Making Numeracy Visible
School Wide Math Challenges
Weekly or monthly school wide numeracy challenges give students a chance to engage with mathematics beyond the pages of their notebooks and their classroom walls. School wide problems, reasoning or estimation challenges help to establish a common mathematical language, heighten student engagement and connect school math learning to the real world. Here are some ideas and examples of school-wide math challenges.
Which One Doesn’t Belong Challenges
Weekly ‘Which One doesn’t Belong challenges are a simple way to get students talking and reasoning about math. They are accessible for students at all levels and encourage flexible and critical thinking. Remember…there should be at least one reason why each item does not belong. Take a look at these examples from Sarah Thompson School.
WODB.ca
A website dedicated to Which One Doesn’t Belong. Find WODB tasks for K-!2
#WODB Twitter
Which One Doesn’t Belong is on Twitter! #WODB ideas from around the world.
RVS Which One Doesn't Belong?
Which One Doesn’t Belong tasks created and shared by RVS students and staff
Problem of the Week
School wide weekly/monthly problems are an engaging way to get students and teachers to participate in rich tasks and problem solving. Choose low-floor, high ceiling tasks that are accessible for students across grade levels or problems with a similar theme the vary in difficulty and complexity for different divisions. Display solutions from all students and classes and encourage creativity and multiple solutions. Award prizes based on participation rather than accuracy of solutions. Here are some links to some excellent problem solving sites to get you started.
Nrich Math
The home of rich mathematics
Open Middle
Challenging problems and tasks worth solving
Galileo Education Network
Galileo Math Project offers a bank of rich math problems
Youcubed Tasks
Engaging low floor and high ceiling tasks and problems