Start with their senses.

 

Rochelle Gutierrez writes in her introduction to the book Rehumanizing Mathematics for Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Students:

 

A more rehumanized mathematics would depart from a purely logical perspective and invite students to draw upon other parts of themselves (e.g., voice, vision, touch, intuition).


Even before students can calculate an answer to these hanger problems, they can come up with answers using their vision and their intuition.

8.4.3

So if students find it hard to get started on this screen, you can of course tell them “You can’t break math!” and invite them to start with any shapes at all. But you can also invite them to start with their senses.

 

Consider asking them, “Which do you think is heavier? The blue triangles or the green squares. How do you know? How are you thinking about it?” Invite students to imagine they’re holding one or the other. How do they know which is heavier?

 

Inviting student vision and intuition makes math easier to learn. But it’s also likely to rehumanize math for students who in the past have felt like math class lacked a place for those aspects of their humanity. I hope that’s true for you and your students.

 

Have fun with this one!

 

Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team

PS. Please give us feedback on the last lesson.

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Great advice from other teachers.

Toronto, Ontario

 

Have fun with slide 6 with your students. Get in there in front of the class and arrange the moves (in red) up top and guide them as they process what a move might be. Double click one of the hangars (to magnify) and ask, "What move was made to go from the hanger on the left to the hanger on the right?" Let them discuss with their groups/partners for a minute. Then do the same for one equation.

 

West Chester, PA


Emphasize the "golden rule of solving equations" – "you can do anything you want as long as you do it to both sides." I really emphasized over and over and that slide above assisted in showing that. We went through each option.

 

Salida, CA


Explain using equivalent fractions to help students see equivalent equations. It will help tremendously. Don't go over the word beforehand. Have students discover it but use the example of fractions to help.

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