Problem Solving In Kindergarten

In Artemis' Full Day kindergarten class, her students were given the opportunity to problem solve - and connect that problem to a larger school wide issue. The school had adopted 6 families for the holiday season.  Students and their families were asked to donate clothing, food and personal items to help support the cause. 

For the minds on part of her three part lesson, Artemis read the students the book "The Jacket I Wear In The Snow" to get the students thinking about items you need for winter.  The problem (action) that Artemis gave her students was this:  We've been collecting clothing for families in need.  We can put ten things in each box we give them.  We are going to make boxes of hats and mittens.  What combinations of hats and mittens could you put in a box?

The students did a wonderful job of creating various boxes with different combinations of hats and mittens.  As they worked, Artemis was able to record not only the combinations that they made (e.g., 4 hats and 6 mittens) how they counted (was it one-on-one, did they count by 2s?) and probe them to explain their thinking (How do you know you are done?  Why do you think you have put ten things in the box?).

To finish off the lesson, (consolidate) the students came back to the carpet and recorded their boxes on a chart.  Artemis then continued to ask questions about the boxes that the students made.  (Who had more mittens in their box?  Alyssa or Shiva?  How do you know?)

Bansho For Where To Go Next

As part of Wexford's Math Pathway, the Junior and Intermediate divisions decided to focus on strategies.  To help them gain a better understanding of what strategies their students had for Patterning and Algebra, they had them do a pre-assessment task prior to their PLC.  The pre-assessment was done "cold turkey" with no pre-teaching prior to giving it to them.  This allowed the teachers to get a real understanding of what strategies their students already had in place.

Where things changed was when they began to look at all of the strategies that their students were using from Grades 4-8.  Each teacher looked through their pile of work, and pulled out the different strategies that their students were using.  We then assembled those strategies into a Bansho format.

By doing this, it allowed us to look at the strategies that students already had - But also allowed us the opportunity to look at strategies that we may have not been familiar with and see how to use them.  As well, it allowed us to make note of strategies that we want to model for our students, and also allowed us the chance to see how to help move out students along in their development of strategies.

40 Teachers and Tarps?!?!

Recently 40 teachers from South East One got together to create their very own learning carpets.  The Learning Carpet is a great tool to use in your classroom as it can cover everything from teaching numbers to graphing.  It's also very hands on and a great way for kinestetic learners to complete an activity.  Our "carpets" were made from masking tape and tarps.  It was a great night had by all.  For more information about The Learning Carpet, check out Wendy Hill's website (she's the creator of the carpet) http://www.thelearningcarpet.ca/

Organizing Your Mark Book

One of the great things about the Growing Success document is that is gives us a strong picture of the types of assessment we need to be doing on our students:  Assessing for Learning, Assessing of Learning and Assessing As Learning.  Assessment can be recorded in many different ways:  anecdotal notes, descriptive feedback and as marks in our mark book.

The Junior Division at Manhattan Park looked at different forms of assessment during their PLC for math.  What really "clicked" for them was an idea that they saw in the Damian Cooper book "Talk About Assessment" which all of your schools have a copy of.  In thinking of the types of questions they were asking, they also started thinking about how they were assessing the questions.  They saw a sample of a mark book where the students were marked in each of the areas of the achievement chart and decided to try it for the unit they were working on.

What Doris and Diana said they liked about this chart (which they modified to meet their needs) was that they could look and see what types of questions they needed to assess to make sure they were getting the true picture of their student's progress.  As well, the area at the bottom really allowed them the opportunity to record their observations of each student.  This allowed them to have a bank of comments for the report card that was not only student specific, but in parent friendly language.

You can also help parents understand why there is more to a mark in math than just answering questions like 8 x3 = 24, as you can show specific question types their child was successful in, and struggled in.

How To Organize A Unit

In Ontario, we have a specific Math curriculum that we follow.  At times, the expectations seem overwhelming, and knowing where to start can be tricky.  Backwards Mapping is one effective strategy that helps us keep track of not only where we want the students to end up, but also where we want to take our students.  Creating a unit plan is another strategy.

Maryna used the template below to plan out her unit on Patterning. 

She laid out a progression to her lessons, being sure to include tasks that were purposeful, used technology, and allowed her students to demonstrate understanding at all four levels (and categories) of the achievement chart.  The plan is not set in stone.  As she progressed through the unit, she made changes based on what her observations of the student were - Assessing for Learning, Assessing As Learning - and made sure that she helped close the "gaps" that her students may have had in their learning.

Having a plan not only allowed Maryna to focus more on the students, but it also allowed her the opportunity to make sure that she met the curriculum expectations for her grade, thus preparing them for the future.

