Experiences

Creating the tasks

Anna Bańkowska

Poland

Primary school

Maths

Teaching in class

Direct

Text tasks always require multiple exercises both to use the correct calculations but primarily to understand the content and data. I went with the children to a nearby park and gave a task. Children were asked to create the tasks relating to the environment in which they find themselves. The children worked in pairs. They were given 30 minutes to write down the text of the task, its solution and answer. They also had to make sure whether after the return to classroom the rest of the children will be able to solve this task. The idea was that when creating the task they should pay attention to the correct record of data and their sufficient amount. It turned out that the students’ imagination has no limits. Children used the ability of accounting for all known operations. They created tasks of measuring the distance between the trees by steps, where one of the data was the length of the step. They calculated how to grow flowers in the flower beds where a few flowers in each flower bed are planted. In their imagination, they planted and cut down the trees growing in the park, as well as used calculations applied to calendar, e.g.: if each year 35 new trees are planted in the park how many will be grown after 12 years. The children liked the form of classes very much, and at the same time repeated the knowledge, because when we returned to classroom we solved each of the arranged tasks together.