How I Plan My First Week of Curricular Tasks (Building THinking Classrooms IN Mathematics)

For those wishing to Build A Thinking Classroom in Mathematics this coming year - or for those looking to grow one they've already built - I wanted to tangibly address a frequently asked question: 

"Once I've finished the 3-5 days of non-curricular tasks to start the year, how do I plan the first week of curricular tasks?"
​

An excellent question!  For folks new to Building A Thinking Classroom, the practice of "giving thinking tasks" instead of providing direct instruction is probably the scariest jump in the entire process, and it comes right away in Toolkit 1.  

Non-curricular tasks are one thing.  In those, the process is important, but the content is fairly low-stakes.  Curricular tasks are a whole new beast because the content acquisition becomes vital.

Last year - my first building a thinking classroom - the card trick, the numeracy task, and the "good problem" I chose for non-curricular tasks went wonderfully. I chose one of each main type of non-curricular task to familiarize myself with them, and that was a good move as a Thinking Classroom novice, for what it is worth.

These two loved the first non-curricular task so much that they convinced me to start a Card Trick Club!  They loved the math, sure, but they loved the theatrics even more.

The transition to curricular tasks afterward, however, was tough.  My first curricular task ended up only being a "sort of" curricular task,  and soon thereafter, I was deep in the weeds, fighting off disaster, and nearly giving up on the whole thing. 

In short, the transition to curricular tasks wasn't a good experience for me in year one.

But I've learned a lot in a year, including:

• the quality of the curricular thinking tasks I plan is the #1 difference-maker in learning,

               and

• there is a fairly reliable way to plan those tasks

And that's what I wish to share with you today.  In the space below, I'm going to "think aloud" as I plan my first week or so of curricular tasks. 

This will be authentic - my actual planning for my actual first few curricular task days of the upcoming school year.  I'll provide some insight on how I sequence, how I choose the type of task, and the nuts and bolts of getting the tasks ready.

I'll do my best to be as general as possible as to make the planning process transferable to whatever standard, unit, or topic you are teaching first.  While I'll be using a specific standard as an example, I use roughly the same planning processes and principles all through the year.

So, with those details out in the open, let's get planning!
​

Step 1 - Find or Choose Your first Topic

I follow the same calendar/pacing guide as the other 6th grade teachers I work with, so my first standard/topic of study is set for me.  Yours might be, too, or you might have some leeway in choosing it.  This year, I'll be starting with this one from the Georgia Math Standards:

If you have any leeway in choosing your own first topic of study, I recommend the following considerations:

• Choose one that there is no chance any of the kids might already know how to do.  Part of my disastrous start last year was that my first standard was one that about 1/4 of my kids came already knowing, which led to a whole host of problems.
• Choose one that is predictably successful, by which I mean
  • The kids come with a strong command of the necessary background knowledge
  • The kids usually learn pretty well

​Lucky for me, the standard scheduled first for me this year meets those criteria.  Last year's didn't, so I'm hoping the new starting point plus my year of experience will make the start of the year much smoother this time.

Step 2- Choose a Rich "Launching" Task To Start

I like to start each big topic of study with a "launching" task.  This is a term I made up for myself.  A "launching" task is essentially what Liljedahl calls a "rich task" or a "problem-solving" task.  I like to schedule these at the very beginning of a topic of study to provide some context and a use-case for the topic of study, and so that I can refer back to it frequently as an example as we learn later.

This idea of starting with a rich, intriguing curricular task is one I learned from teaching science, where we call such an experience a "phenomenon."  Phenomena should be curricular, interesting, and not easily understood at first glance. They then provide an anchor to refer back to as later learning occurs.  The idea is that students explore a topic before it is explained to them.

In short, they THINK ("thinking is what you do when you don't know what to do") about a topic before a pre-packaged understanding is presented to them (to mimic).

I like to start math topics of study the same way.

For my given topic of study, I'm going to use a tried and true "launching" task that I used for many years before Building A Thinking Classroom with great success: Robert Kaplinsky's "How Many Hot Dogs and Buns Should The Father of the Bride Buy?" problem.

