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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”

Universal Themes and… Punctuation!?

Universal Themes and… Punctuation!?

Here's how can we move a punctuation lesson beyond mere memorization and towards actually interesting thinking.

Make A *Better* Calendar!

Make A Better Calendar!

The calendar is a source of fantastic factoring problems with many social studies add-ons. Why 12 months? Why 30 (or 31 or 28) days? Why are weeks 7 days long? Why don't they fit into the months (or the year!)? Why did we do this to ourselves!?

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).

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.

A Clock Math Project?

A reader wrote in, asking how to differentiate for a task like reading analog clocks. What to do with a student who has mastered this skill? What's a good math clock project?

Conflict and Quadrilaterals

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

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.

Tickling Curiosity

Let's look at a way to encourage and scaffold curiosity in our classes using a "Book of Unanswered Questions." Begin by sharing intriguing objects or images and asking your own questions. Give kids a chance to find answers to their questions. Then encourage students to bring in their own intriguing conversation starters. Finally, move students towards curriculum based questions.

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?!

Multiple Perspectives: Right And Wrong At The Same Time?

It's essential to teach our students to think flexibly and consider multiple points of view. Flexible thinking leads to product innovation, diplomacy between nations, and advances in science. School, however, often encourages students to settle into a "one right answer" mindset.

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