twitter-logo

@MrOrr_geek       @MrJeffreyLKDSB

Below is a list of resources we like and use. It is a hodgepodge of good stuff for teaching math with video and images.

 Math Teaching Resources Menu

Appetizers:

Estimation180

Estimation180 is great for warm ups but even better for getting students to practice predicting their answer which allows them to decide if their answer they calculate makes sense. Screen Shot 2014-04-10 at 4.16.41 PM Here is an example:

Estimate: Day 53

 What is the volume of the vase?

9733372_orig

Questions we ask to get students thinking of reasonableness of their answers. Give an estimate that is too low. Give an estimate that is too high Give an estimate that is just right.

Video Answer

Would You Rather

ASKING STUDENTS TO CHOOSE THEIR OWN PATH AND JUSTIFY IT!

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.30.14 PM

 Great way to start a topic/or lesson. Students are eager to justify their choice. Relevant problems.

 Here is another example: Would You Rather

Would You Rather

 

Visual Patterns

Fawn Nguyen’s site has 140 different growth patterns. Find the correct equation!

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.34.01 PM

Here are a few examples:

 Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.34.22 PM

or

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.34.45 PM

or

Screen Shot 2014-04-11 at 2.35.19 PM

Along the same lines as this are ….

Vine Videos created by Nat Banting

Click here to go to his blogpost on this… He takes a pattern like this one from a textbook: and turns it into this….   or one like this….

and turns it into this…

 

Main Course

Engaging Math Problems vs. Standard Math Problems

 

3-Act Math Problems

Original concept from Dan Meyer – Read about it – The Three Acts of a Mathematical Story

  Here is a standard Math problem from grade 9

A water balloon is filled at a rate of 0.22L/s If a standard balloon will hold about 14L of water, how long will it take until it bursts?

Here is the 3-Act Math Approach

Act 1: The Water Balloon

Did you wonder when the balloon will blow? Give an answer too high, too low, just right.

Act 2:

Act 2:

Act 3:

Whatcha Thinking!!

We created a bank of 3-act math problems to use in your grade 9 applied class. The website is designed for student use.

Direct your students to the Whatcha Thinking site.

Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 9.22.36 AM

Thanks!!

twitter-logo

@MrOrr_geek       @MrJeffreyLKDSB

Estimate Every Time!

by Jon Orr

The more I teach the more I view estimation as an intricate part of my students learning math.
I started using Estimation180 purely as a warm up activity. After using those awesome estimations at least weekly I started to notice a few things…
– Students were more confident in giving answers
– students, mostly my grade 9 applied students were better at problems like “how many tiles will be needed to cover the floor?” (I mention grade 9 applied because they were not very good at these types traditionally).

It’s also not just a simple estimation that Estimation180 has them do…..it’s the act of giving an estimate that is too high and too low. These extra estimations give students an upper bound and lower bound for their answer. They are boxing in a range on what the right answer can be.

That process has been great when we extend into problem solving. Students are much better at judging the reasonableness of their answers. They are automatically doing the “look back” step and saying “that answer is too high”.
From now on every problem we do is going to use the too high, too low method.
Estimating has to occur every time!

Risk Taking!
For the last two years I have been using whiteboards in my class.

20140430-193959.jpg
Whiteboards are now our go-to way to show and do math. My students are attempting way more problems and asking for way more feedback than in the past.

I think this happens because the students think that if they write work on the board it’s not permanent. While if they write in their notes, well, it’s stuck in there. They are hesitant to write on paper if they could be wrong. It’s permanent then!

They are more likely to “try” to do some math and risk being wrong on a whiteboard! It can wipe away if wrong. It’s Ok!

Using whiteboards are like estimating! It’s ok to make mistakes!!!

I think if my students have to use paper I’m going to say …”No Erasers!!l” just go with it! Try something!

Estimate every time!!!