Here is the last tip I’ll pass along to you from the teachers who have experienced success with this program in years past.
Top Tip No. 5: Post-teach rather than pre-teach.
Many curricula ask you to pre-teach mathematical ideas to students: to explain ideas to students at the start of class and ask students to use them later. We’ve designed this program so that students can work on early screens without your help. Students will likely experience the need for new mathematical ideas at some point during the lesson, and that’s the perfect time to offer an explanation, one that ideally celebrates and makes connections to the ideas students have offered throughout the activity.
What does it look like in practice?
In Face Value, the learning goal is that students will calculate the volume of a prism or pyramid from their picture.
Consider giving students several minutes to work on the two challenges with a partner or on their own, but using only the ideas they brought to class. Those early explorations will prepare them to learn from the two strategies we’ll offer them on the next screen.
We think they’ll learn more math when you post-teach those strategies, and we think they’ll learn about their own power as mathematical thinkers as well.
Dan & the Desmos Classroom Team
PS. Please give us feedback on the last lesson.
That’s the last preview email I’ll send you for Unit 1. Please bookmark this link and let us know how these lessons go for you. Every bit of your feedback a) makes every lesson better and b) puts another ticket with your name on it into a raffle for Desmos gear and other prizes.
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