Last week I got to attend a math teacher conference!! I don’t know about you, but I always get excited for these events. I mean, math teachers are my people, ya know? In my opinion, it’s the best kind of professional development, since it is targeted for exactly what I teach. I was looking forward to the key note speakers, learning from the breakout sessions, and spending the day with my math teacher friends. Plus any day out of the classroom feels like a “day off” even if I had to make a sub plan…
The highlight of the conference for me was learning from Jo Boaler. She has inspired me for years in believing that all students are capable of learning math. I have shown her videos to my students every year for the last 8 years to encourage a positive math mindset. So I was definitely, kind of being a fan girl (I even got a picture with her after the session).
Jo presented on her upcoming book called, “Math-ish”. Her argument is that sometimes students lose some of their number sense or engagement when we are too precise. More students will engage in a thinking task if we ask an “ish” question. It’s not scary to answer an “ish” question because there is not a wrong answer! And with a good question and good discussion, an “ish” question will improve number sense and then we can get to more precise answers with good number sense. She shared several examples of “ish” questions and how effective it can be in a math classroom.
This was definitely a new idea that I hadn’t ever really contemplated before. As we know from the 8 math practices, we should attend to precision. So I have been thinking a lot about this idea and how I might apply it. I will soon be teaching our geometry unit, so I have been thinking about a task that I can turn into an “ish” task. When I create tasks, I first think about a topic that will be interesting to my students. Then I brainstorm how I can use that context to teach a math concept. This is what I have come up with tonight: dog beds and surface area. My students always want to see pictures of my dog, so why not use this to my advantage! 😁 I plan to pose this question to my students and have them work at the vertical work spaces around my room and see what they come up with. My goal is to use this task to introduce surface area (to 7th graders, so they have been exposed to the concept in 6th grade).
Why I think think this will be a good task:
- There is a low floor and high ceiling.
- It’s relatable to students.
- It will involve a lot of number sense and reasoning.
- It will facilitate a meaningful discussion about surface area.
I will report back in a few weeks after I have taught with this task and tell you how it goes! Happy teaching!