Groupworthy Tasks
One of the first steps to creating a classroom in which students actively engage with complex mathematical problems is to take a look at the actual tasks you use in your classroom. Having students work collaboratively isn't enough; the tasks they are given to work on must be rich, "groupworthy" tasks that create opportunities for mathematical dialogue.
The idea of groupworthy tasks come from Rachel Lotan's 2003 article in Educational Leadership. Read this article, focusing particularly on her five characteristics for a groupworthy task. http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~coesyl-p/principle6-article4.pdf
Cohen (1994) offers a similar eight criteria for a multiple ability task:
- Has more than one answer or more than one path to a solution
- Is intrinsically interesting and rewarding
- Allows different students to make different contributions
- Uses multimedia
- Involves sight, sound, and touch
- Requires a variety of skills and behaviors
- Also requires reading and writing
- Is challenging
Now choose one of the tasks from http://cimath.org/tasks-for-download/ and evaluate it according to one of Lotan's five characteristics or Cohen's eight characteristics. In what ways does it meet this criterion? In what ways could it be improved? Post your findings in the discussion box below.