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I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know I say this in basically every email, but this is one of my favorite screens in our entire program, not least because it allows you to ...

 

Create a headache.

Earlier in this unit, we talked about the value of starting a lesson with a student’s vision and intuition. The same is true on this screen. You can ask students to visually estimate two parallel lines.

 

But that task is actually pretty challenging! Some students will get very close but find out from our interpretive feedback that their lines eventually meet, even if it’s miles and miles away. This is how you’ve created a headache where a system of equations is the aspirin.

 

When we design lessons, we try to ask ourselves, what’s the need for this new math (in this case, the system of equations)? If the system of equations is the aspirin, then what is the headache and how do we create it?

 

You’ll have accomplished something pretty spectacular when you invite students into this lesson using nothing more than their vision and intuition, and then help them experience the limits of those resources while giving them opportunities to make sense of new resources. 

 

They’ll learn that the resources they bring to class are valuable and that the class can offer them other valuable resources as well!

 

Enjoy yourselves!

 

Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team

PS. Please give us feedback on the last lesson.

Use the feedback form or just click your answer below then click "Submit" on the form!

 

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Great advice from other teachers.

West Chester, PA

 

Take your time in the warm-up, it lays the foundation and recalls needed prior knowledge for students to succeed.

 

Springfield, MO

 

After my kids sorted their cards I had them put the cards into two piles. The ones they sorted correctly and the ones that were not correct. I then looked for trends of missed problems among groups of students.

 

West Chester, PA

Paper and pencil are your friends in this lesson to connect graphical and symbolic representations!

Previous Previews

• [8.4.2] Keep it Balanced — You can’t break math.
• [8.4.3] Balanced Move — Start with their senses.
• [8.4.8] When Are They the Same? — Start with the question, not the answer.
• [8.4.11] Make Them Balance — Start with a wrong answer.