This is a great task that the kids always love solving.  It has all the hallmarks of a great rich/problem-solving task, too:

• It is mathematically interesting
• It is non-mathematically interesting (why is he in a [torn] tux at the grocery store?  why is he angry?)
• It has built-in ambiguity - we don't know how many people are coming or how much they'll eat
• It has a low floor - very few mathematics skills are needed to engage with it
• It has an open middle - there is no single route to a correct solution
• It is has an almost infinite ceiling with extension questions

If you're new to Building A Thinking Classroom, there's a good chance you already have a bank of these from prior experience.  They often come from 3-act tasks, YouCubed, and other such sources that were making these types of "math worth doing" tasks before Building Thinking Classrooms came into the picture.  I've taught 4th, 5th, and 6th grade math enough times that I have a bank of these for each.  If you don't try:

• Googling "____________ rich task"
• Googling "____________ 3-act task"
• Googling "____________ problem-solving task"
• Checking with the Building Thinking Classrooms Facebook community

One last note on why I schedule these first: tasks like these are only thinking tasks if the kids haven't learned the tools that you and I would use to solve them.  If they've already had instruction on common multiples and LCM, this is a fun check-your-understanding question, not a thinking task.  "Thinking is what you do when you don't know what to do."  Practicing is what you do when you do ​know what to do.
​

Step 3 - Build Out The "Launching Task"

Once I've chosen a "launching" task, the next step is to build out the task experience.  For me, that involves thinking about three main considerations:

• How will I launch the task?
• How will I keep the groups engaged within the task?
• How will I extend the task for groups who exhaust it?

Having used this task for years, I have a pretty good start on questions and extensions for it from past experience.  The kids generally get the main idea - matching up hot dogs and buns pretty quick. 

One common route is for students to get the LCM of 24 pretty quick, and then my line of questioning for those groups is to have them consider how many people come to a wedding (since we don't know) and how many hot dogs they'll eat.  These groups I usually push toward an "if-then" type answer.  IF he needs 200 hot dogs, then here are his options.  IF he needs 300, here are his options. And so forth.

Another common route is for some groups to end up with 72 hot dogs and buns (8x12) as a common multiple first.  For these groups, I end up asking "what if he doesn't want that many,"  then pushing them the same way I did with the prior situation.

A previous squad working on another favorite problem-solving task.

After that, I like to push them with other, related questions.  In the end, here's my task guide:

After the task, as you can see, I would go back to the original situation to drive the consolidation.  I would focus on that fill-in-the-blank style format so that the students think about the total number of hot dogs and buns as well as the number of packages that would produce it, both of which show up as question types on standardized tests.  From there, I'd close out with some quick vocab, notes, and check-your-understanding questions:

Step 4 - Map Out The Remaining Topics

From here, I'll map out the remaining topics.  Most of the time, after the rich "launching" task, I'm usually doing thin-sliced tasks the rest of the way.  

First, an important note on sequencing.  I've found that, if I want the kids to learn through thin-sliced "figure it out for yourself" tasks rather than direct instruction, the key is think of each day as framed by the sentence:
​

"You can already ____________, but what about ____________?"
​

Which translates to me as meaning:

"You already have _________ prior knowledge, which I can help you use to figure out ____________."
​

Consequently, I have my fill-in pacing guide set up in exactly that format to help me go quickly.  For this particular standard, I have 6 class days to work on it:

I can already fill in the rich, "launching" task.  Notice, there is no "you can already" for this - which is precisely the point of doing problem-solving tasks FIRST.  They give you something to build off of for a brand new topic since there isn't anything to build off of already in place.

Since this  is the first topic of the year, the kids are not dialed into thinking yet, and routines aren't going to be well established, I'm going to go very cookie cutter for the rest of the week.  I've done common multiple word problems, so I'll do a follow-up day on common multiples without word problems, then a day on common factor word problems, a day on common factors without word problems, and a day on factoring to close .

A couple of key points in there:

• Yes, word problems before non-word problems.  Context before numbers.  The context provided by word problems sets up kids to be much more successful with "just the numbers" problems later.  It also makes vocabulary acquisition MUCH quicker and easier, because you're simply naming a concept they've already operated with.
• Six weeks or so into the year, I can usually handle word problems and "just the numbers" problems in the same lesson.  This is part of what Liljedahl is talking about when he says that, in a well-established Thinking Classroom,you can cover huge amounts of content in a short amount of time.  It's true, and it's something to look forward to.  But not yet.  This early in the year, I'm going to pace very conservatively. 

