Deep Learning Tasks: Start with The End in Mind

Carmen Bolyard

• Bachelor’s in Elementary Education
• Master’s in Gifted and Talented Education
• Taught preschool, third, fourth, fifth grade, and sixth grade mathematics.
• Currently starting as an instructional coach position

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Married to a wonderful husband from West Virginia with an almost four-year old daughter who loves pretend play and playing hide and seek. We are expecting our second girl and could not be happier!

Create productive collaboration that deepens understanding

Learning Outcomes

Apply effective communication to explain concept clearly verbally and on print

Generate ideas in new ways

Collaboration

Communication

Create

OUR Learning Agreements

• Communicate with others
• Think to make connections
• Participate
• Be present

SOLVING BIGGER PROBLEMS

All state tests are reading tests

If we cannot read, how can we solve?

Teach them to problem solve with actual tasks that align with your pacing guide

The unit is to short to do a PBL

Work agreement

Working in pairs or groups of three max (co-teacher doesn't count).

Each must have a job

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• During your first task, you create a work agreement with students.
• students must understand that communication and collaboration in key
• students must agree to work with people they love and those who they may not productively

I have a problem

Start Here

Give students a problem to solve before teaching the concept. This problem must focus on the big target of your unit.

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Mrs. Bolyard has 2 Debbie/Hostess cakes. She will eat ½ of the first one and share ¾ of the other one with Mrs. Johnson. How much would be eaten? How much would be left?

Explain your answer using numbers AND a choice of the following: pictures, number lines, or models

Explain in two ways!

Notice differentiation

Do you have answers to the question?

• I read it to students once
• Their paper has the problem on it, it is also displayed on the board
• I have a timer running for students to work on the problem.
• I do not help for the first minutes
• I facilitate, DO NOT GIVE ANSWERS

Procedures

Let's Prove.

Confirm!

Explain your answer using numbers AND a choice of the following: pictures, number lines, or models

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Thinking of it in more than one way makes a difference

Once the timer goes off, we must have a gallery walk…

Gallery Walk

Gallery walk is a MUST

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Students can comment on each others, sticky notes with reversed notes can be made

If you have time

Timer Rules! Give them enough time

Choice

Debrief is a must!

• Create a list of open-ended questions (3-5)
• You can use the same questions for all your tasks
• students take turners listening to each others comments and can answer to each other

What did you notice?

What are you wondering still?

What was your main struggle?

What could be a common misconception?

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Sample questions

Debrief

Use this time wisely, teaching misconceptions is important!

Teach concepts on a different day(s).

Make connections to the task as you continue to teach the unit.

The results show progress

in just one year of this type of instruction

Did not finish because they were so confused by the wording and by the questions

• Illustrative Mathematics (k-8) Click on the arrows above to move through grade levels
• Eureka Math use the last or second to last question in the problem set.
• Open Middle K-12, You can browse by standard
• Achieve the Core- K-12 Must download tasks
• Procedures poster

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Helpful places to get tasks

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• Create work agreements
• Pair up students- 2 to three students
• Give the task
• Read it to students
• Work paper has the given task written on it
• Have a timer running for students to work on the problem, be flexible
• Do not help for the first minutes
• Facilitate
• Students prove their thinking by solving the problem in two different ways
• Gallery walk- with or without comments
• Debrief

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Deep Learning Tasks Procedures