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Differentiation TechniqueFind The Controversy

Read The Overview: Find The Controversy in Any Topic

By leveraging a point of contention, we can get students interested in just about any topic. Yes, even boring old spelling has controversy we can exploit!

Specific Examples of “Find The Controversy”

3 Paradoxes

The paradox content imperative is a blast to expose students to. Here are three famous paradoxes to delight and confound your deep thinkers (and one bonus from Yogi Berra).

Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote

Two Questions I Won’t Ask About A Famous Quote

Let's do more than ask, "What did this person mean?"

Encourage Curiosity With Calculators

Encourage Curiosity With Calculators

It's easy to fall in love with chasing the newest technology to use in the classroom. But sometimes, the perfect tool is a plain old calculator. We'll be using this tool to develop curiosity about math.

3 More Paradoxes, Part III

Here are even more amazing paradoxes to baffle your students: Buridan's Bridge, the Bootstrap Paradox, and the Barber Paradox.

Depth and Complexity: Ethics… In Math!?

The Ethics prompt of depth and complexity fits so easily into the humanities… but what about ethics in math?!

Three Videos With Mind-Blowing Optical Illusions

Paradoxes and illusions are a great area of study to blow students' minds. I recently discovered an amazing artist, Kokichi Sugihara, who creates and films optical illusions using just paper and balls.

Paradox: Does Majority Rule?

A quick, but challenging discussion topic for any age: "Is it always fair to make decisions based on a majority vote?"

No Street Names In Japan?

Do your learners use the tool 👓 multiple perspectives to analyze stories, problems, and historical events? Here's a TED Talk about real-life multiple perspectives that will make your students (and you!) reconsider basic assumptions.

Conflict and Quadrilaterals

Rather than merely asking "what patterns are there in these quadrilaterals" we'll set up an exploration of conflict and quadrilaterals.

3 More Paradoxes

Last month’s paradox post was very popular, so here’s another. These are a blast to share with kids. Use them to help students think through a complex problem, finding all possibilities. Work on the ability to articulate thinking. And, naturally, have them find and create their own.

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