That leaves me with one day to play with.  Especially since it is so early in the year, I'm going to leave it open for now.  I might...

• Assign an extension task from FAL that is an excellent link between factors and multiples
• Use it to make up for a prior day that goes terribly wrong
• Use it as a quiz/assessment day
• Assume it will get swallowed up by a beginning of the school year administrative task
• Do some remediation/extension
• Just move on to the next topic if that is one that usually squeezes me for time

Who knows what I'll need when the time comes?  So for now, I'll flex it.

Step 5: Create the Thin-Sliced Tasks

First, the bad news.  Note my word choice: create​ the thin-sliced tasks.  As I've written before (not once, but twice!), I create my own tasks of this type.  If I need a thin-slice task that builds off of just the right prior knowledge from just the right starting point for just the right take on just the right standard, I have to make it myself.  Yes, it takes significant planning time.  Yes, I'd love to outsource it to AI or to a spreadsheet of other folks' tasks.  No, I don't consider it "recreating the wheel" (different vehicles have different wheels - I need a wheel for my particular vehicle, here).  The bottom line is, I don't need a thin-sliced task here, I need a particular thin-sliced task here.  Unfortunately, at least for me, that means writing the tasks myself.

Next thing to clarify: I don't have a curriculum.  If you do (and if you trust it), you can probably organize the examples or practice problems by spiciness to save time.  But for my example here, I just make up my own problems since that's my reality.

With that out of the way, let's thin slice!
​

Step 5a - Reactive the "You Can Already"

I start every class period as many teachers do - with a review task.  I've heard these called many names - bellringers, recall practice, do-nows, strong starts, etc - but basically it is a set of problems to do the second the kids walk in.  I like to call it "what should you be forgetting today," and at a minimum, it will review two major ideas - whatever we learned yesterday and any prior knowledge that will be necessary for today's task.

---

---

As the year goes on, I add more boxes to review past "spiral review" topics, but at the beginning of the year, that isn't necessary yet, so my template is pretty quick and simple.

The main topic yesterday was common factor word problems, so I'll put one there to help the kids remember that better.

As far as what would be helpful today, since "just the numbers" common multiple problems will be the topic, I'd like the kids to remember how to write multiples out in a list (a 4th grade standard in Georgia), so I'll add a quick couple of problems - one that can be done mentally and one that can't - in that box.

I chose 6 and 16 specifically so that they'll have a common factor on their lists.  I'll ask a question about that first.  Then, if I extend the list for 6, I'll get two common factors, which will let me review the vocabulary words "common multiple" and "LCM" from yesterday, and that should do it.

Step 5b - Plan the Launch ("...But what about...")

I've written a piece about launching "hard-to-figure-out tasks," but I don't anticipate this task being hard for students to figure out.  As I mentioned earlier, if this topic came later in the school year, I probably would have combined it with the word problems task the day before.  But this is week 1 and this is the kids' first thin-sliced task of the year, so having one that is pretty straight forward and accessible after yesterday's launch lesson is just what I need.

So today's task launch, as many thin-slice task launches will be, is a simple "you can already________, but what about _________?

Step 5c - "The Magic Is In The Mild"

Planning the mild slice is the biggest difference maker in any thin-sliced curricular task.  I wrote a whole piece about it.  When Liljedahl talks about tasks having a "low floor" in chapter 1 of the new green book, this is how it works for thin-sliced problem strings.  One of the big principles of a Thinking Classroom is that we want students to start thinking quickly.  Making the mild questions mild enough is the key to that in my experience.

The magic is in the mild.
​

You'll notice above that my first, "but what about" problem is just barely more than the "yesterday" problem that preceded it.  This is by design.  My goal for this day is to transition the kids from word problems to just-the-numbers problems of the same type.  What better way to do this than starting them with essentially the same problem in the new form?

Just imagine how quickly the groups would be ready to be started at their boards.  There would be whispers of "this is SO easy!"  Everybody feels like they're starting with at least one foot already in the door.

I find that if I get the mild slice right, the kids have the confidence to dig in HARD to the spicy stuff later.  The magic is in the mild.

That's the plan.

The magic is in the mild.

I'll need a few more mild questions.  For those, I'm going to stick with more numbers for which the kids can find the multiples mentally.

