Three Act Math Task

This year I have been pushing myself to use rich math tasks and problems that really get my students thinking and working together. One of my favourites is the Three Act Math Task. There are many teachers and math teacher blogs that advocate for the use of Three Act tasks, Dan Meyer and Graham Fletcher are the main two that I draw inspiration from. Three Act Tasks have three sections as the name suggests and are a low threshold high celling task that all of your learners can engage in.

The Three Sections

1. Get student’s curious about the task.
   1. Use a video or image to get them thinking
   2. Withhold information
   3. Give just enough information to capture student attention
   4. Have students make observations and ask questions
   5. Record what your students notice and wonder
   6. Have students propose possible questions
2. Get Students thinking
   1. Do not pre teach the skill, let students come up with their own solutions
   2. Help students gather information
   3. Work in pairs or trios to solve
3. Solve the Problem
   1. Solve the problem together, students take the lead
   2. Reveal the solution
   3. Show the math behind why it works
4. Practice