Picking My Favorite Child

Free blog post idea for @Jstevens009: What separates your favorite http://t.co/t8w4siMPht prompt from your least favorite?

— Dan Meyer (@ddmeyer) November 14, 2014

If you were to ask who my favorite child is, I wouldn't be able to do it (most days- ya see, some days my older son drives me nuts, other days it's the younger one who does the digging. Parents know what I mean).

Annnnnnyyyyyyyways

Recently, Dan asked me to do something similar:

Favorite

Fine, Dan, I'll take you up on the challenge. Here's to hoping that one of my babies doesn't resent me for this.

Quick back story that gives my favorite post a bit of an unfair advantage.  My dad is a gold miner, so our whole family has grown up looking at gold prices, silver prices, and copper prices.  We've spent the earlier years of my life moving around to find the next place that has a promise of gold.  No, folks, this is not like reality TV.  The years that my parents spent struggling to make ends meet while providing a quality upbringing for me and my brother cannot be taken out of my feelings of which WYRmath post is better than the others.

Just speaking about the mathematics behind this promopt, here's why it's my favorite:

• It lends itself to an immediate conversation without begging the kids for math.  You can't come to a reasonable solution without recruiting some math to support it.
• There are inherent conversions that are being done to come to a common comparison.  On first glance, the obvious choice is... I really don't know, and my students didn't either.  We would like to say that gold is always better, but that's a WHOLE LOTTA SILVER!!!
• The prompt can be scaled.  The next two bullets hit on this.
• For a middle school class, we find the current conversion, compare, and be done with it.  Sure, start an argument about the price and hypothesize about the future, but you don't neeeeeeed to get deep into the graphs
• For a high school class (or more advanced middle schoolers), the current price is only the beginning of the discussion.  There is plenty of trend data available for both gold and silver, leading students into a strong conversation about futures, stocks, trends, stats, and much more.  Putting all bias aside is easier when you're looking at a lot of data to support either side.
• This requires math to have a decent conversation.  All I'm doing is asking which one they'd rather have, not demanding the math, but the students in the class will start to force the issue with peer pressure. Matt stands up and says "I like gold chains, so I'm going with the gold". Ryanne says that she would rather have the silver because (insert something incredibly mathematical and brilliant here), leaving Matt to wither back into his seat and do some research.  
• It changes!  Based on the prices of gold and silver, the justification for students' answers will change from week to week.  When we did it, the prices changed from period to period, making it a genuinely fun experience that I didn't know the answer to!  Yep, I didn't have the answer to my own prompt and I was completely happy with it. In fact, the kids stopped expecting it.
• They sought the tools and math necessary to justify their reasoning.  I didn't hand anything to them, put anything on the board, or tell them to bust out their calculators. It was just the prompt.  And it was glorious.

Least Favorite

This is the point in which a national curriculum, a standardized way of teaching, and a common textbook all start to fall apart.  My least favorite prompt is one that I don't feel passionate about, haven't experienced personally (other than driving by them multiple times), and can't seem to get excited about.  It's not the math that's boring.  In fact, the math is pretty interesting.  It's the prompt and how it relates to me and my students that lacks the oomph that I love about WYRMath.  However, someone in an area where crops are prominent might just find this incredibly relevant and useful.

On top of the aforementioned lack of relevance, the math itself isn't very deep.  To be honest, a lot of WYRMath posts take a helluva lot longer than my usual 5 minute warm-ups.  I'm totally fine with that, and love the extra conversations, but it does chew up valuable time that needs to be spent addressing the (ugh) standards. Nevertheless, the reasons:

• It's shallow.  The only math that the prompt is requiring students to do is to take percents of acres and compare them.  The depth of math required to put together a solid argument isn't there compared to most of the other prompts that are on the site.  Still, for a teacher wanting something quick, this is a viable option.
• It lacks relevance.  Sure, I've already mentioned it in a contextual standpoint, but it also lacks relevance in a percentage standpoint.  When else are you going to find the percent of mortality of an item/object/scenario?  This doesn't lend itself to further conversations very well.  It can happen, but not as naturally as I'd like.
• It's hard to start an argument.  I like arguments. A lot. It's hard for me to advocate for one side or the other and justify it in a way that makes kids contemplate their stance.  Maybe it's just me, and I'm open to being convinced, but I think that 50 acres is clearly a better choice.

And the here's Maria, a teacher who completely finds value in my least favorite because of its relevance to her students.  I'll take that!

@Jstevens009 @ddmeyer Your least favourite is one of my favourites b/c most of my students live or work on farms, so it gets them arguing!

— Maria Kerkhoff (@MsMariaAK) November 16, 2014

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What is fun, and probably predicted by Dan, about this challenge is that it forced me to think about why I really love the Would You Rather Math posts.  Not only does it encourage a discussion, but it prompts an argument.  I can't help but get fired up when I hear two kids raising their voice, see them getting out of their seat, and using mathematical terms to prove that the other person is... wrong.  That thing so many of our kids are used to hearing.  Now it takes on a whole different meaning.

Thank you to everyone who uses WYRMath, talks about it, promotes it, and gives me ideas and encouragement to continue working on this little side project.

As always, if anyone has an idea for a WYRMath post, please let me know via twitter or leave a comment here!

Happy "Favorite Child Syndrome" Fishing