---

After however many of these I decide to give each group, they're going to feel like they can do anything.  "I'm going to be SO good at math this year!" they'll be thinking.  

I can't say it enough.

The magic is in the mild.
​

Step 5d - Plan the Medium slice

I'm in an enviable position here.  If you go back and review my specific state's standard for this topic, I only have to prepare the kids to deal with common multiple questions with numbers up to 12, which I've already done in the mild questions.  Nevertheless, the next slice is to include numbers that take a bit of calculation to figure out.  Even though I don't have to do that, I plan to.  Standards are floors, not ceilings.  

​The medium slice doesn't usually work out this way.  Usually the medium slice is still essential stuff.  The key to slicing thinly is to ask yourself what the kids can do next now that they have the mild questions under control.  Change one thing.  Here, I'm adding an element of calculation.  I'll stick to just needing to do so with one number in the pair.

Now we're beyond the floor of the standard.  For the groups who exceed this, I need something great.  Time for the spicy slice.
​

Step 5E - Plan the Spicy Slice

My spiciest slice of the day is for the groups who need extension - I don't expect every group to get here.  Admittedly, some days I do more than three slices to get there (against Liljedah's advice, I know, but it works for me).  But today, three will suffice.  My spiciest slice might be....

• A preview of an upcoming, related lesson
• A short, rich task
• Something that just takes obscene amounts of calculation to show off

or anything else that I think will push my highest performing groups in a way that makes them feel accomplished. 

For this particular topic, I have an interesting question that I like to ask that ends up relating multiples and factors.  It goes like this:

---

Again, for those of you planning along with me, the spiciest questions don't have to be a deviation from the other questions.  For example, I could have just done questions where BOTH numbers in the pair required heavy calculation.  Or I could have sent them into a preview about common factors, which is coming up tomorrow.  But for this topic, I love this question.  It really takes thinking.  Also, this early in the year, it will help teach the kids that, when it comes to task time, there is no "done."  I'll always have more to push you with.  So if you rushed through the earlier levels with dreams of free time for being done fast, I'm here to crush that dream early.
​

STep 6 - Repeat for the rest of the week

Days 3, 4, and 5 will be planned similarly to day 2.  I'll follow those same steps A through E, just for the different topics.
​

What about The "Closing" Practices?

There are indeed activities to "close" the lesson after task time - consolidation, note-making, and check-your-understanding questions.  However, I'm not going to include details on that here for a few reasons. First, this post is about how I plan tasks.  Second, I'm assuming most readers who have made it this far are transitioning to a Thinking Classroom for the first time, which means I recommend only focusing on the "Toolkit 1" practices at first.  Giving thinking tasks comes in Toolkit 1.  Closing does not.
​

Toolkit 1 practices.  For my p̶o̶s̶t̶ love story about the benefits of visibly random groups, click here.

Third, if you are ready for closing practices, I've already written on some of those:

• Consolidation After Thin-Slicing  
• A Menu of Consolidation Activities   
• How and When I Transitioned from Note-Taking to Note-Making

​

Conclusion

For those looking to Build A Thinking Classroom in the upcoming school year, I sincerely hope that this guide helps you make the biggest leap in the entire process - planning for learning through curricular tasks rather than direct instruction.  I promise, it works.  You'll still need to give it time.  This is probably a new way to learn for both you and for the kids.  But stick with it long enough, and it really works. 

If you need to see it to believe it, I have a few posts where you can see my class in action (this one and this one come to mind).  If you need data to believe it, I've also shared how much better my students did on their first and second district-wide tests, even in my first year Building A Thinking Classroom.

I can't wait to start a new year with all the knowledge and experience I built in year #1.  For those of you starting out this year, I hope that I can help you get off to a stronger start than I did, and for those of you growing along with me, I hope that my perspective helps you move forward.

Happy thinking in the upcoming year!
​

If you enjoyed this post, please share it!

Want to make sure you never miss a new post?  Subscribe below for email notifications of new content.

  Want to read more right now?  You're in luck - this is my 87th post! You can browse past posts by category:

• ​Building A Thinking Classroom
• Leaning Into The Science and Engineering Practices
• Classroom Practices
• Classroom Stories
• Ideas and Opinions
• Pandemic-Related Issues