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Saturday, January 30, 2016

Better Questions: Can You Help Me?


There were many prompts to get this week's task going, and this one has hit me hard recently, and not just in math class: "Mr. Hulitt, can you help me?" Simple, right?  Let's resume the convo:
Sure, what do you need?
I don't know what to do
What don't you know what to do?
Number 7
Ok, what don't you know about number 7?
I don't know what to do
Many of our students want the easy way out.  They have been programmed since school age to be robotic answer-finders.  Give them a formula, tell them what numbers to use, plug it into a calculator, and bam(!), there's your answer.

The idea of learned helpless is plaguing our classrooms.  Without the need to rehash posts from this, this and this, I will add that the Math Practice Standards aim to curtail learned helplessness and promote better thinking in class.  Specifically MP1: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.  I've found that low entry high ceiling tasks do this exactly.  That's the beauty of Estimation180, Visual Patterns, and Which One Doesn't Belong.  Also, Jo Boaler and NRich have more examples that expand this concept.

Have you used anything in particular?  How did it go? Please share!

6 comments:

  1. It's time consuming as hell, but my favorite thing to do in this situation is to launch into as long of a string of questions as necessary to land on something the student can begin to work with. I'll ask, "do you know what kind of problem this is? What kind of math do you see? What kind of math do you think you need to use here? What would a correct answer look like in form? Find one operation that you know is being done in this problem..." etc. until we land on something they know. Then I continue to ask leading questions until they've solved the problem, and then I tend to make a big deal out of the fact that they solved the problem themselves and they clearly don't give themselves enough credit for their math skills. I've found that nearly all "I just don't get it" questions come from students whose confidence in their math skills is so low they honestly believe the content in front of them is too foreign to solve. My goal is to boost them up in believing they are mathematicians, so they feel OK persevering even if they're not sure they are on the right path. The low entry, high ceiling tasks can help build further confidence, and are terrific!

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    1. I like the string of questions idea. Do they respond well, or is it a battle to get them thinking? Is it also done in a 1:1 situation or model with the whole class?

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    2. This has typically been my go-to in the classroom as well...although it doesn't take long before I'm completely frustrated about having to do the very same thing over and over again and wondering about how to create independent problem solvers. If I'm always scaffolding their learning this way, when do they learn how to ask themselves their own questions? My solution was "FISH" - the short explanation of this being four questions that asked students to think about what they were trying to FIND, what INFORMATION they knew, what SKILLS/STRATEGIES seemed logical, and HOW they were going to approach the problem and check their work. Any time a student said they didn't know, I simply pointed at the FISH bulletin board...only once they had asked themselves those questions (or once they figured out which question they were actually stuck on), would I provide help. Generally effective as long as I actually stuck with it!

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    3. FISH is a great idea!! I'm definitely going to initiate that. Thanks for all the suggestions!

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  2. One of the things that drives me totally crazy is when a kid comes in with a completely blank sheet of homework and says, "I didn't know how to do it." It's annoying because the same thing that should be helping them out is the thing increasing their impatience & lowering their frustration tolerance.

    Like... Hey, who sings that song? I used to have to try to ask a bunch of friends, maybe leave the radio on and hope that the DJ said the name of the band the next time they played it, or whatever. Now, just Google it. Instant gratification!

    The internet is such a great resource, though. If they get stuck, they could probably pretty easily find some tutorials or whatever to help them out. But they don't. They just come in with a blank sheet.

    I don't have any great suggestions, nor any particular resources appropriate for your kiddos that you probably aren't already aware of (especially since I teach higher-level classes). I think it's just a process to undo the learned helplessness. You keep pushing back on them. It's like a really weak muscle. It's going to take a lot of training and patience to get it strong.

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    1. I like the weak muscle analogy. It makes sense talking about that along with a growth mindset. Thanks for commenting!

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