Iaisha and Mahkena - Collaboration 101 (2-13-08)

As we start to wrap up our unit on problem solving with ratios and proportions I've been trying to put together some culminating activities. Today's task was split up into groups of three to four and solve a challenging problem involving proportional reasoning. The problems involved exit polls, sampling of wildlife, quality control sampling, similar figures and scale drawings. Once the students completed the task of solving their problem and transferring their work to a poster we then moved to analyzing each other's work. Each group rotated through to examine the problem that was solved and the methods the group used to solve it. Some of the groups were totally into this while others just floated through as if they were riding a tube down the lazy river.

Two students in particular, Iaisha and Mahkena, really went after it, more like a salmon swimming up river. Constantly engaging in rich mathematical dialogue I was so impressed as I listened to them genuinely trying to follow the thinking of their classmates. "What was he doing here? Are you sure that was the right step to take?" They were fully engaged in the activity and by far took the most amount of learning out of it. Full Engagement = Full Learning! What a concept. It would have been beautiful if all students could have followed the lead of Iaisha and Mahkena, but that's not reality and I guess we're not there yet. Overall the students completed the task, but it was 2 students who rose to a new level of collaboration. 2's not 17, but today 2 was a powerful number.