Hey {{custom.firstName}},

 

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 No Bending, No Stretching, the learning goal is for students to understand what “rigid transformations” are and what they do. But resist the impulse to pre-teach that concept at the start of the lesson. You’ll miss out on language students will otherwise offer you when you ask them why they matched the cards they matched, words like “bending” and “stretching.”

 

Feel free to post-teach those concepts later, once you’re able to draw on ideas from your students, once they’ve experienced a need for that language.

 

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?

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Great advice from other teachers.

 

Springfield, MO

Review how to use a protractor the day before or maybe at the beginning of the lesson.

Baltimore, MD

I paused students at slide 5 and highlighted student responses so that we could develop a class definition of rigid transformation based on their card sort and observations.

Previous Emails

Top Tip No. 1: Nobody needs to finish everything.
Top Tip No. 2: Catch and release.
Top Tip No. 3: With the great power of pausing comes great responsibility.
Top Tip No. 4: Become a detective for student brilliance.