Asking good questions

-
Asking good questions is an important way to see what your students are thinking and to get them to move forward in their ability to justify their answers.

There is a great article that was published in the NCTM journal, Teaching Mathematics in the Middle School.  It's called:




The article talks about two ways of asking questions.  Funneling (not so great) and Focusing (better!).  Here is my interpretation of the main theme of their article:


 My Example of Funneling:

Teacher- What is 12 x 6
Student- I don’t know
Teacher- Well, what is 6 times 2?
Student- 12
Teacher- Put down the 2 and carry the one
Teacher- What is 6 times 1?
Student- 6
Teacher- Add 1
Student- 7
Teacher- So, what is 12 x 6?

My Example of Focusing:
Teacher- How can we multiply 12 x 6?
Student- I don’t know.
Teacher- Well, what do you know about multiplication?
Student- It’s repeated addition.
Teacher- Okay, so what could you do?
Student- Well, I know 5-twelves is 60.
Teacher- So, tell me more about that...
Student- So I guess I just need one more 12 added to 60,  That would be 72.
Teacher- Great, are there any other methods we could use to get the answer?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Valentine's Day: I Heart Math

-
Image
If you teach middle school, brace yourself for the craziness that is Valentine's Day celebrated at school tomorrow! Heart shaped suckers, teddy bears, chocolate, and a few (hopefully minimal) tears. Instead of fighting it, embrace the mathiness that can be squeezed out of this heart-filled holiday! Here are a few resources to use: 1. Send a Math-o-Gram . Love math? Love Desmos? You can send your students (or friends) a heart themed graph! 2. Make a Mathy Valentine Use transformations to rotate your way to your students' hearts. 3. Check out these other heart-shaped graphing activities I found these NCTM Illuuminations graphing actives a few years ago. 4. Graph this equation in Desmos : (this was a fun one for my 6th graders... just to figure out how to type in the correct symbols!) 5. Mobius Strip Hearts ?! Yes! Happy Valentine's Day! <3 Update: More Valentine's Day Activities Added: Early Childhood Ideas: Spark a Lov
Read more

Block Schedule Planning

-
Image
I had an opportunity to teach on a 45-minute traditional class period schedule and a 90-minute block. Both models have their pros and cons. I think my own preference is block schedules because you have so much more time to dive into content. There are fewer transitions and it just seems calmer and more conducive to learning. However, one major challenge is finding purposeful ways to fill that block. If you notice that you are doing one activity for a long period of time, it might be important to think about chunking. What I mean by chunking is thinking of you period in 15-20 minute chunks of time and planning activities within those chunks. I find it's difficult to keep students attention if something lasts longer than 20 minutes, so that was my maximum for any activity (except an assessment). I developed the following sample block plans based on 85 minutes. So, if you have 60 minutes you can think about cutting out one of these pieces. If you teach 90 minutes, add 5 minute
Read more

Why I Don't Use Keywords (or CUBES)

-
Image
Teacher confession time: I used to teach my students about keywords in math class. I did not create this poster, but I could have. In fact I had one very similar hanging in my classroom from 2007-2012. I even wrote one of my National Board portfolio entries about a lesson designed around keywords ! This brings be to CUBES. A problem solving strategy I've seen quite a few times in classrooms. I never used it, but mostly because I didn't hear about it. I probably would have been all over that. If you aren't familiar, here is the strategy: C- circle the numbers U- underline the question B- box the keywords, or math action words E- evaluate the steps you should take S- solve and check You might be wondering why I stopped using keywords in math class in 2012. Honestly, I was pretty stubborn. I mean, kids  got the right answers  when I taught key words! I thought I was helping them. Students liked them. Parents understood them. There are actually several reasons I
Read more