Professional Inquiry Project Proposal

Rebecca Lewis

October 1, 2020

1. Question:

Do low-floor, high-ceiling tasks differentiate grade seven mathematics?

2. How will I answer the question?

I will use warm-up activities and 3-Act Tasks as low-floor, high-ceiling tasks for
differentiation.

I will examine student engagement to assess the effectiveness of this differentiation strategy.
Rather than giving students different tasks for differentiation, I will allow students to access
the same task and take it to different levels. There will be tasks that all students can complete
but the students who need to be challenge will be given the opportunity to solve the problem
in a different way or write their problems that are similar. I will examine student confidence
in mathematical concepts. If low-floor, high-ceiling tasks are a successful form of
differentiation, all students should feel confident in their mathematical ability. I can assess
confidence by self-assessments and engagement by anecdotal notes.

I will look at a baseline math assessment, the MIPI assessment, to determine what level
students are entering into. I will look at how all these different levels of students can engage
in math tasks. I will look at student work and take pictures for comparison to students of
other levels. I will collect evidence of achievement at many different levels in the math class.

3. What will be the result of inquiry?

The result of this inquiry will help me develop teaching strategies that are beneficial and
meaningful to all students. This will give me differentiation strategies that allow room for
both high-level and low-level learners in the classroom.

If this approach is successful, the low, high and middle students will all be engaged and on
task during class. They will show evidence of rich, mathematical thought and discussion.

I will look at baseline data of what level students were at in the beginning of the year and
interpret where students should be entering into the problem.

4. Timeline

This inquiry project will take place between the months of October and November 2020. It
should be finished by the end of November 2020.