3 act problem comix

During the beginning of our Linear Relations unit in the fall of 2016, we used a lesson to try and connect standard problem solving solution communication and the concepts involved with 3 Act storytelling.

Students were first asked in the most general sense:
What are things that change?
What are things that stay the same?

Discussions happened in small groups and then as a class.

Two problems were given - one from a pure mathematics standpoint (finding an equation from a table of values) and one from a real world setting (a descending helicopter).

Students worked on these problems for some time and then solutions were discussed and shared on the board.
New questions were asked that built on the warm-up questions:
How did values change? More specifically, how did one value change in relation to the other value?
What was the starting value? More specifically, what is y when x=0?

Students were then given about 15 minutes to complete a 3 Act cartoon template and were asked to try to map out a problem solution as if it had a beginning, middle and an end (premise, disruption, resolution).

Students were advised that this was a deeply experimental approach and that "there are no wrong ways to do this task".

Finished work was collected a the end of class.

To view a pdf of more examples of student work on this please go to:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6LxPPBWOhU4a2tmNXpWeHZmNnM/view?usp=sharing

Below is the board work done to warm up to completing the 3 Act Problem Solving Cartoon.