Open Middle and Google Docs

A few weeks ago Kassie, a teacher I support, came up with a great idea. The idea was inspired by one of our other Digital Learning Coaches, Michelle, who introduced Kassie to hyperdocs.

Idea: Incorporate Open Middle problems with Google Docs.

Here's how it went...
Kassie had her students work in eight groups. This happens often in her class. She pushed out one Google Doc to the entire class so every student has editing rights. However, you just need one group member to make edits for their group.

Each group was working on the following open middle tasks:
Use the integers from 0 through 9 only once to create an equation with:
Day 1: One solution
Day 2: No solution
Day 3: Infinite solutions

First, students work on their desks with whiteboard markers, discussing with their group members. Isn't that lovely!

Second, students enter their equation into their respective cell inside the Google Doc table.

Third, each group needs to test the equations that other groups submitted. Keep in mind, that each group could not submit an equation identical to another group. Once they worked on other equations, they entered if they agreed or disagreed with other groups.

I experienced Day 1 and it was awesome to see the collaboration and community of learning throughout the room. When debriefing with Kassie about Day 3, she told me students realized an equation with infinite solutions couldn't be done if they use the numbers 0 through 9 only once. That's awesome! Good work kiddos! She ended up allowing them to use a number more than once. I'm wondering how it might change if we allowed them to use the numbers 1-10 (only once).

Since our middle school students work on iPads, a large Google Doc table like the one above might not let the math breathe on a smaller screen. I adapted her Google Doc to look more like this as a template:

• I split the eight groups into two tables on two separate pages.
• Each group still enters their answer into their respective highlighter-yellow cell.
• Each group has a vertical column so they work downward when entering agree/disagree

I inserted this Open Middle question as a placeholder above the table inside the template.

Make your own copy of the template by clicking here. 

This is definitely a way for students to create their own answers which turn into questions their classmates can use to practice procedures and challenge their understanding of specific math concepts. It is student focused. It's a great way for students to generate questions that both the teacher and students can use. It makes math a social experience through the use of technology. All of the student answers are housed in one location.

Open Middle,
1224

P.S.
We have Google Classroom in our district which makes it 200 (student) times easier to push things like this out to students. If you don't have Google Classroom, there are other ways to get this out to your students' devices. If you need ideas, hit me up in the comments or on Twitter.

A Jammed Rational-Irrational War, Stacking Cups Week

Some cool stuff happened this week. Well at least I think it was cool.

Monday: 

One of my math fellows was observed by other math teachers from our district. He was starting a new unit with rational and irrational numbers, focusing on 8.NS.1 and 2. I might be wrong, but pretty dry stuff… here’s how we spiced it up a little.

We did a pre-assessment using the Post-It Plus app. Yes, my obsession with Post-It notes has gone to a new level: digital. We created a file within the app, posted it on his Haiku calendar, and had the students download the file into their app on their iPad. 

Students first worked individually to sort the terms from least to greatest for a few minutes. Since his students are grouped in fours, they then narrowed it down to one iPad screen they thought was most accurate. (Quick demo)

*Reflection: we should have had students paired up first, discuss, and narrow it down to two screens for the entire group. Next, the whole group of four students would discuss and narrow the two iPad screens down to one screen for the group.

Once each group settled on a screen they felt most confident with, they took a screenshot and uploaded their group’s screenshot to the Padlet page my fellow created for them.

My fellow used this Padlet page to assess the overall climate of the class (without teaching them a single thing). He used this real-time data to have some really rich conversations and share-out of ideas from students.

Remember to tell students:

• It’s okay if you’re wrong. 
• Make your best guess.
• I just want to see what you already might know.

Flash forward to Friday:

The previous weekend I asked the same fellow what he thought about playing War with rational and irrational terms. Side note: I play a few card games with my young son and one of them is War. My fellow thought the idea was epic. He ran with it. Here how he made it awesome:

• He made these awesome cards.
• Some values had multiple representations
• Printed them out on card stock.
• Made a graphic organizer for students.
• Each group of four was broken down like this:
• 2 people played War while the other 2 people recorded and were the judges.
• The next round, the roles were switched.
• There were 3 rounds.
• Each round was 6-10 minutes
• He stopped class and made a spectacle whenever two students were at war.
• The third and final round was between the winners of the first two rounds.

I asked if I had his permission to share the cards and he said, “Sure.”

Tuesday:

Another fellow asked me to model Stacking Cups in their first period class, which ran less than 45 minutes. My fellow requested I complete the task with students in one period. I explained that I’ve never “finished” the task in one period because there is so much to explore and learn in the task. I respected the request and  tried to cram it into one period. I spent too much time launching the task. 

Act 2 (the best part) felt rushed and we still didn't finish. My fellow and I debriefed and made some adjustments so she could finish it with her next period. She stuck to the adjustments and did a fantastic job facilitating the task. The students were doing awesome and amazing math during Act 2… and what do you know? The class was over. I love that my fellow was going to revisit the task the next day. Could we have spent another day on the task? Yes. It’s a starting point and I’m very proud of my fellow for trying out something new and doing a great job. I’d say the sweet spot would be one-and-a-half days for this task...
*Side note: I encourage you do styrofoam cups earlier in the year, and use Stacking Cups throughout the entire linear systems unit.

Thursday:

Another teacher wanted me to model Stacking Cups as well. When we sat down to plan, she was totally cool with spending one-and-a-half days on the task. Great news!

I launched the task, used a Padlet page to capture what they noticed. I asked the question, "Where will they tie?" and used a Google form to collect their guesses (see my post on using Google forms to collect student thinking). 

We gave each group only 4 white styrofoam cups. Students were making tables, or writing equations, or some were even wanting to graph their equations. Interesting note: some students started their table with zero cups having a height of 9.2 centimeters. The teacher had only taught graphing systems, so students were already thinking ahead to substitution. It was awesome. She did a wonderful job facilitating her first 3-Act task. We didn’t finish the task in one period, but it felt right knowing we had another half-day to wrap up the task. 

Back to Friday:

After work, I started putting the meat in my upcoming session, Math Mistakes and Error Analysis: Diamonds in the Rough. Although I will be showcasing a couple ways I’ve had success with error analysis with students, I love that I’ll be showcasing some awesome work and contributions from:

• my fellows
• Michael Pershan’s mathmistakes.org,
• Fawn’s Visual Patterns with Michael Fenton’s latest mod
• Open Middle by Robert Kaplinsky and Nanette Johnson

Hope to see you in my upcoming session as we explore why error analysis is important to:

• help drive instruction
• curb student misconceptions and
• strengthen formative assessment. 

Hope your week went well too. If not, hope this week is better.

Rational/Irrational,
516