Geeksunite2

Math teachers can use tasks to promote learning and mathematical proficiency. There are many resources, textbooks and websites that math teachers can use to find meaningful tasks. With all the materials available, it can become overwhelming to figure out how to select a task that would benefit students the most. We will share criteria from research in cognitively demanding tasks that have helped us quickly pick great tasks to use with our students. To get us thinking together in the session, we will try a range of math tasks that will help us understand and use the selection criteria. Additionally, we have noticed with our students that our actions as teachers also greatly impact students’ thinking. We’ve learned a lot from our eagerness to give help which often greatly reduces students’ problem solving and takes away from their learning. To address the challenge of carrying out a task effectively, as a group we will generate
instructional moves for effective implementation, including how to use productive struggle as a method to promote learning. Teachers will take away tasks to try with students, ideas about where to find tasks, how to choose tasks and strategies to foster learning.