Rich Math Tasks - What Are They Really?

I'm sitting in a motel room watching "How the Universe Works" and doing Pre-Calc homework, at the end of day 1 of a math training I've been presenting.  What a Monday.
Math has definitely been on my mind lately, and I'm excited about some of the work I've been presenting at this math training.  Ever heard of a rich math task?  It's the new big thing floating around the math world and I've seen a lot of supposed "math task" cards and activities floating around tPt.  It's actually been a bit frustrating for me as I've opened task document after task document, only to find that it's really just a math activity for small groups or a multi-step story problem.  This is not the core of a rich math task and is not what I'm looking for.  So I thought I'd list some characteristics of rich math tasks.

Rich math tasks...

The problem has important, useful mathematics embedded in it.

The problem requires higher-level thinking and problem solving.

The problem contributes to the conceptual development of students.

The problem creates an opportunity for the teacher to assess what his/her students are learning and where they are experiencing difficulty.

The problem can be approached by students in multiple ways using different solution strategies.

The problem has various solutions or allows different decisions or positions to be taken and defended.

The problem encourages student engagement and discourse.

The problem connects to other important mathematical ideas.

The problem promotes the skillful use of mathematics.

The problem provides an opportunity to practice important skills.

(courtesy of "Why Is Teaching With Problem Solving Important to Student Learning?", NCTM April 2010) 


Would you add any other characteristics to the list?  Do you use rich math tasks?

More resources and math task ideas to come!

Fabulous Find Friday: Back to School Night Infographic

Infographic courtesy of Easel.ly

Do you ever get the feeling parents aren't reading your class newsletter...like, never?  I used to get frustrated when parents would ask me questions I had already answered in the newsletter, several notes home and the class website.  Incidentally, these were also the same parents saying on the end-of-year survey that they wished they were more informed about classroom happenings and curriculum and I thought, "Seriously? What more can I do?"    I finally realized that it wasn't about doing more but instead communicating in a way that worked better for parents.  I had to take a step back and think about where the break-down was happening.  As much as I don't want to face it, because I'm not a super tech saavy person, our world is changing, information is flying at people at a much faster pace and parents just don't have the time or the energy to sit down and read anything unless it's 144 characters less, so to speak.  This has led to my weekly newsletter about curriculum being condensed to bullet points under curriculum subject headings, calendar events written like a shopping list and all other information about classroom happenings being sent to parents in an e-mail listserve.  And can I just say, thank goodness for the e-mail listserve.  I write one e-mail with a brief intro, bulleted list of 1-2 sentences about what I need to communicate (fieldtrip info, supplies needs, volunteers wanted, etc), finish it off with an explanatory paragraph for those still reading the e-mail by that point, and sign off with a positive statement and a compliment to the parents.  Voila!  No lost papers in the dark abyss of the child's backpack, no copies or formatting needed, and the amount of "in-the-loop" parents more than doubled!
Ever since then, I have reassessed the way I communicate important information to parents, making things simpler, less cluttered and less wordy.  Last year, at Back To School Night I went with an information packet in the form of a double-sided, 3 column brochure.  This was much easier for parents to read and understand.  This year, I'm thinking of branching out even more and putting my classroom information in the form of an infographic.  I have little experience with graphic design and no experience with programs like Photoshop but will that stop me? No.  Because I have found a site called Easel.ly that allows you to create infographics, well...easily.  And the best tip about creating infographics I've come across is to plan out ahead of time which information you want to display.  For me, this is important weekly dates like spelling tests or when homework is due.  I'm also including a month-by-month timeline of general curriculum topics, e-mail and class website links, a quote about my educational philosophy, dress code options, etc.
The more I work with Easel.ly, the more I'm seeing how easy it is and thinking of the possibilities for student use.  Utah history infographic?  The steps for dividing multi-digit numbers?  The timeline of Sleepy Hollow?

Have you used infographics yet?  I want to hear how you use them and what I should know as I jump into this technology adventure!

Fabulous Finds Friday: achievethecore.org

Have you been to achievethecore.org yet?  It's an amazing website with SO MUCH stuff (for lack of a better word) all about the Common Core.  There are checklists and sample problems and articles and advice for aligning textbooks & materials and even some really good videos about the shift to Common Core and classroom lesson videos.  The picture above is from one of my favorite videos on the site, by Phil Daro, that really shows why other countries are passing the U.S. in math and why something needed to change.
If you're going to be teaching the Common Core Standards next year, you seriously need to check out this site.  But come back to it often because there's so much there - I still discover something new every time I go back!

