This week in class, we spent a long period of time
discussing differentiating instruction through the use of open-ended questions.
In small groups, we were asked to solve the following question,
“create three problems that seem really different that
could be solved by calculating 2012-1987.”
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| http://writedge.com/benefits-asking-open-ended-question/ |
One of the solutions my group came up with included, “Sally
was born in 1987 and Joe was born in 2012. How much older is Joe?” Other groups
had answers involving money, number of children in schools, wedding anniversaries,
and so on. Each group had their own unique way of approaching the question, all
eventually providing correct responses. Similar to this question, open-ended
questions have no fixed answer, can be solved using different strategies, are
accessible to different ability levels and empower students to make their own
mathematical decisions and reasoning. As Amy Lin mentioned in class, open-ended
questions have the potential to be used at any point during a lesson.
Reflecting upon my mathematical experiences in both
high school and university, I was presented with little opportunity to work
with open-ended questions (as I am sure many others can relate to this). In
high school, rarely in the ‘communication’ section on a test would our class
have the opportunity to determine numbers to work with. In University math
classes, we were always presented with structured questions that had predetermined answers, or in other words, closed questions. Closed questions
are usually content specific and do not foster student creativity, innovation or
reflective dialogue. Although I was a successful student, I always found myself
hesitant to answer the teacher because I was aware that he or she had an exact
process and answer they were looking for.
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| http://firstgradebloomabilities.blogspot.ca/2015/01/the -value-of-open-ended-math-questions.html |
So why do open-ended questions work? How do open-ended
questions foster this deeper-level of thinking we are constantly hearing about?
I really enjoyed how an article by Responsive Classroom explains
why open-ended questions are so powerful. The article mentions that such questions
take learners through a cycle of “wonder, exploration, discovery, reflection,
and more wonder, leading them to increasingly complex knowledge and
sophisticated thinking.” When teacher’s use open-ended questions in their
classroom, it provides students with a sense of autonomy, belonging and competence
because they believe that the teacher trusts they have good ideas. As
demonstrated in our class this past week, open-ended questions also foster communication
and collaboration skills. After discussing the activity with the rest of the
class, students can also take away multiple strategies and solutions to the
question.
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| https://www.tes.com/lessons/lrDlRlZiTH8JWg/differentiated-instruction |
Over the past few weeks I have grown to appreciate the
process of differentiating instruction in a mathematics classroom. I intend to
use open-ended questions in my own teaching practices to help foster student engagement
and success, but more importantly to help meet the needs of various learners.
In class we also briefly discussed alternative ways to assess students as
opposed to traditional paper and pencil techniques. Some methods include:
conversations, project based learning or applied projects, group discussions,
and interviews.
I am excited to challenge myself to further extend my knowledge
on differentiating instruction in mathematics. I challenge you to do the
same!
Thanks for reading,
Rachelle
Rachelle
Hey Rachelle!
ReplyDeleteI love the name of your blog, great reference! I enjoyed reading your post and agreed with what you had to say. I just wanted to expand on something that I thought was particularly interesting. You mentioned that you were often afraid to answer since you were aware of the fact that the teacher had a specific answer or process in mind. I am curious how you think this will effect students who are not successful in math or are afraid of sharing their thoughts in the classroom. I feel as though providing students with open ended questions will ensure that they can share whatever they are thinking and will also allow us teachers to reduce their fear of math. No matter what their answer is we can foster reasoning in our students and encourage them to have a growth mindset about math. Thanks for posting and I look forward to reading your thoughts in the future!
Mr. Moore
Rachelle,
ReplyDeleteYour post this week really resonated with me. Like you, I also was rarely presented with open ended questions and as such, I viewed math as an individual learning experience with little to no collaboration. I agree that the activity that we did in class was a good example of how open ended questions can promote communication and allow students to consider different strategies. I believe that as educators it will be important for us to not only be aware of these many strategies to help us expand and differentiate our mathematics instruction, but it will also be important for us to determine the right contexts for strategies such as using open ended questions. With that said, I would like to accept your challenge in terms of extending my knowledge on differentiated instruction. I look forward to hearing more from you. You have a very nice blog and I absolutely love the title of it!