Bill Z's Blog

A third of the student materials in the Read Write Think arsenal that I could envision using in middle school is the Doodle Dash. This tool is desinged for literacy and consists of a sketch pad, and pre-formatted boxes for describing the plot, characters, and story elements. In middle school math it is important to be able to assess if the students are learning the math concept, not just being able to find the correct answer to assigned problems. The typical directive to students is "show your work". But very few actually show their work in a way that describes the steps and the reasons for the steps involved in solving a particular type of problem. Finding slope for example. Perhaps using the Doodle Dash to illustrate the problem and its solution; then using the pre-formatted boxes to describe the steps taken and why, could guide students toward a more complete understanding of the concepts. It may also provide teachers with a more accurate assessment of the students grasp of the concepts.

I may be taking the solution Doodle Dash, and looking for a problem for it to solve here, just as I accused the authors of Digitital Images in the Mathematics Classroom of doing in my comment on the class website.