Fabulous Finds Friday: Airserver

Have you heard of this app called Airserver?  It can project your iPad, iPod, phone or other device onto your laptop or desktop computer.  This is great for those of us like me that aren't at a wireless school and have a projector tied directly into a desktop computer...which is, of course, located across the room and far away from where I'm actually teaching the kids.  Using Airserver, I can roam the room with iPad in hand and still project on the board whatever it is we're looking at or talking about.  So much better than saying, "Let's look at this next one.." *long pause as I run across the room to the computer keyboard*

The Best Thing About You

Okay, I know I've been off the blogosphere for a few weeks now...  But the last two weeks of school have been CRAZY!  And I've been getting ready for a teacher training happening this week.  And the dog ate my homework.  Any other excuses I can come up with??  Would it help if I bribed you with a freebie?
This is a form I include in my kids' end of the year books, on one of the first pages.  We sit in a large circle and the kids pass their paper, in timed, 1 min chunks, slowly around the circle.  By the time their own paper circles around back to them, all of the students have written something unique and kind about that person (I have the kids read through the list on the paper before they write their comment, to make sure there aren't repetitions or ridiculous comments like "you're cool" or "you are nice").  It's a great compilation of compliments and a positive way to end the year!

Fabulous Find Friday: When I Grow Up

Is this not so adorable?? I'm a huge fan of taking pics of my kids; pictures are such a great trigger to happy memories.  We don't have a school yearbook so every teacher makes their own class "memory book" and I am definitely doing this for ours.  I wish I had done this at the beginning of the year and posted it on our door.  How sweet would it be to see this lovely thing as you walk into the classroom every day?

Photography by Christine Kay Photography

Easiest. Game. Ever.

Today we played one of my favorite games for reviewing concepts.  And it just so happens that this game also gives me a lot of insight into my students' understanding.  I don't remember the original name of the game, but I've played versions of it before at grown-up parties.

I've used this game for a lot of different topics.  We've been studying environments and Utah animals lately, so today they each got a picture of a Utah animal taped to their back, where they couldn't see it.  I've also used this for content terms and vocabulary.  In 2nd grade, this was our weekly practice for our vocabulary words.  After we had done our vocabulary routine to learn the words, I would give the kids 10 min. to study their words.  They could jot down notes, draw pics of the words, quiz each other, whatever they wanted.  It was always the most productive, focused time of the week and who would imagine 7-year-olds could study on their own??  This also gave me time to code a class set of index cards with the vocabulary words.  I'd tape the words to their back, and they'd walk around trying to figure out which word was on their back.  (After the first year, I had all the index cards laminated so I could use them year after year.)

Rules of the game:

1. Find out what's taped to your back by only asking yes or no questions

2. You can only ask one question per person, and you can only ask each person once

3. You only get once guess; if you're wrong you're out, if you're right, you can take it off your back and keep answering others' questions

4. There's only a given amount of time, so ask good quality questions!

Fabulous Find Friday: Lit2Go

Have you heard of this site?  I hadn't until I googled audio versions of a book we read as a class in 4th.  They have a ton of classic books like Tom Sawyer, Aesop's Fables, Alice in Wonderland, Anne of Green Gables, Beowulf, Black Beauty...need I go on?  The best part is that every chapter of each book has a chapter summary, Flesh-Kincaid Readability level and both an audio and pdf of the chapter.  When we were studying The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, I could project the pdf of the pages from the overhead onto our whiteboard for choral reading or for their Reading Workshop assignments.  It was so helpful for everyone to be able to see and underline and mark sections.

Check out the National Poetry Month section, or the Happiness Collection.  Yeah, they have a Happiness section.  Now tell me this site isn't great.

Home-, er...Class-Grown Lettuce

Happy Earth Day!  How about growing some lettuce with your kids?  Use the cut-off part of your head of lettuce, stick some toothpicks in the sides to make sure the base stays just below the water and stick it on container of water.  My bok choy started growing in less than a week!  You could make a class salad in a month and bring a whole new meaning to recycling...while teaching science!

Fabulous Finds Friday: Show Me app

Have you heard about this app yet?  It's so fun!  It's like a whiteboard on your iPad, but you can record both sound and what's happening on the screen, and then save it and e-mail it.  I recorded some of my kids explaining their mathematical theories about equivalent fractions and showed their parents the kinds of discussions we were having at school about math.  A teacher across the hall had her kids show and explain a math concept they had solidified that term and showed the short videos at Parent Teacher Conferences.  The parents, and my principal, were so impressed!  And the best part of all...it's free!