Readings: Principles to Actions, pp. 17-23

Reading Response 1: 

The Principles to Actions document is the most recent set of recommendations from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics regarding effective mathematics teaching. According to this document, one of the eight effective mathematics teaching practices is to: "Implement tasks that promote reasoning and problem solving." This recommendation is related to the work of researchers such as Stein, Smith, and others who have studied classroom instruction to identify the teaching practices associated with increased student learning. Those of you who have been in the MAT or BSEd program might find these reading familiar. For others of you, these will be new. 

Respond to the following questions. 

1. Do you think that "cognitively demanding" (as described by Stein and Smith) is the same thing as "hard"? In other words, could a "simple" task by cognitively demanding? Could a "hard" task be of low cognitive demand? Explain your thinking. 

2. Based on the readings and your own experience, how important do you think the selection of tasks is to effective teaching? If 10 is "the most important" and 1 is "the least important," where would you rate task selection in terms of importance? Why?

3. What is one key "take-away" from these readings regarding mathematical tasks? (Even if you had read these selections before, there is likely one new idea that you noticed this time around).