Mathematics

Content
Productive Talk and Tasks
Tuesday June 18, 2019
 Journal - 10 minutes

ACE 25: Think about your teaching experience from this past year and
our conversation pertaining to dialogic and direct instruction and the
constructs associated with each (e.g. role of talk, group work, tasks
etc…). What new ideas do you have about teaching with these
constructs and how might this thinking influence your teaching this
year?

ACE 26: A friend asked you to describe direct and dialogic instruction
and the ways these models of teaching play out in the classroom.
What would you tell your friend?
 5 Practices for
Orchestrating Productive
Mathematics Discussions

Where does this task ask for one solution and where does this task ask
for multiple solutions?

1. Describe a pattern you see in the cube buildings.

2. Use your pattern to write an expression for the number of cubes in the
nth building.
3. Use your expression to find the number of cubes in the 5th building.
Check your results by constructing the 5th building and counting the
cubes.
4. Look for a different pattern in the buildings. Describe the pattern and use
it to write a different expression for the number of cubes in the nth
building.
Counting Cubes and
Discourse
CASE STUDY

With a partner, use the guide to analyze

the discourse in the “Counting Cubes”
lesson. You will have 25 minutes to
discuss the guiding questions before our
whole group discussion.
Whole Group Debrief
Counting Cubes Discourse

1. Why is it important for the teacher to anticipate?

2. How did Mr. Dubno’s questioning help students make sense
of the meaning of variable in each expression?
3. What is the role of and importance of planning for assessing
and advancing questions?
4. What is the significance of revoicing, marking and
challenging?
5. How does ‘task, tool, and talk’ support the teaching and
learning of essential understandings?
BREAK - 10 MINUTES
 Worthwhile Mathematical Tasks

1. Uses significant mathematics for the grade level

2. Rich
3. Problem Solving Nature
4. Authentic/Interesting
5. Equitable
6. Active
7. Connects to Process Standards and/or Mathematical Practices

7
 Task 1:
Find the volume of the cylinder
with a height of 7 ft. and a
circumference of 3.5 ft.
Find the volume of a cone with
a base circumference of 3.5 ft.
and a height of 7 ft.
8
Task 2:
Cylinders vs. Cones
1. Estimate how many cones filled with rice
are needed to fill up the cylinder.
2. How many actual times did you fill the
cone to fill the cylinder?
3. The formula for the volume of a cylinder is
the area of the base times the height.
Bxh=V (cylinder)
4. Using what you learned in this experiment,
write a formula for the volume of a cone.
Justify your formula.
Framework
Textbooks as a Resource
For Balancing Procedural
& Conceptual Knowledge
Traditional Textbook Word Problem

After Lana deposited a check for $65, her

new account balance was $315. How much
money was in Lana’s account before the
deposit?
How Do We Open Up Trad. Textbook Tasks?

Focus is on conceptual thinking - how can we use what

we all have in the textbook and make it better?
1. Can we open up the task, so that there are multiple
ways to solve it?
a. Open middle ≠ Open Ended
2. Focus on inquiry
a. Is this the best question?
3. Visual components?
4. Include convincing and reasoning
How Else Can We Improve Textbook Tasks?

1. Order of practice problems

a. Interleaving

2. Use the Worthwhile Task Framework as guidance

3. Worked Examples with Self Explanation

Worked Examples
● Robust research evidence that worked examples
support novice student learning

● See them often in textbook lessons

● But, like word problems, we can make them better.

Textbook Worked Example

● Shows 1 procedural focused

way to solve a problem

● No explanation or reasons why

steps are done

● Often, it’s a canonical example

Improving Worked Examples: Comparing
Improving Worked Examples - Error Analysis
Use Worked Examples in
Guided Notes
 Your Turn
In small groups, revise the word problem and worked
example provided on the handout.
Discussion
Textbooks - Take Home Points
● Wonderful resources

● But often can be too prescriptive, too closed ended,

too procedural for a goal of modeling - or true
problem solving

● USE them, but don’t be afraid to adjust them to your

specific goals

● Think about cognitive demand of the tasks