Friday, May 29, 2015

Hotel Snap

Are you looking for a little good natured competition in your math classroom? Look no further than Hotel Snap created by @fawnpnguyen and @mr_stadel. In this task, students create hotels using blocks with the goal of making the most profit. From a mathematical standpoint this task does not provide a numerous amount of math concepts (small amounts of integers and percents), but rather a lot of thinking, communicating and planning as to what scenarios would garner the most profit, which is just as valuable. I was surprised at how many of my students did not understand the concept of making money and paying your debts leaving you with the remaining money. This task provides a small glance at financial literacy, a very important 21st century skill.

Here is the link to the original task:

http://fawnnguyen.com/hotel-snap/

Normally for these tasks I have the students start on their own as soon as they walk in by providing the directions and links on my television. This task has a lot of directions and rules that are worth going over ahead of time as a group first. I gave every student a copy of both of the price sheet and the tally sheet which are both provided on the above link. The students can write all over these and use them as a guide to help come up with their totals. I also printed off a copy of 3/4 inch grid paper to help the students see how many squares of land they are using (the blocks we used were approximately 3/4 inch cubes).

For these tasks I typically give a full day in class and then a week to complete before being due. I did the same here. I have done this twice now and presented it as a competition. The winner gets an A. If you are within 10% of the winner's cost you get an A, within 20% you get an A- and so on. The lowest you can get is a B- as long as you make a profit. My classroom is self-paced and we fix and correct everything we do for full credit so all of my students have As anyway, so I didn't feel bad about inserting the grade component into the competition. Those getting a B- weren't effected that much and I gave the students opportunities to keep modifying their idea as many times as they wanted.

I don't have the blocks that snap together in all directions so I feel that sometimes limits our designs, but the students get fairly creative with laying blocks across blocks to make something different. Each year I have students who go straight for the tower 50 blocks high to see if that would result in a high total. They always think about the tax last, which ends up being pretty funny to me because they go from the top of the world to depressed in the matter of 30 seconds.

When individuals or groups are finished, I have them take pictures of their hotels from all angles and send them to me. I also have them turn in their calculations. I use this information to check on accuracy. I hand it back if there are mistakes for correcting. Once everything has been approved, I put the numbers on a spreadsheet for the students to see. The spreadsheet looks like this...



One item that I don't ask them to fully flesh out and I should is a plan. They are given plenty of time to brainstorm, but in the future I would like to have the students write out a formal plan with explanations on why they feel this plan is the best choice for making the most profit. The plan doesn't have to be set in stone, but I would like something to have prior to the beginning of construction. All of my other tasks require so much explanation and understanding of the learning (as you can tell from all of the other student work posts) that I feel like this task needs more.

Below I have included a few examples of price plans as well as some designs. The students really enjoyed this task and many worked very hard to be at the top spot!












What does a task look like in action?

Spreadsheet of Task I Have Used in the Classroom

Other Posts with Tasks Containing Student Work

Bubble Wrap Task

Flower Box Task

Doritos Roulette 








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Friday, May 15, 2015

Tasks and Standardized Tests

In the world of mathematics, what could be more opposite in the eyes of most than tasks and standardized tests? As an avid Twitter follower/poster (@doctor_math) I normally see the two opposing view points clash. I realize this is an oversimplification and many educators could be in the middle, but for oversimplification's sake, you either love mathematical tasks and want to scrap testing (or are looking for a better type of test), or are more traditional and haven't met a set of 100 homework problems you didn't love to assign.

We are in the process of finishing our NWEA MAP testing, and I couldn't be happier with the results thus far as far as improvement shown. If you aren't familiar with the MAP, I would rate the test as much more strenuous than the Iowa Assessments, and a notch below Smarter Balanced.  I don't necessarily love standardized testing, but my philosophy is that if we are going to test...we might as well do a good job with it. I've written a few MTMS blog postings that explain this a little more, so if interested, click below...

http://pagingdoctormath.blogspot.com/2014/10/standardized-mathematics-testing.html

http://pagingdoctormath.blogspot.com/2014/11/standardized-mathematics-testing.html

Many teachers I have met and talked with who are interested in making a change in philosophy are afraid to make the change because tests scores might drop. I can understand that this is a real concern to some, but from my experience, the moment I made the switch to mathematics for understanding (which includes tasks), my students saw improved standardized testing results almost immediately.

Aside from the obvious content advantages that mathematical tasks possess, many teachers don't think about the added bonuses that tasks provide. Tasks promote student to student and teacher to student interaction, which leads to mathematical discussions, which in turn leads to mathematical proof. This process ends with long-term mathematical understanding.

Tasks also promote student perseverance. Do you have students who will give up at the drop of hat? Try one of these tasks each week. Students will gradually learn to fight through rough patches. I had a group of teachers visiting my room to see some of these problem-solving task. What were they most impressed with? It wasn't that my students are all Rhodes Scholars, but the fact that for 60 minutes, they never gave up. They kept discussing and overcoming obstacle after obstacle. That type of dedication isn't inherent in most students, it is something that is gained through gradual practice.

What does this have to do with standardized testing? It was very apparent while observing my students during testing that these hidden bonuses from tasks were out in full force. Many of my students worked for 10 to 15 minutes on one question. How may of your students try to finish one of these entire tests in 10 or 15 minutes? Mine used to 10 years ago. This is perseverance. It's hard to stay focused for 54 questions. My students do and that hasn't always been the case. This is perseverance. Take a look at my students' scratch paper (examples from a variety of students below). They write out and prove everything. That is directly linked to what they are asked to prove on these mathematical tasks. Bringing tasks into your classroom make all of these optimal math traits common practice.

Bottom line...if you want to improve your test scores, try implementing these tasks on a regular basis. Your students will become more adept at discussing and explaining, and the level of mathematical tenacity will rise considerably. All of these traits will serve your students a lot better on a standardized tests than trying to cram a week in advance.

















Student Task Work Examples

Bubble Wrap Task

Doritos Roulette 
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