Let's Start At The Beginning

In Heather's Grade 2/3 class she wanted to start problem solving with her students on a more regular basis. In the lesson we co-taught we wanted the students to get comfortable with some of the logistics of problem solving.  Things like working in pairs, using a marker to write their answer down, and crossing out wrong answers.  These are all huge steps students have to overcome in order to show their thinking.  We also hoped to see what different strategies the students used to help her get an idea of where to go in her lessons (Assessment for Learning)

For some students, they took to the challenge like it was nothing new.  For some, they needed to be silly with the markers and draw on their hands for a few minutes before they got to work.  Getting the students to write an answer down was the hardest part.  Many of them were afraid to make a mistake and wanted to make sure that they they put down the right answer - or put down what Heather and I were looking for. 

When we congressed, we had the students look at how there were many different strategies that they could have used to solve this problem.  We labeled each strategy, and then posted them on the black board in a Bansho so the students could see what their next logical strategy was.

It was a very successful first try at problem solving (and co-teaching).  At times we worry about how "messy" the student work is.  But we need to remind ourselves that it is okay to be "messy" as it shows us how our students think, and how we can help them become clearer in their though process. 

What Makes A "Good Question?"

What makes a good question?  That's a great question! 

The primary division at Wexford asked just that question at the start of our pathway.  In order to set up our pre-assessment task we needed to create a question.  Not just any question, but a question that allowed us to not only meet all four levels of the achievement chart, but one that allowed our students to achieve at one of the four levels.

We looked at the above question (please ignore the writing below the purple pattern - it was our scratch pad for our thinking on another task).  We asked ourselves if it was a "good question."  Looking at the achievement chart, we noticed that it did cover knowledge and understanding - It shows us if the student can make a pattern and knows what attributes are.  Our next question became "Can a student achieve a Level 4 on this question?"  After some debate and discussion we concluded that no, they couldn't.  Quite simply because we didn't give them the chance to demonstrate they had thorough knowledge of patterns.

The second problem we looked at was very different.  As we went through the achievement chart, we were able to identify how the solution would allow the students to demonstrate their knowledge in each area, and at different levels.  It also allowed us to anticipate student solutions, and discuss ways that the student could improve in their answer.

For the pre-assessment, the teachers came up with a very open, very appealing question for the students.  It also was able to be used from Grade One to Grade Three.  It was along the lines of:

Our school council wants to design a new school t-shirt.  They want it to have a pattern that has different attributes on it.  What could the shirt look like?  Explain the pattern.

Beginning Our Pathway

Participating in a math pathway is something that will be new to many of us.  Clairlea has been involved in a great deal of professional development surrounding math for the past three years.  In that time they have done a lot of work on creating rich tasks for their students, and also have co-taught with myself, Susan (our IL) and now each other.

When they started looking at the route that they wanted to take this year, they started by thinking of the different types of assessment that we use in our classrooms.  To help organize their brainstorming, an "Idea Pot" was used.  An idea pot is a great tool to use in our classrooms as a way to keep track of our ideas on a particular topic. 

Once we discussed the ways in which we assess, we turned to the achievement chart to look further into the areas of knowledge and understanding, application and thinking/problem solving.  These three areas come up a lot when we talk about EQAO results, but what do they really mean?

The group was divided into three smaller groups.  Each group became an "expert" on a specific type of question.  The groups sorted through various EQAO questions and picked out the questions that applied to their type of question.  They then organized their data using a Freyer model using the following headings:  Definition of type of question (in parent friendly language); examples of that type of question; non-examples and answered one of the questions.  

In defining the term in parent friendly language, it then helped us have some dialogue around the idea of Learning Goals and Success Criteria.  As well, it helped give us some ideas for writing the new Provincial Progress Report.

After doing this activity it helped us shed light on the types of questions we ask our students, and gave us some insight into being aware of covering the four levels of the achievement chart.

One Question, Multiple Strategies

I've spoken before on the importance of teaching through problem solving, and how it truly benefits the students as it allows them to make meaning from the math, rather than us telling them what to do.  In Paul's Grade 6 class we co-taught a lesson on number patterns. This three part lesson gave us a great understanding of where the kids were at, and where we could take them next.


We began by completing a KWC -P chart with the class.  The "P" stands for plan.  We chose to add this to our regular KWC because he was finding that his students were very reluctant to get started on any type of activity, and thought that if they had some pre-discussion on what to do, they may be more independent and more successful.

As the students were working on their problem (in pairs) Paul went around and visited each pair and probed them on their thinking and ideas.  I worked with one pair a little more closely to help make sure that they were on task, and focused.  We used the assessment for learning tool (A4L) to keep track of what strategies the students were using.  Originally, we thought that they would use one of five strategies.  However, we added a sixth strategy as one group used a strategy we hadn't thought of.










We chose three different groups to share their solutions with the class as part of our whole class consolidation.  One group had the right answer, but didn't have a complete solution as I don't think they picked 13x8 = 104 on their first try!  As the group was telling us what they did, I filled in the blanks for them by using a different colour marker.  We called this "editing."  You can see samples of it below in some of the pictures.

