Fostering the Impostor

1/14/2013

The great thing about the educational community is that we have made a huge push to migrate everything online. You can find almost anything about anything in any subject and any lesson. The truth is, I'm an impostor. I'm using content from all over the web in hopes of giving my students the best possible instruction available. It's phenomenal, yet overwhelming. We have sites that offer a noble effort to get some sort of financial compensation for the hours that teachers have put into the creation of unique lessons. However, is collaboration really collaboration if you have to pay for it?

I'm more interested in sites like these:
Dan Meyer
Math Mistakes
Mathalicious
Estimation180
101QS
Visual Patterns
Math Thinking

All of these sites are intense resources for math instruction, and they're all on a great discount - free. They were created out of a passion for students to understand the content rather than a way to make direct financial gain. Sure, the creators of these sites will reap some fringe benefits, but they'll be from speaking fees and collaboration compensation.

With that being said, I need some help:

This is a picture that I took of my odometer when I got home from work today. Don't worry, it was all legal according to California State Law. What approach should I take on this with the class tomorrow? I could ask:

What is the first question that comes to mind? (a la 101qs)
Estimate how old my car is/ $ I've spent in gas/etc. (a la estimation180)
Create a 3-Act lesson (a la Dan Meyer)

Or something else completely different...

With that being said, can you share your thoughts?

There are plenty of worksheets to give and countless problems for students to solve. Based on what has been posted online in the past few years, I see no reason to continue doing things the way that we've always done them.

Happy Fishing

9 Comments

David Wees link

1/14/2013 07:52:58 am

Here is another idea: Ask students to come up with problems related to this picture. You can then curate those problems and share them out to the class as groups. It may take a while for students to be comfortable with this idea (asking their own questions in a math lesson) but if you scaffold it a bit, it can be quite valuable.

I've noticed students often rely on a textbook as a source when doing this, so I recommend hiding them for this day, or requiring them to create their problems in a different format (like video) so that they see the textbook as a less useful resource.

John Stevens link

1/14/2013 07:55:39 am

Thank you David. While the students don't use their textbook, they also rely too heavily on me for answers or next steps. In reading all of the things that you and other math minds are doing online, I'd like o start incorporating it into my lessons. How long before they were fluent in working through strategies like this?

David Wees link

1/14/2013 08:05:42 am

It depends a lot on the group, and on individual students. One group I did this with ran with it right away, another group had some hesitant students and other students who were very keen to experiment with their own problems.

Stacey link

1/14/2013 10:35:28 am

My first thoughts: if you're going to do the asking, frame it well. Frame it as a 'story' that makes them want to ask questions. How will you capture their attention? If you want them to do the question asking, maybe keep track of those, choose the best question, and then get them asking you for information as needed along the way. Have fun with the assignment!

John Stevens

1/14/2013 10:40:04 am

Thank you Stacey! I especially like the idea of keeping track of the questions. Students are being given the homework assignment of asking a q on 101qs so that it is an easy list to read, then I'll use your idea and choose the one that fits the direction I was hoping for... Which, in this case, I'm not real sure of!

Andrew Stadel link

1/14/2013 11:38:02 am

Fun picture. I enjoy the idea of estimating the age of the car. A couple of ideas came to mind. One, you could approximate the total amount of time spent driving those miles. Figure out the percentage of driving you do on the highway vs. city and use rates like 65mph and 35mph, respectively. It's probably scary to think how much time is actually spent driving, plus siting in traffic. The second idea that came to mind comes from the Price is Right where contestants have to guess the correct price of an item by rearranging the numbers in the correct order. I'm not sure what grade you're targeting here, but this just a fun activity idea. Just put up the nine-tenths and give clues like it's divisible by four, etc. How many miles did you drive on your current set of tires and did you get your monies worth? I agree with the above comments to encourage students to come up with questions on their own. Sounds scary, but I have to try more of that. Good luck!

John Stevens link

1/15/2013 12:48:49 pm

Thanks for the support on this one. I ended up posting the question on 101qs and told the students to type the first question that comes to mind. I'll take those results and create the discussion for Monday. I'll keep you posted by updating my blog. Thank you again!

Dan Meyer link

1/15/2013 05:20:00 am

Usually, if I want to provoke a question like "how long?" (as in, "how long has my car been running?") I need to use a video. I wonder what a video of your odometer moving for ten seconds would do for your students' curiosity.

John Stevens link

1/15/2013 12:47:11 pm

Thank you for the idea. I ended up posting it on 101qs.com and I'll take the results to generate discussion for Monday. It should be fun, but I'll keep you posted!

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