Teach 180: Sometimes I Don't Listen (Day 41)

One of the things I love about working with the other math teachers at my school is the fact that we enjoy collaborating.  If we had a common office space, I am guessing it would be a challenge for us to get anything accomplished individually, because we would be sharing ideas all the time.

Even though we share ideas frequently, I don't always listen.  Marilyn told me that this one activity took her longer than she planned and I didn't listen.  In my plans, I had even made a note that I thought the activity would only take about 15 minutes.  Then, 20 minutes elapsed, then 25 minutes and finally the last group completed the activity in about 30 minutes.  Students were to match a function with its graph, domain & range and characteristics. You can see a grouping of four such cards below.

It was a valuable activity and students did really well working together.  Why did it take so long?  Part of it was the fact that there were 40 cards in front of them and I gave them no guidance in what might be easiest to match first.  In addition, I let students debate which cards were to be matched together and did not step in when there was a disagreement.  Usually, the student with the right answer prevailed and convinced the other students at the table as to why the answer was correct.

So, what would I do differently?  I might do eight groups instead of ten and I might model the thinking process for completing one match.  This would allow us to review key ideas, like open and closed intervals, prior to having them work on the activity in their groups.