Goal: Think like a mathematician! Identify quantities and relationships in problem situations.
A fruit salad consists of blueberries, raspberries, grapes, and cherries. The fruit salad has a total of 280 pieces of fruit. There are twice as many raspberries as blueberries, three times as many grapes as cherries, and four times as many cherries as raspberries. [How many cherries are there in the fruit salad?]
Source: Grade 6 illustrative Mathematics task 6.RP.A.3 and 6.EE.B.7
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I used this problem as my first experience using the Capturing Quantities routine. I am a special education teacher who works in some math classes, and I planned to practice in my small support class, but the math teacher wanted me to do it in all her math classes, so I did it in four classes with a range of students, including students on IEPs and ELLs, who ranged form beginners to more intermediate in language skills. The students, the math teacher, and the ELL teacher all enjoyed it, and we are looking forward to the next time.
I did need to reword the problems since there is no mention of raspberries in the first sentence, but they are clearly mentioned later. Students picked up on the idea of quantity and relationship, especially after one was named. I will be interested to see if they get this notion quicker the second time through. Many had difficulty getting started creating diagrams, but they all participated in analyzing diagrams. I analyzed a couple diagrams per class, trying to find different representations and different levels of complexity. I have included some of the diagrams I annotated and a few of the reflections.
Thank you for sharing your experience using the Three Reads with the Fruit Salad task. I was especially excited about the collaboration between the classroom teacher, special educator, and ELL specialist. Very powerful.
THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT THE TYPO IN THE TASK. I HAVE FIXED IT;)
SO amazing to have the math and ELL teacher involved. Unfortunately, I haven’t been as successful in getting colleagues on board. However, in my small 7th grade skills classroom, this task went well as our 2nd Capturing Quantities Routine. It did become clear that students were still struggling to decipher quantities from relationships so we spent a little more time on this distinction. When asked to list the quantities, they listed of the relationships as well, so I broke it down for them and asked, “can you find the # of raspberries if you don’t know the # of blueberries, can you find the # of grapes if you don’t know the # of cherries, and can you find the # of cherries if you don’t know the # of raspberries?” This provided an “ah-ha” moment for the students. Again, they all represented the important information with bar and pie models, although inaccurate, they are beginning to see the connection between what they draw and the important information. I have also reminded them to apply their Three Read Strategies and really focus on the relationships.