3 Act Tasks are whole-group math tasks consisting of three distinct parts: an engaging and perplexing Act 1, an information- and solution-seeking Act 2, and a solution discussion and solution-revealing Act 3. In Act 1, you will introduce the task using as few words as possible. As students begin to think about the task, one of the Wonderings posed will be the focus of the 3-Acts investigation. Then in Act 2, the student experiences a productive struggle while seeking new information and resources to understand the tools needed to solve the task. Act 3 serves as the resolution to understand different ways in which the problem could be solved. In doing so, the teacher will use the formative assessment process to reteach or extend the lesson.  

The standards addressed in this resource are:

• OA-1: Use parentheses, brackets, or braces in numerical expressions, and evaluate expressions with these symbols.

• OA-2: Write simple expressions that record calculations with numbers, and interpret numerical expressions without evaluating them.

• OA-3: Generate two numerical patterns using two given rules. Identify apparent relationships between corresponding terms. Form ordered pairs consisting of corresponding terms from the two patterns, and graph the ordered pairs on a coordinate plane.

This task is an adaptation of Dill ‘Er Up by Graham Fletcher, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0.