Thursday 3 December 2015

Asking Maths Questions


I didn't plan for my lesson to go like this, but it worked.

Some students were playing Osmo during reading time, so I thought I would pose the question...

"How many more points did red team score than blue?"

But, I had a thought...why not see if they can come up with their own problems?

Initially, they really struggled. I was surprised by how difficult it was for most of the to come up with a question. With a little prompting and encouragement soon the questions started to flow.




What is the different between red and blue's points?

Who scored more points?

Who scored less points?

After sharing these questions I then prosed,"What if it was a race to 100?"

Students responses...

How many more points does blue team need?

How many more points does red team need?

I then posed, "What if there were two players on each team?"

Students responses...

Who scored more points?

How many points did player A score?

How many points did player B score?

I then posed, "What if each card was worth 2 points?"

How many turns did it take them to get 60?

How many turns did it take them to get 26?

Other questions came up to...

How long did they play for?
How many players played?





I learnt today, by mistake :), that it is important to encourage students to ask their own maths questions. The children were taking ownership of their learning and enjoying maths at the same time.

My students then went on to solve the problems they created!






No comments:

Post a Comment