Math: Make it Rich

How do you engage all learners in math? One way is by providing rich tasks. What is a rich task? What elements or attributes do we look for in order to determine the richness of a task? How often do students experience rich tasks?

At times we look at student work once a task has been completed, but are we assessing the process as part of the solution? How often do we look at how we select student tasks and the protocol we use?

In this module, participants will investigate, share, reflect, and analyze rich math tasks. We will also examine tasks for the math involved, what students need to know, understand and be able to do and examine potential misconceptions. Participants are asked to share a sample task they use with students.

Key Points

​

• The quality of richness in a math problem or task can affect the student’s interest and have some far-reaching effects in the student’s learning.

• Gaining a solid understanding of how to ‘check’ math tasks for richness can lead the habit of automatically gauging new tasks.

Length

1 hour

Leader

Kevin Simpson

​

​

ABOUT KEVIN SIMPSON, M.ED.

​

Kevin Simpson, M.Ed., from Flint, Michigan, and has been in the education field since 1998. He has taught and consulted in parochial, public, and international schools located in Washington, D.C.; Michigan; Virginia; Maryland; Laos; Qatar; Dubai; Lebanon; Egypt; Dominica; Bahrain; Venezuela; and Thailand. He was a National Consultant with the U.S. Department of Education’s Teacher-to-Teacher Initiative, which provided effective, research-based practices to educators across the country.

​

​

​

​