Video Reflection - Grade 7 Graphs

In this grade seven on graphs, and the sequence of patterns found in tables, the teacher poses an interesting challenge to the students. She explains that she has created a number of different graphs representing different quantities and functions. She allows the students to break themselves off into their own groups and then provides them all with a transparency of a graph. The task is for the students to create a story to go along with what is represented in the graph. She gives a few examples such as the relationship between time and temperature, however, she leaves the final decision of what their story will revolve around up to them. She goes in, especially in her own reflection or explanation of the lesson, to explain that she then wants the students to show the pattern of the graph in a table form, and come up with an equation for finding unknown values based off of the known ones represented in the table.

1. Describe how appropriate you think the primary task in this lesson is for developing an understanding of the mathematics being taught.

I personally believe that this task in particular is very appropriate for the lesson that the teacher is providing. By allowing the students to group up and come up with individual stories she is allowing them to connect to the content that she has provided. By doing this she is helping to ensure that the students will possibly take more of a personal interest in the graphs that they are studying because of the fact that are connecting to it on a personal level. By then taking the stories that they have created and further tying them into another math concept closely related to graphs, in this case, tables and the idea of creating an equation to find further numbers in the sequence, she is further ensuring that the students will take these prior connections that they have made and apply them to related topics and hopefully build off of the knowledge that they have gained to build their overall math skills.

2. Propose one or more alternative tasks that might have strengthened the lesson or helped to clarify the key mathematical ideas being developed, and justify the use of this task or these tasks.

I am not entirely sure how well this would have worked, but it may have benefited the students to come up with alternative stories for work with the tables after they were done with their graphs. The only issue I see arising with the original task is that if the students original stories were designed solely for the relationship represented in the graphs and did not lend themselves well to the idea of creating tables and predicting future variables, then the students may struggle with connecting personally to this concept. By allowing students the choice of creating a new story to go with their tables then the teacher may have further ensured that the students would be able to do this.

3. What criteria do you use to determine whether or not to use a particular task with your class?

While I obviously do not have a class of my own at the current time, I can think of what I may do with my future class. I do not have a specific list of criteria, however, I can say that if I did, the number one thing would be the students ability to connect to the topic. I am a firm believer that if the students cannot find some way to connect to a lesson personally, even on the smallest of levels, then they will not be truly engaged in what they are learning. If this is the case, then the learning will simply become a process that they go through and many despise. If students despise the processes of learning math then how can we expect to encourage their further explorations? Outside of this, I would ensure that the lesson allows students room to build on further concepts, this is represented well in this lesson when the teacher has them move from graphs to tables.