“Big Math Idea”

Five Attributes of Worthwhile Tasks

1. It focuses on significant mathematical ideas. Big ideas in mathematics Problematic (solution not apparent immediately)

2. It is developmentally appropriate Ideas are within reach from both a cognitive level and from an experiential one

3. It is contextualized. Situating mathematical tasks within everyday contexts

4. It offers an appropriate level of challenge. Offer a cognitive challenge that requires students to make decisions and explore new ideas, and yet not be so challenging as to feel overwhelming.

5. It encourages multiple perspectives. Stimulates a variety of strategies, representations, and mathematical ideas and encourages students to explain and justify their thinking.

At your table… Develop a worthwhile instructional task for an inclusive 4 th grade classroom based on tonight’s “Big Math Idea”. Justify why it is a worthwhile task.

MPS Learning Target #1 (Grade 4) Use strategies fluently to make estimates, solve, and pose real-world problems (e.g., single and multi-step) for all operations, to compare and rename numbers, and to find factors and multiples. Wisconsin Sub-skill Descriptors (Beginning of Grade 5) Sub-skill B.a: Concepts 1) Recognize and apply place-value concepts to whole numbers less than 1,000,000. 2) Read, write, and represent numbers using words, numerals, pictures (e.g., base ten blocks), number lines, arrays, expanded forms (243= ), and symbolic renaming e.g., 243= ) Compare and order numbers less than 10,000 represented in numbers, arrays, symbols (, =) and words. Sub-skill B.b: Computation 10) Use all operations in everyday situations to solve single or multi-step word problems. 11) Solve three- and four-digit addition and subtraction with regrouping; multiplication of two-digit by one-digit numbers; division with single-digit divisors and two-digit dividends and with two-step or mixed operation problems with single-digit numbers. 16) Determine reasonableness of answers.

At your table… Read description of “C.H.”

At your table… Brainstorm how you would support C.H. in order to make this a worthwhile task for him. Consider our discussion of scaffolds and tiers from our last class.