Teaching Math Through a Hero’s Journey Will Change Your Career
Using the hero’s journey approach to shaping your math lessons will increase engagement, give students a sense of purpose to the mathematics they are learning, and keep them thinking longer.
This concept, introduced to us (Kyle and Jon from Make Math Moments at a conference by a Pixar storyteller, is the “Hero’s Journey.” This idea not only reshaped our approach to teaching mathematics but also helped us become more effective guides for our students.
The Hero’s Journey Explained
The Hero’s Journey is a narrative structure found in many stories, movies, and books. It describes a protagonist who embarks on an adventure, faces challenges, meets a guide, overcomes a crisis, and returns transformed. This structure is not just for storytelling; it mirrors the learning process we all go through when mastering something valuable.
In a typical adventure story, the hero starts in their familiar world, encounters a challenge that sets them on a new path, battles the forces of evil, learns new skills, and finally, overcomes a major crisis with the help of a guide. Think of Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, who meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, learns the ways of the Jedi, and eventually blows up the Death Star.
Connecting the Hero’s Journey to the Learner’s Journey
When I first learned about the Hero’s Journey, I realized it paralleled the learning process in mathematics. Traditional math teaching often follows a predictable pattern: taking up homework, providing definitions and formulas, doing examples, and assigning more homework. This method can rob students of the opportunity to attach real value to their learning. They might comply, but they rarely see the relevance or importance of the material beyond the next test.
By contrast, the Hero’s Journey model encourages a different approach. Here, students embark on their own learning journey, encountering challenges and engaging in productive struggle before being provided with the solution. This struggle is where they attach value to their learning, much like a hero gains skills and knowledge through their adventures.
The Real Flipped Classroom: A New Approach to Math Class
In our transformed math classes, we adopt the Hero’s Journey model. Instead of starting with definitions and examples, we present students with a problem that sparks their curiosity. They dive into the problem, grapple with it, and try to make sense of it. As teachers, we act as guides, providing support and hints as needed, but allowing students to experience the struggle and need for organized, logical, new mathematical ideas and processes.
This approach flips the traditional model. Students think first, then receive guidance, and then instruction. They engage deeply with the material, making connections and developing a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts. This method not only enhances their learning but also helps them see the value in what they are doing.
Implementing the Hero’s Journey in Your Classroom
If you’re wondering how to start incorporating this model into your teaching, we have resources to help. At Make Math Moments, we’ve developed problem-based lessons designed to follow the Hero’s Journey structure. These lessons come with teacher guides, prompts to spark curiosity, and strategies to help students engage in productive struggle.
You can explore these free resources on here on our website.
Resources Related To The Video
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Use our OPEN ACCESS multi-day problem based units!
LESSONS TO MAKE MATH MOMENTS
Each lesson consists of:
Each Make Math Moments Problem Based Lesson consists of a Teacher Guide to lead you step-by-step through the planning process to ensure your lesson runs without a hitch!
Each Teacher Guide consists of:
- Intentionality of the lesson;
- A step-by-step walk through of each phase of the lesson;
- Visuals, animations, and videos unpacking big ideas, strategies, and models we intend to emerge during the lesson;
- Sample student approaches to assist in anticipating what your students might do;
- Resources and downloads including Keynote, Powerpoint, Media Files, and Teacher Guide printable PDF; and,
- Much more!
Each Make Math Moments Problem Based Lesson begins with a story, visual, video, or other method to Spark Curiosity through context.
Students will often Notice and Wonder before making an estimate to draw them in and invest in the problem.
After student voice has been heard and acknowledged, we will set students off on a Productive Struggle via a prompt related to the Spark context.
These prompts are given each lesson with the following conditions:
- No calculators are to be used; and,
- Students are to focus on how they can convince their math community that their solution is valid.
Students are left to engage in a productive struggle as the facilitator circulates to observe and engage in conversation as a means of assessing formatively.
The facilitator is instructed through the Teacher Guide on what specific strategies and models could be used to make connections and consolidate the learning from the lesson.
Often times, animations and walk through videos are provided in the Teacher Guide to assist with planning and delivering the consolidation.
A review image, video, or animation is provided as a conclusion to the task from the lesson.
While this might feel like a natural ending to the context students have been exploring, it is just the beginning as we look to leverage this context via extensions and additional lessons to dig deeper.
At the end of each lesson, consolidation prompts and/or extensions are crafted for students to purposefully practice and demonstrate their current understanding.
Facilitators are encouraged to collect these consolidation prompts as a means to engage in the assessment process and inform next moves for instruction.
In multi-day units of study, Math Talks are crafted to help build on the thinking from the previous day and build towards the next step in the developmental progression of the concept(s) we are exploring.
Each Math Talk is constructed as a string of related problems that build with intentionality to emerge specific big ideas, strategies, and mathematical models.
Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons and Day 1 Teacher Guides are openly available for you to leverage and use with your students without becoming a Make Math Moments Academy Member.
Use our OPEN ACCESS multi-day problem based units!
Make Math Moments Problem Based Lessons and Day 1 Teacher Guides are openly available for you to leverage and use with your students without becoming a Make Math Moments Academy Member.
Partitive Division Resulting in a Fraction
Equivalence and Algebraic Substitution
Represent Categorical Data & Explore Mean
Downloadable resources including blackline masters, handouts, printable Tips Sheets, slide shows, and media files do require a Make Math Moments Academy Membership.
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