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.
Most math programs 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 the next lesson?
In Introducing Scale, resist the impulse to pre-teach a definition of “scale” and “scale factor” at the start of the lesson. Allow students to interact with these very large and very small objects and offer you lots of early thoughts. Then, when students reach the lesson synthesis, feel free to post-teach your definition once you’re able to draw on ideas from your students and once they’ve experienced a need for the definition.
That’s the last preview email I’ll send you in 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.
See you in Unit 2!
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!
How likely is it that you would recommend this lesson to a friend or colleague?
