Making Math Creative and Social

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Jessica Breur

Mounds View Public Schools

Desmos Fellow

The week before winter break I was invited work with a class of 4th grade students.  I am a secondary trained teacher, currently working as a middle school math instructional coach — needless to say, I have not spent a lot of time with 4th graders.  I was eager to get work with the students, but I never imagined how great of a day I was going to have. Here is how the lesson shook out.

The teacher told me the students had previously been working on equivalent fractions – recognizing them, creating them, etc.  The first part of class was centered around this Equivalent Fractions Desmos Activity that I modified a bit from Andrew Stadel’s earlier work.  Screen 1 asks students to consider which one doesn’t belong.  This is where the fun began — the students started arguing with each other!  Check out their words!

As students progressed they were asked to complete different challenges, like this one – Use the sketch tool to shade a portion of the square that is greater than ½ but less than 1 whole. Students also had to enter in the fraction of the square that they shaded and explain their process.  This allowed the students to be creative and justify what they were doing. Of course, some students took the creativity to the next level. But, we did wonder as a class – did that one meet the criteria?

This was fun, but it did not allow the students to share their creations with others.  This is when we went back to paper and markers and gave them this final activity to complete.

It was awesome.  Below you see pictures of what the students created.  Students were literally running back and forth solving each others challenges.  The atmosphere in the room was filled with joy and perseverance. The best thing was that when “math” was over and there was about 15 minutes of transition/choice time with a new set of students, those students picked up these tasks and also started doing them.  It was wonderful to see students helping each other, students talking math, and students showing their thinking.

This idea of making math more social and creative is a passion of mine.  How do you create this experience for students in your own room? Comment below or share ideas with us in our closed Facebook group called MN Math Teachers or on Twitter and tag @mctm_mn.