Reply To: Lesson 5-4: Question

[Kristie D’Arcangelo]

This lesson has caused a bit of conflict in my thinking as I have been doing lots of reading about not solving tasks before the students so as to not guide them in their thinking or nudge/prod them along with hints instead of asking probing questions to get them to stretch their thinking. I have done tasks in the past where I have told the students I don’t know the answer or I don’t remember from the previous year and they are initially distressed to hear this but then move forward to “show me” that they can figure out if I don’t know. I do see the benefit to having the work already done out for some of the ways students might approach a task, but I doubt that I would be able to come up with a comprehensive list as students think in so many different ways. I imagine that the place on the template for students/groups names is going to be extremely beneficial to identifying where students are in their understanding potentially based on the means by which they tackled the problem. I am looking forward to seeing how this all comes together.

[Kristie D’Arcangelo]

This lesson has caused a bit of conflict in my thinking as I have been doing lots of reading about not solving tasks before the students so as to not guide them in their thinking or nudge/prod them along with hints instead of asking probing questions to get them to stretch their thinking. I have done tasks in the past where I have told the students I don’t know the answer or I don’t remember from the previous year and they are initially distressed to hear this but then move forward to “show me” that they can figure out if I don’t know. I do see the benefit to having the work already done out for some of the ways students might approach a task, but I doubt that I would be able to come up with a comprehensive list as students think in so many different ways. I imagine that the place on the template for students/groups names is going to be extremely beneficial to identifying where students are in their understanding potentially based on the means by which they tackled the problem. I am looking forward to seeing how this all comes together.