Building Persistance.

  One of the hardest things to help my students develop is mathematical persistence.  Many of my students have gotten in the habit of deciding something is too hard before trying it but I had them do an activity that most everyone managed to finish.  Yes there was quite a bit of squealing, throwing things on the floor, but eventually they plowed through.  I don't think anyone flatly refused to do it.

The first step in the process was for students to create their own set of tangram.  This required them to measure an 8 inch grid with 2 inch subdivisions.  For many students, it took two to three tries because they couldn't use a ruler properly but everyone made themselves a set.

Next, each student received a worksheet with 12 problems, each requiring a different number of pieces to create a different polygon.  About half of the problems required students create a convex shape while the rest of the problems created a concave shape.  At the beginning, many of the students confused convex and concave but by the end, they knew the difference.

Many times when a student could not figure it out within two or three tries, they ask for help.  I'd decided before I made the assignment, I was not going to help them. I suggested they work with another student to see if they could help each other rather than relying on me.   In general this cut down on the help requests. 

Sometimes, I'd arrive to check a student's solution to the problem only to hear their partner point out the shape was convex instead of the requested concave.  The one who called would look at me to see if their partner was correct and I'd have to confirm the statement.  Other times, the student got the convex and concave correct but messed up on the number of sides.

I'd hear screams of "I quit" followed by pieces flying off the table only to be picked up a couple minutes later and the student would be back at work.  At one point, one student over heard  another team crying they'd finally gotten number 11 done.  So he went over and asked how they did it because he'd been trying to find an answer for 15 or 20 minutes.  He asked them how they did it but they refused to share. He got even on the next problem because he'd figured out how to do it and wouldn't share the answer with them.

After four days, about two-thirds of the students have finished the assignment.  Several came in after school to spend time trying to finish it while others will try to finish it today.  This is one of the first times, I've had students push through something they felt was "too hard" so I'm happy.  I think I'm making progress.

Let me know what you think, I"d love to hear.  Have a great weekend.