We have been working on solving addition and subtraction story problems. Students are gaining a better understanding of when to add and when subtraction is the necessary operation. Now it's time to raise the bar. It's time for students to begin creating their own. Explicit teaching and modeling of this type of skill is always my approach. Most students need support and guidance in the transition from being the solver to being the writer.
I begin the process by activating my students' prior knowledge.
We need to review these two operations and when and why we use each one.
I created a sorting activity involving key words and example problems.
Students repeat this sort often as we gain proficiency in identifying types of problems.
Then students are ready to begin tackling the job of writing their own!
We take this slowly with lots of explicit modeling.
To help students with the task of creating problems and to make it more fun, I use problem solving picture cards and number spinners.
Students pull a card. They use the picture as an idea or the basis for their story problem.
Then they spin the spinner to determine the numbers they will use in their problem.
They can spin once, twice or even three times depending on whether they will use a one, two or three digit number in their problem.
Using the problem solving graphic organizer breaks the process into concrete steps.
All students can be successful.
We started by solving our own. But now many kids are such pros at it, they can switch off papers and read and solve each others!
We had great fun using the winter set since we are still celebrating this cold and frosty season.
Another set is ready for use at any time of the year.
I'll put this out as a math station or for my fast finishers to use.
youngdor8@gmail.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment