Perhaps you’ve heard of Dan Meyer and his 3-Act Lessons for grades 6-12 that are designed to instill wonder, curiosity, and get students thinking? What’s that? You feel left out because you teach elementary school? Luckily Dan has a friend named Graham Fletcher, and he’s here for you! Graham has taken Dan’s passion for engaging students in authentic tasks and applied it to elementary school concepts, including kindergarten! When you visit Gfletchy.com, you will discover tasks that feature brief video clips designed to get students thinking, wondering, and asking questions. All tasks are aligned to the standards and organized by grade level. The contexts are fun and interesting to students and promote collaboration, discourse, and opportunities for students to easily engage in the Standards for Math Practice. They also cleverly illustrate how math is applied in the real world around us.
One of my favorites is The Cookie Monster. This first-grade task engages students in estimation and offers modified versions to assist with differentiation. The opportunity for multiplicative reasoning makes this task stretch beyond typical Grade 1 expectations. The video is funny for students and teachers alike and immediately gets everyone engaged.
Are you a fan of donuts? Do you teach multiplication? If so, check out Krispy Kreme Me. This fourth-grade task has a great wow factor while effectively helping students to see the efficiency of using structure to calculate. Check it out!
If you are interested in tasks for grades 6-12, Graham hasn’t left you out! He has conveniently included links to others such as Dan Meyer, Andrew Stadel, and Robert Kaplinsky so that every grade level can get in on the action.
In addition to the tasks, Graham has developed amazing videos that demonstrate the progression of operations. For those who would have appreciated more professional development on the instructional models in the standards, or who work with multiple grade levels, these videos can serve as personalized learning for you! The “Making Sense Series” as they are known, help educators discover the sequence of learning the big ideas within operations as well as the models that support deep understanding. The videos are incredibly engaging, and although they are short, they are packed with great information!
Graham is also very active on Twitter. Follow him @gfletchy to keep up with the latest ideas, lessons, and resources.