Daily Doozy

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I’ve been faithfully naming the “Learning Goal” with each class for several years now.
And frankly, it doesn’t inspire.

Instead of (actually, in addition to) this, I’ve added the Daily Doozy to my pre-lesson routine.

After the Goal of the Day, I show them this slide for about 2 seconds. Long enough to play this song:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW7Op86ox9g]

…then I quickly move on. They don’t have enough time to try it, just enough time to whet their appetite for some Algebra.

(Also, I don’t want the Honors students to finish it and be bored the rest of the period.)

Then, after we’ve factored, noted, practiced, and learned, I go back to that slide, and they have time to tackle the Daily Doozy…

… and I play the final minute of this song:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcJ-wNmazHQ]

I added that last line to the slide because I had 4 or 5 students who finished the Daily Doozy and proclaim, “That wasB easy!” I reminded them that it probably isn’t easy forB allB the students. Instead, they can proclaim, “My, what an appropriate challenge!”

UPDATE 17 April 2013: Per Dan’s request, hereB are a few more.

Comments

12 responses to “Daily Doozy”

December 5, 2012

Dan Meyer

This post should have a zillion comments saying a) there’s a pretty profound pedagogical shift from “daily standard” to “daily doozy” and b) great work, Matt. I added you and your post to a talk I’m giving this weekend. More people need to see this thing.

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December 17, 2012

dy/dan » Blog Archive » Great Classroom Action

[…] Matt Vaudrey's Daily Doozy. […]

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December 17, 2012

mrmillermath

I like this. I can see coming back to it as an exit ticket or something like that also – helping to make those last minutes of a class as productive as possible.

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December 17, 2012

Anonymous

Awesome stuff! keep up the great work!

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January 1, 2013

shaunteaches

nice work with the Daily Doozy, song, etc. Its nice to see other people breaking from boring and thoughtless class intros!

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January 4, 2013

Richard Archer

I love this! I am a first year teacher and I’ve given up on posting the objective my district doesn’t require it and I get a lot of blank faces when I talk about the objective before class, but I will be trying this. I love the way it connects the end to of the lesson to the beginning and the fact that it feeds off a kids inquisitive reaction to being challenged.

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January 5, 2013

danafed

Hi Dan,
Thanks for this. I am new here and busy looking for connections between your awesomeness and my third grade classroom. Just beginning to explore the site and I thank you.

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January 5, 2013

danafed

Hi MATT,
Excuse my post below as I arrived on a link from Dan Meyer’s site. Two excellent sites to explore. Thank you.

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January 7, 2013

Krista

What are your first 20 minutes of rountine that remain the same daily? Also what are some of your musical cues that you regularly use?

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February 1, 2013

Class Routine | Mr. Vaudrey's Class

[…] Then I read aloud the goal of the dayB and advance slides to the Daily Doozyba college-level problem on the today’s topic. More on that here. […]

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July 29, 2013

Music Cues | Mr. Vaudrey's Class

[…] Dun-Dun-Dunnnnnn (This is today’s Daily Doozy) […]

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August 14, 2013

Dmitry Kogany

This is great. I’m always looking for ways to incorporate musical cues and daily agenda items in a more interesting way. Thanks for sharing.

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