Strategies for Organic Ideas

We've just wrapped up the TEAL Strategy Instruction (Math) course, and one of the course participants brought up an excellent point about "having students generate ideas organically". We were reflecting on the value of incorporating Notice and Wonder questions into the start of a word problem activity versus jumping into any formal steps for figuring out a solution. He noted how flexible the Notice and Wonder strategy can be in math but also identified its usefulness with other subjects like English (specifically combining short sentences). By leaving the questions so open-ended, he made space for students to generate their own perspective on what was before them and the characteristics they observed. This, in turn, opened up deeper dialogue on the subject and covered quite a bit of ground informally, albeit in a much more meaningful way.

Besides Notice and Wonder, what other strategies have you used or observed for generating organic ideas and conversations from your students?

Heidi

Comments

One of the language routines which I feel has the greatest potential to getting students out of rigid "get the answer" thinking is connecting representations.   I think it's a way to connect math symbols, mathematical language, 'natural' language, images, and 'organic' situations.   

     "Three Reads" would be another that would be fun to figure out a way to adopt for English.   

     ... I'll think about this more but I've got to wrap up some lesson supports for that math curriculum thing I'm working on (which includes lots of Notice and Wonder)...