Mission three of "Exploring the Math Twitter Blogsphere" has recently been posted and here I am finishing up mission one. I have plenty of valid excuses why I am behind but let's move on to the mission.
I have to reflect on my favorite open ended question I have or would like to ask my classes. As a professional goal, I would like all my algebra classes to write equation given a few simple guidelines. For example" Write an equation of a line with a positive rational slope with a negative y- intercept." Or another one could be " write an equation of a quadratic with a double root, leading coefficient being negative, whose roots are on the positive x-axis." I think that would show a deep level of understanding about the various small components of any equation.
It is good to know that I am not the only one who got started late! I was racking my brain to think of open-ended things that I do when your post reminded me that just asking students to come up with their own examples is a very simple and powerful open-ended question that we can use in the classroom at any time. Great post!
ReplyDeleteFor graphing quadratics, I really like James Tanton's approach. My daughter has been working through his videos and really enjoying them.
ReplyDeleteIt's all in the questioning. Simple, yet effective. Great questions really probe understanding.
ReplyDeleteI like the way that you describe having students create the parameters. I wonder if you could also embed some of those things in contextual problems so that they would be more meaningful for the students.
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