Dividing Shapes - An Activity To Try At Home
Rich Problems Engage Higher Order Thinking
Simple and rich at the same time, this activity engages learners spanning many grades. Give it a try! You’ll feel your mental wheels turning. Is there just one solution for each shape? What processes help to come up with answers?
Higher order thinking is about analyzing, synthesizing, and solving problems. Teachers can support higher order thinking in a variety of ways. The attached PDF provides a handout for the activity, a web-link for an online shape-dividing tool, and helpful teaching guidelines.
Excellent Teaching Supports Higher Order Thinking
This video highlights best practice.
Two students are engaged in a rich math task. 5 apartments per floor. 10 floors in the building. How many total apartments? They are using linking cubes to model their approach, but something is getting lost as they hurry towards an answer.
Watch the teacher slow them down and ask them to take responsibility for finding a reasonable solution. See where the students end up!
Math for All is a professional development program that brings general and special education teachers together to enhance their skills in planning and adapting mathematics lessons to ensure that all students achieve high-quality learning outcomes in mathematics.
