Johnny Math Teacher

Book Notes: “Routines for Reasoning” – Kelemanik, Lucenta, Creighton

Book Notes: “Routines for Reasoning” – Kelemanik, Lucenta, Creighton

I love those rich conversations with colleagues when they express a thought and you feel like you agree completely, but you’ve never been able to express it that clearly. That’s how Routines for Reasoning makes me feel – the book explores strategies teachers can employ to help develop students’ reasoning and problem-solving abilities. Each of the strategies does such a… Read more →

Twitter-Length Task - Sound it Out

Twitter-Length Task – Sound it Out

Twelve is the largest number that is only one syllable long. “Twenty-four” is three syllables, but so is “eight times three,” which is also equal to twenty-four. What is the greatest value expression or number you can write with five syllables? What is the smallest value you can create with five syllables? Can you create an expression whose value is… Read more →

Twitter-Length Task - Clock Angle

Twitter-Length Task – Clock Angle

Twitter-Length Tasks can be quickly and simply explained, yet allow for extensive exploration. Both hands of a clock are constantly moving. The small hour hand only points directly at a number when it is the top of the hour. Otherwise, that hour hand keeps moving around. So at 7:30, the hour hand is halfway between 7 and 8. So at 3:00,… Read more →

Twitter-Length Task - Six Points

Twitter-Length Task – Six Points

Twitter-Length Tasks can be quickly and simply explained, yet allow for extensive exploration. Draw six dots. A line segment that connects two dots is worth 1 point – as long as it doesn’t intersect any other line segments. A line segment with one intersection is worth ½ a point, a line segment with two intersections is worth ¼ a point, three… Read more →

Twitter-Length Task - Slicing the Square

Twitter-Length Task – Slicing the Square

Twitter-Length Tasks can be quickly and simply explained, yet allow for extensive exploration.  Use one cut to make a square into 2 pieces. What types of shapes are possible? (Two Rectangles, two trapezoids, a triangle and a trapezoid, what else?) How many different types of shapes can you create if you used 2 cuts to divide the square? Is the answer… Read more →

Twitter-Length Tasks - Intersecting Lines

Twitter-Length Tasks – Intersecting Lines

Twitter-Length Tasks can be quickly and simply explained, yet allow for extensive exploration. Draw a line segment inside a square the stretches all the way to the edges of the square.Draw an intersecting line segment. Draw another line segment so that each line only has one intersection point inside the square.How many line segments can you add to the square making… Read more →

Twitter-Length Tasks - Inscribed Shapes

Twitter-Length Tasks – Inscribed Shapes

Twitter-Length Tasks can be quickly and simply explained, yet allow for extensive exploration. Which has the greater portion of its area remaining: a circle with an inscribed square cut out or a square with an inscribed circle cut out? How do you know? Choose dimensions of the circle and square so the shaded regions will be equal. What about other shapes… Read more →

Twitter-Length Tasks - Whole Number Tic-Tac-Toe

Twitter-Length Tasks – Whole Number Tic-Tac-Toe

Twitter-Length Tasks can be quickly and simply explained, yet allow for extensive exploration. Fill in each square in a tic-tac-toe board with a different number between 0 and 5. That means at least some of the squares will have decimals or fractions. Try to make as many rows and columns as possible add up to whole numbers. Try using numbers between… Read more →