Week 4 Reflection

Let's talk about rich tasks! 

As we finish off week four, I know right, WEEK 4! How is that possible already!? I've had the opportunity this past week to consider quite a few elements in the classroom that I previously would not have considered. For example, what is the difference between a rich, and non-rich task? This is something we spent some time investigating this week and I thought I would share some of my personal observations with you. We observed a few ways that a task can be considered "rich" these things include elements such as, rich tasks should require students to deepen their thinking and students should be able to have an open discussion about potential answers. 

I created a survey this week for some of my peers to complete with regards to their feelings towards math, if you have a second, please check it out, there are some interesting questions on there and I am curious to see the different answers that it evokes. You can find the survey here. 

Another element that I've spent quite a bit of time investigating this week  is differentiation in the classroom. What is differentiation you might ask? Essentially, it is "reaching every learner" and adapting teaching and learning so that every student benefits equally. I've personally benefited from doing this research because it has provided me with many different tips and tricks to differentiate my teaching in my future classroom. 

Here is a small list of a few ways you can differentiate in your classroom:

• Providing Choice Boards  
• Cubing
•  Learning Centers/Stations
• Learning Contracts (one of my personal favourites)
•  RAFT
• Tiering  

Many of these strategies are easy ways that a teacher can be sure they are teaching to reach all of their students. 

 

Thanks for reading again this week!