Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Students Finally Can Get A Cell Phone

As I try to challenge students more in developing mathematical thinking.  Basically trying to follow some advice from Dan Meyer!  I went about a problem that was presented in our textbook, which of course, laid out the entire problem for them, in a slightly different way.

My plan presented them with this blog post and nothing more!


Students really struggled with the question of what to do.  Some even displayed their frustration through loud speaking!
  • I don't get this!
  • What are we suppose to do!
  • Where's the math in this!


Eventually, a student realized they need to research plans to see what the most cost efficient plan would be based on minutes.



After the initial fury of questions and debates, I presented the students with another Dan Meyer tactic.  A very small piece of the problem.



Finally, students started to use resources that seemed to fit the task.  The Graphing Calc app was used by this student to compare different plans that were presented in the problem on our blog.  I really liked how this student explained the reason why he was using the app.



As a bonus, I was able to utilize my new podium placement with a student immediately placing their graph so all of the students could see.  I really like this podium placement as it is centrally located.  I also have another mirror connection cable so that students in the front of the class can quickly display their iPad screens.

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