So, now all of the Math ILs are doing a book study on the book I previously introduced, 5 Practices for Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions.
We are currently discussing the topic of my previous post. The bottom line is that teachers must first establish a clear and specific goal with respect to the mathematics to be learned and then select a high-level mathematical task. Read my previous post for more context.
The author argues that what the students learn depends largely on the nature of the task in which they engage. In addition, the argument is made that those tasks should be high-level, cognitively demanding tasks.
Please take some time to consider the following questions and posting your reply:
- Do you agree with this point of view? Why or why not?
- What do you see as the potential costs and benefits of utilizing high-level, cognitively demanding tasks as a basis of instruction?
Yes, I do agree that when tasks are high level and cognitively demanding our students will develop deeper understanding and be able to extrapolate that understanding beyond the "task at hand". Unfortunately, this means, in my opinion, being able to differentiate so that one has many different tasks within one lesson for students to be able to reach for higher lever understanding without being so frustrated that they just give up. Trying to differentiate in a room with 35 students and levels from third to tenth grade abilities is an almost impossible duty and I believe that the chasm only gets worse year by year. Something must be done to accommodate the needs of the students with reasonable expectations of teachers.
ReplyDeletePotential costs will be teachers “teaching to the test” even more than they do now. Too often I find myself saying “You will see this on AIMS”, instead of actually incorporating problems in which my students can apply and incorporate the concepts being learned. The obvious benefit will be that our students will be able to achieve to the best of their ability.