F is for favourite things... Show your work!

A little behind but F is for favourite things. In particular, my favourite thing I found today is a site called Dear Data. In my never ending search to give mathematics education a makeover so that more students see it as a creative, problem finding and problem solving way of thinking, I stumbled on what might be the most beautiful mathematics I have in a while.

It started with my interest in data visualisation after meeting the fascinating @kamal_hothi , a data visualiser for the New Zealand Herald. He shared a link to the Factor Dance (you need to click on this link and look, trust me).

The idea of data visualisation fascinated me as it is a role than combines artistry with a solid understanding of data and often, coding too. Hence, it is another example of why we can not continue to only teach maths, but all learning areas in isolation. It is not the data that matters, but what we do with it that matters. Is it useful? How can we use it solve a problem? What problems does the data present? The Dear Data website does a beautiful job of showing creativity in mathematics, problem finding and problem solving. I think I am in love.

Image source
Please note, I could not find a creative commons or any other licence on the site. I have however emailed the owners to let them know that I am sharing their fabulous work on my site and will remove the work if they have any issues with me sharing it here. 

Additionally, many maths teachers also have an ongoing effort with getting students to 'show their work'. I have been focussing on developing this in my students lately using a SOLO rubric and the language of the Hobsonville Point Secondary School Learning Design Model. The Dear Data site includes not only beautiful, but clear examples of showing your work.

All of this makes me want to re-read my current favourite book, Austin Kleon's Show your work. It's a must read for everyone, and is cheap as chips on Amazon.com.

Hexagons

SOLO is a thinking taxonomy that is used widely here in New Zealand. It is a great way to scaffold students towards increased complexity. Although I am very much a newbie to using SOLO taxonomy, I have very much fallen in love with one of its tools, the SOLO hexagons.

Although most teachers are familiar with matching card activities, SOLO hexagons take the tried and true kinaesthetic task to a new level. Rather than just matching definitions, or building a table of ideas, etc. SOLO hexagons allows students to visualise where key ideas might link. When two hexagons touch, students must be able to justify the link between the two hexagons. This is a great activity to quickly visualise just how well students are making sense of the ideas in a topic, especially in a content heavy subject like science.

Yesterday, I tried a new way of using SOLO hexagons. Although the class had that mild state of unease and chaos when you ask students to do something new and challenging, students got settled fairly quickly to a task that really saw all students in the class challenged at an appropriate level. Being able to challenge students at their appropriate level means that every student can feel successful in their learning, hence, my great love for differentiation. The really visual nature of the links also meant that  I could very quickly identify the students that needed additional support. Hence, these students could then go through and identify the words they were unfamiliar with so that we could generate a glossary for them together.

However, this week, I took my hexagon use to the next level with some additional differentiation. Of course, with e-learning and universal design for learning always lurking somewhere in my mind, I made sure that there was a range of references available including videos, articles and cartoons. Some students were given a full set of hexagons with which to find links. Those who managed it quickly were asked to rearrange the ideas to find additional links in the concepts. After that, students were given blank hexagons on which to add additional key concepts or observations from practicals in class. Other groups were given blank hexagons from the beginning with only two or three to get them started. Finally, yet another group were only given blank hexagons. Again, the students who generated their own hexagons had to find and justify their links, and then rearrange to find and justify additional links.

Now am I wondering, how will I refine my SOLO hexagon use next... I'm sure there will be something on Pam Hook's fabulous site. Or on Matt or Andrea's...