Top Shelf Activities

Today was the first day of school. Words can’t describe how great it felt to be back in the classroom; a combination of joy, satisfaction, wonder, and excitement for the year that lies ahead. Summer was great – being away from routine enabled time for relaxation and reflection but being with students today was an inspiring reminder of the purpose of our work as educators.

I presented at a conference over the summer (CEMC) where I talked about how I frame the school year. One question that I often get about the thinking classroom framework is how to fit in curricular outcomes. It seems easy to engage kids with awesome problems, puzzles, and games but teachers say they have to go back and “teach the curriculum”.

My quick answer to that question is that I set the stage for thinking during the first two weeks of school by doing my best activities (not related to one specific curricular outcome). These are my top shelf activities that are super engaging. During these two weeks, kids get used to thinking, they build relationships through collaboration, and they build confidence and autonomy by having their ideas heard and valued. After this phase, I start to bring in tasks that are more related to specific curricular outcomes and since the stage is already set, the kids approach those problems with the same level of engagement and deep thinking.

This is a bit of an over simplification as there are several tweaks that I do to the “textbook problems” to make them richer (ex. Smudged math), but the idea is still the same – spend two weeks setting the stage, and then rest of the year on curricular tasks (but never moving away from the thinking classroom framework).

Another question that I get asked a lot is: “Can you share those top-shelf tasks?”

Of course! Especially being the start of the school year, I thought it would be timely to share some of these top-shelf tasks:

1. Tax collector. I first found this from a NY times article by Dan Finkel (Math for love). Students are presented with cheques from 1 to 12 and asked to pick a cheque. They are allowed to take a cheque as long as they pay taxes on that cheque which are all of the remaining factors. A cheque cannot be taken if there are no factors left; a cheque can be taken if there is at least 1 factor left.

I have tried this many many times with young kids, high school students, adults, teachers, and it is a hit every single time. I did it again with my grade 12 class today after meeting them for the first time.

Once kids get the best solution (I ask them to convince themselves that it is the best), they get the next problem (1 to 24, then 1 to 48, and so on). Something that I look for in a rich task is its accessibility and room for challenge (low floor, high ceiling). This task fits that perfectly as there is not a lot of “mathematical baggage” that you need to enter in but there is some real complexity underneath the surface. What is the best first cheque? Second? General solution?

2. Ted ED. Einsteins Riddle, the Locker Problem, the Pirates Treasure, or any number of other TedED problems. These are great for developing logical reasoning which is fundamental in mathematics. I get the students to do these in random groups and on vertical spaces.

Again, I tried these with a group of students that I had just met for the first time. 

It’s a great feeling when you can step back and listen to the buzz around the room. I can see the information and ideas moving around the room freely; not just from me and not just from the front of the classroom. It has changed my role as the teacher; I am now free to listen and observe as thinking and learning is happening. I ask questions and give hints to move learners along.

3. Prime climb.

I show this picture and then just give them time to notice and wonder. Magic happens. As you can hear Dan Finkel describe himself in this Ted Talk, there is so much space for thinking and debating in math. That’s when kids are most engaged and passion is developed.

4. Skyscrapers. This one is a showstopper. When I do this activity, I can feel the excitement in the air; the kids' eagerness to solve the problem and move on to the next is palpable. I love the fact that the activity literally requires multiple perspectives to excel. Kids are up looking at it from all angles and they’re talking to each other. They are so engaged that I could probably leave the room for a large chunk of time and no one would notice. Again, I roll it out in random groups, and one level at a time so that it does not become about completing the task but about the thinking at hand.

The mathematics behind the problem is not much different than Sudoku, but this shows that how we deliver a problem matters. I have had some very resistant learners say to me that they jumped right into it because they didn’t have to write anything down. It’s a great way to remove some barriers.

There are definitely more activities I can share; feel free to reach out to start a conversation. The bottom line is that we can be starting the year off giving learners a glimpse of what thinking and learning can feel like; to sample some of the exciting things we want to share with them in the upcoming year. This is our first chance to make an impression, we should spend it doing things that we value. I often say to teachers that the first thing they say and do indicate what they think is most important - let's make it about learning and not about the course outline, their summative evaluations, or their mark breakdown. Kids will notice.