Using Rich tasks
Video from Cathy Seeley (former NCTM President) discusses how much is "too much" guidance in solving rich tasks.
When evaluating a Task to determine its richness, or its usefulness to you, use this checklist of qualities pulled from the Iowa Core for Mathematics:
- Emphasize connections across mathematical content areas, to other disciplines, and especially to the real world
- Are accessible yet challenging to all
- Can be solved in several ways
- Encourage student engagement and communication
- Encourage the use of connected multiple representations
- Encourage the appropriate use of intellectual, physical, and technological tools
Teaching for Understanding PowerPoint from day 1 on Using Rich Mathematical Tasks.
In your evaluation of a task, you'll also want to be sure that the task matches your goals. Are you looking for a task which requires student to think deeply, to make connections, to collaborate with a group, to build understanding of the big ideas of mathematics? If so, you're looking for tasks which fall into the Doing Mathematics category below.
Each of these types of work which students might engage in are appropriate at different times during a unit of study. Teachers need to determine what their goals are for a given lesson, then match that with work which gets that type of thinking and doing from their students.
Find rich tasks online - we have suggested some sites for middle and high school here.