had the same level of engagement?
Would the session have ended with
high fives? It’s unlikely. Students
were invested because the task was
interesting and contextualized. There
was something perplexing about the
situation, and they wanted resolution.
It was also visual, so students could
operate on intuition without language
getting in the way.
To try a three-act task in your
own classroom, you can draw on the
work of many educators who design
three-act tasks to share freely with the
education community. They provide
the media for teachers to use, as well
as suggestions for how tasks can be
modified to support students or extend
the work. Robert Kaplinsky, a math
specialist in California, has a problem-
based lesson search engine (http://
robertkaplinsky.com/prbl-search-
engine). If you teach older students,
Dan Meyer has a list of tasks on his
website ( http://blog.mrmeyer.com). If
you teach younger students, Graham
Fletcher has the largest collection
of tasks for K– 5 students on his site
( https://gfletchy.com/3-act-lessons).
The example I shared highlights
how powerful this work can be in
giving students experiences with
authentic problem solving. Students
need more access to this kind of work
in conjunction with the cohesive
mathematics curriculum their teachers
use. By including more problem-based
learning in classrooms, teachers can
ensure they are providing well-
rounded and authentic mathematical
experiences for students, helping stu-
dents develop powerful problem-
solving skills and a deeper
understanding of what it means to
engage in mathematics. It’s time for us
to shift from creating answer-getters to
developing problem solvers. EL
1Meyer, D. (2011, May 11). The
Three Acts of a Mathematical Story
[blog post]. Retrieved from http://blog.
mrmeyer.com/2011/the-three-acts-of-a-
mathematical-story
Mike Flynn ( mflynn@mtholyoke.edu)
is director of the Mathematics Leadership Programs and the Master of Arts
in Mathematics Teaching program at
Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts. Follow him on Twitter
@MikeFlynn55.
