Task Design Tools
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The transforming tasks resource provides a range of ways to help design learning tasks in a way that requires that students do the thinking. It is a resource package of four sessions that explain the strategies in a lot more detail. The links opposite are to two variations of the same resource. they describe 16 strategies in 4 categories that will help student to think in different ways about what they are learning in classes.
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Open-Ended Task Resources
In making the leap into trying more open questions with your class it can often be hard to find good questions to use. Below is a list of resources that are really good sources of questions that you can use. Where possible the resources below have questions from early years though to secondary so that they are as useful as possible.
The NRICH website has a range of task suitable for students from early years though to secondary. Their description of the type of tasks they promote on their website can also be found here.
Open Middle is a website that has suitable questions for students from pre-school though to secondary school. The questions are approximatly sorted by year level however it is important to note that the year levels are the USA equivalents in relation to content. Their description of the tasks on their website is as below and can be found here.
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This website is a great one for developing students' executive function skills. It presents a 2 x 2 grid with four numbers, shapes, graphs etc, one in each of the cells. Students have to look at each of the four squares and come up with a reason why the item in that square is different to the other three. Having to come up with a reason for why each one doesn't belong causes them to think more flexibly about the items in the cells.
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The inquiry maths website has both a primary and a secodary section to the site. It provides a framework and a series of prompts to help promote mathematical discussion. When given prompts, students talk about what they notice and what questions they have from this a line of inquiry is chosen for the lesson. Below is a quote from their website describing it.
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The would you rather maths website provides a variety of scenarios that offer you a choice between two things. These tasks require to pick which one you would prefer and to also justify your choice.
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Questioning Tools
This questioning placemat comes from the AC Leaders Resource website. In the inital stages of using this tool it provides a range of questions that teachers can ask students at key points in the problem solving process. However with greater confidence this responsibility can be released to students and over over time they can be given these sheets to ask these questions of themselves as they progress through the task. For the full set of BiTL tools click here.
This questioning tool links to the proficiency strands it the Australian Curriculum, it has a range of key questions under the headings of Fluency, Understanding, Problem Solving and Reasoning This questioning tool gives a more sophisticated set of questions that can be used in classes. It is a document too big to give to students however it can be very helpful for teachers in conducting classroom discussions and helping students to dig deeper into their understanding of the problem they are attempting |
Problem Solving Templates and Strategies
This tool box of strategies provides some of the most common ways to approach mathematical problems. It provides both ways to support and to extend students. In relation to support it may provide a framework for students to work from an area of comfort by attempting the problem in a familiar way. To extend students it can be used to get them to solve the same problem but using a different stategy from the tool kit as a starting point.
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In the file listed below are a range of problem solving templates that have been taken and adapted from various sources. At the top of each template is a link to the original inspiration for the template
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This set of 5 problem solving templates have been designed to help scaffold students through the thinking process for solving problem solving type tasks. Each template has a slightly different focus that depends on the types of thinking students need to do in the task. The templates are provided in Word format to allow for changes to be made to suit your class. These templates are most suitable for classes at an upper primary level or above.
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