Overview:  In this launch, the teacher does very little to make any connection with students’ prior knowledge.  The teacher asks if any of the students know anything about Hopi pottery.  When no one responds, the teacher tells students they will spend the class period working on a problem about patterns.  The teacher emphasizes that students will need to pay attention to designs and reflective symmetry, perhaps to cue students to think about these ideas as they work on the problem.

Prior knowledge:  Overall, the teacher does not make any explicit connections to students’ prior knowledge.  The teacher makes one attempt to connect to students’ knowledge of the context, asking students if they have any knowledge of Hopi pottery.  The teacher also places some emphasis on students’ knowledge of school mathematics by giving emphasis to the phrases “designs” and “reflective symmetry”.  It’s possible that the teacher wanted to cue students to remember these mathematical ideas from a prior lesson or prior class.

Other points of interest:  This launch exemplifies a teaching practice that we have observed when teachers implement problem-based instruction.  Sometimes, in an effort to not give away the solution to the problem, the teacher says very little during the launch of a problem.  To maintain the demand of the task, the teacher    This launch provides a contrast to the other launches, in which the teacher makes a connection with either the context, the school mathematics, or the mathematical practices relevant for solving the problem.