Image of the Week: Getting Started

Getting Started

As we get started with the school year, perhaps you or your colleagues are wondering how to get started with Look-Think-Talk activities. One of the wonderful things about multiplicity lab is that we have created hundreds of activities – more than 500 at last count! – of different types, focused on multiple questions, across grades K – 6 and beyond. But the depth of our resources can be a bit overwhelming for teachers who want to give one of these activities a try. How to get started? Which activities are best for those starting out?

Whether you’re new to Look-Think-Talk activities or you have a colleague you’d like to share these resources with, we’re here to help! In collaboration with our Teacher Advisory Board, we have created a new Getting Started guide (and pdf version) which walks through the process of using Look-Think-Talk activities with students. We have also curated a collection of activities – 10 for each grade – which our board members agreed from experience are great ways to open the door to rich discussion.

This week’s image above is one of the activities they selected for third graders, though, of course, you could try it with many grade levels. Try sharing this image with your students and asking, How many do you see? This is a quite complex question given that these doughnuts are each a different portion of a whole. So, how do we decide how many doughnuts there are? Some students might argue that there are:

• 9 parts of a doughnut, or
• 1 whole doughnut and 8 parts of a doughnut, or
• Some number of whole doughnuts by trying to join the partial doughnuts into wholes
• Fractional parts of doughnuts, such as halves, more than halves, less than halves, fourths, or thirds

Think of the conversation students could have if they draw on different ways of seeing, describing, and manipulating these doughnut wholes and parts! As with all our activities, this conversation can get started with one question and be supported by asking a few others, such as:

• How did you see it? Can you come show us?
• What are you counting? How did you count them?
• Why?

Whether you are new to Look-Think-Talk activities or not, check out our Guide and the grade-level Starter Sets of activities. You may find something new to use this week! And if you know a teacher who might be ready to get started, forward them this email and strike up a conversation of your own!

To multiplicity, cheers!

Jen Munson and the multiplicity lab group