At my old site, we had this cheesy video news that played once a week and included a "Would You Rather?" segment to get kids thinking. The beef I had with it was that they were asked to choose between being blind for a day vs being deaf for a day (or something even less relevant). I liked the idea, but it got old and wasn't related to the content that I was teaching. From that, the idea came up about creating a math version of such questions to get kids thinking. Oh yeah, and there's that "Standards for Mathematical Practice" thing.
Sometimes a giant question, laid on its side
From there, WYRmath.wordpress.com was born. Instead of getting students to solve a problem, I'm going to work through the idea of having them make a selection based on mathematical principles and justify their reasoning. Sure, it hits a few of the SMP's, but it's more than that for me and my students. We aren't just solving a problem - we are making a decision and backing it up using basic (sometimes) mathematics. This brings some of that necessary relevance to the math that students have craved for a very, very long time.
For example, Would You Rather have...
For example, Would You Rather have...
Yes, there is some work involved, but it begs the necessity for conversion into common units, it requires students to determine necessary units, and it forces them to make a decision. Technically, there is no right/wrong answer, as long as it is justified. A student could easily say that they would rather have the silver because it is similar in current value and they predict it will be more sustainable and less volatile over the next 5 years. Will many? Who knows, but at least it gives them options.
I'm all for keeping this thing going because I see what it's doing to my students' brains. The first week, they were skeptical. The second week, they started to buy in. The third week, we were having high quality discussion about the value of a Peso versus a Euro.
On top of that, I'm all for new ideas. If you have any, feel free to drop an example in the comments or email me.
I'm all for keeping this thing going because I see what it's doing to my students' brains. The first week, they were skeptical. The second week, they started to buy in. The third week, we were having high quality discussion about the value of a Peso versus a Euro.
On top of that, I'm all for new ideas. If you have any, feel free to drop an example in the comments or email me.
A lot of great math can arise from the simple question, "Would you rather ...." http://t.co/wHKlMZX1ok /by @Jstevens009
— Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) August 14, 2013
Happy Fishing
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