Clip 14/15: Modeling with Polynomials Post-Lesson Debrief - Part 2
Overview
Continuing their post-lesson debrief, Amy Burke and Deidre Grevious examine the student work generated in the lesson, focusing first on individual student papers with their conjectures (including conjecture revisions). Amy and Deidre closely examine the individual student samples to see if there are any differences. Many drew “2” from the table data.
Deidre observes that some students maintained their original conjectures even though the conjectures were wrong. Amy and Deidre compare the students’ work to the data, offering observations about what the students changed, and whether or not students who made similar changes were seated together.
Deidre notices that a number (16 of 31) of students changed their conjecture after looking at the table. Deidre and Amy discuss the affordances of Amy having incorporated a pause in which students could revise their thinking; Amy comments that many students may not have done that otherwise, and that the pause to revisit their thinking is powerful for students.
Deidre and Amy look for patterns in the students’ work, and they look at how the work connects to students’ original conjectures (e.g., maximizing base area). Amy underscores the value of slowing down the process so that students really learn.
Teacher Commentary
Teacher Commentary
I think that I value process and correctness, but in my experience with students, when you focus on process it does lead to correctness. What I devalue is speed, next to correctness. So, I care that things are correct, I would even say I harp on it. But not during the process, because what I've noticed is, during the process, errors are important. They lead us to answers, so I think that allowing students to make these errors is the most important part of the learning process.