The Friday Fave has a soft spot in its heart for fractions. Just because we
CAN write things in decimals doesn’t mean we should.
Often, a fraction is the exactly right thing to express the relationship
you’re investigating.
Case in point—finding areas of sectors of circles. This week’s Friday Fave is
Sector Area, where you’ll have way more success expressing your responses in the form of
a fraction. It’ll be more precise, and it’ll generalize better in the end.
And generalizing is what this is all about. Students don’t need a formula for
sector area; they can figure this out for themselves. With
Sector Area, we provide tools for doing exactly that.
And then while you’re in a circular kind of mood, consider taking these
activities for a spin…
Spring is a great season for symmetry. Flowers have mirror and rotational
symmetry. Day lengths building up to the summer solstice are approximately
symmetric to those that follow. On the first day of spring a plane through the
equator splits the sun into two symmetric halves.
So it is that the Friday Fave is thinking about symmetry on this fine spring
day in the northern hemisphere. (Sorry, Australia!)
In this case, it is the symmetry of functions.
Suzanne von Oy—high school
teacher and
Desmos fellow—built the
original and Desmos applied a tiny amount of polish to
Symmetry.
This isn’t a high-production super-ambitious sort of thing. Its mission
is simple—to give students a chance to train their eyes for two kinds of
symmetry of functions.
And then it ends with a killer extension.
Simple set up; powerful thinking. That makes
Symmetry
a Friday Fave.
While you’re thinking about transforming functions, here are a few on
that theme:
We asked the Desmos fellows to share pitfalls to be avoided when facilitating
a Desmos activity. They shared challenges they’ve faced in the past as well as
areas of growth. Read their tips below.
Identify your learning targets.
Glenn Waddell and
Dave Sabol both had experiences
in the past where student work or activity review could have benefitted from
more intentional planning. Glenn shared that “I think the biggest pitfall I
have had was a lack of intentionality. I would make slides thinking, ‘Oh, this
slide will teach x, y, and z concepts’ and then discover that it was so
confusing to learners that they struggled and questioned the presentation
instead of being able to deeply dive into an concept or idea. Having the story
clear and mapped out, having a clear intention for each slide, each question,
each element of the AB is essential so the learners are questioning what I
want them to question, instead of the way it is delivered.” In the past, Dave
would explore each screen with the class during a review. More recently he’s
found it helpful to consider the greater purpose of each screen and what type
of feedback might be appropriate. Planning with learning targets in mind can
help here as well.
Plan your teacher moves.
Lisa Bejarano shares that
the biggest mistake she’s made in the past is assigning an activity to
students with no facilitation plan or time for discussion or reflection.
Stephanie Blair has also faced this
challenge, and has been taking advantage of Desmos teacher guides since their
release: “Since the creation of the teacher guides, I have became a lot more
purposeful in planning when to use the conversation tools. I also have a place
to write down anticipated discussion prompts and what I hope to highlight in
front of the class. This has been incredibly helpful.” Lisa uses the teacher
guides to plan by working through the activity herself first, anticipating
student responses, and planning teacher moves. She’s also found it helpful to
be flexible and ready to adjust plans based on student responses.
Leave time for closure.
Several of the Desmos fellows have created activities that were too long or
contained too much content. This is challenging for a number of reasons,
including the lack of time for closure.
Linda Saeta reminds us of the
importance of closure: “I feel that I can create some excitement in class, but
like a soda that is bubbling, I don’t leave time to close the lid on tightly,
so most of those bubbles are gone by the next day.” It can be helpful when
planning to consider which parts of the activity can be skipped or saved for
the next day to ensure that there is sufficient time to wrap up the learning
for the day.
These are just three of many considerations that can be helpful in planning to
use a Desmos activity. Consider downloading a teacher guide for your next
Desmos activity and use the Activity Checklist to help with planning.