The second group was the pair that I was working with.  We chose to have them share for multiple reasons.  One of the reasons was to build their confidence.  Both students are currently on an IEP and need a chance to participate and show their strategy.  A second reason was that they had put a lot of depth and thought into their answer and gave not only the answer, but a suggestion as to what the leftover money could be saved for.

The third group really blew our minds.  They got an answer of 7.7  At first, I thought they were way off base, but when I began to ask some questions about how the 7.7 came into play, a lot of knowledge and understanding came into play.  The 0.7 of the lawn was because the student has a dog.  Her mom doesn't cut all of the grass each time she mows because the dog likes to have longer grass to play in.  Therefore, if the student mowed her mom's lawn she wouldn't charge the full price for the lawn mowing.   She would only charge 0.7 of what her regular cost is. 

We then had the rest of the groups come and put their work up on the board in a Bansho format.  In total, we ended up with 6 different strategies that were used to solve this problem.  So much richer and more meaningful than us showing the students 1 strategy and making them use it.

Welcome Back!!!!

Welcome Back to the 2010 - 2011 School Year!

During the second last week of August I was lucky enough to be a part of Math E Motion - A week long camp for teachers and students (in Grades 6-9) which focused on teaching and learning through problem solving.  The culminating activity for the students was a hands on project that was based on a math problem they had chosen earlier on in the week.  The students picked "Under The Sea" as the theme for all of their projects.  They showed these problems to their peers, parents and friends at an afternoon long "Math Fair."

Over the course of the 5 days, they worked together in partners to take the problem off the paper and make it come to life.  In total there were 18 different projects.  Each pair had different strengths and weaknesses, and each pair was also working at different academic levels.  The end results were nothing short of spectacular!  The students really worked hard, and put forth some excellent work.  Should the program run again next summer, I highly recommend participating in it.  You will be glad that you did.  If you want to run a "Math Fair" in your school, or have questions about it, please let me know.  I'd love to work with you to make one happen!



This problem was finding out the minimum number of moves you needed to make to cut off the dragon's heads and tails - For if you made one cut, one or two more things could grow.

Probability and logical reasoning are at the heart of this activity where you had to guess which box had 2 blue balloons, 2 pink balloons and 1 blue and 1 pink balloon.

For this game you have to place the numbers 1-8 in a row to find out what the greatest possible sum could be for each row.

Welcome To Kindergarten Night

This past week I was invited to be a part of General Crerar's Welcome to Kindergarten night. The principal (Heather) and the kindergarten teacher (Chris) had set up several stations for parents to visit. These stations were: Math, Public Health, Toronto Public Library, and a Teacher station where Chris had some activities set up for them to do with her.

The math station consisted of two games for parents to play with their children: Part, part whole bingo and a shake and spill game using the 10 frame mat.

 
 
Each child also got a "math goodie bag" which had the two games in it, plus a few other math items for them to use at home.  The bags cost under $1 per child, and were made up of items that were purchased at a local dollar store.  The items in the bag were:  A deck of cards, 10 two sided counters, a large die, stickers, part-part-whole bingo game, a ten frame, a piece of sewing elastic (to make shapes with) tangram puzzles, and a piece of foam to make the tangrams with.
 

 It was great watching the parents and their children do math together.  As well, it gave me the chance to share some fun cooperative learning games with them, so they can help their child grow as mathematicians.  Great job Chris and Heather.  The night was a great success!

Congress and Assessment

In Lisa's Grade 4/5 class I was invited in to co-teach a lesson with her. Her school is doing a math pathway this term and her pre-assessment task is "The Checkerboard Problem." The question asks students how many squares are on an 8 x 8 checkerboard. We posed the question to the students, handed them checkerboard templates, and then set to work making notes on our Assessment for Learning (A for L) tool.

All of the students quickly got the answer of 64 - none of them got the correct answer of over 200.  But what amazed us was how many different strategies the students were able to use in order to come up with the correct answer.  Lisa had told them she wanted them to try to solve it in at least two ways.  Many of them were able to solve it in more ways than just that.

Many of the students shared their strategies with us.  We were able to see that the students had a lot of different strategies to call upon when solving a problem.  After they described what they did, we used a different colour marker to give that strategy a name that they could remember it by.  One key strategy was missing, so at the end of our congress I shared with them how to make a table to help them find an answer. 

When our congress was over, we then let them know that although they had really good strategies, none of them got the answer correct.  We told them that there are more than 200 squares on the checkerboard.  At first they looked at us with an "Are you kidding" face - But then one student piped up that she could see some of them that she hadn't before. 

The congress allowed us a chance to see what strategies the students already had in their schema, and then the A for L tool helped us see which ones were most commonly used.  At the end of the pathway, it will then be interesting to see if the students are still using the same strategies, or if new ones have become a part of their problem solving tool kit.

Student Success in an HSP Class

Karen's HSP class is composed of a variety of students, all at different levels of ability. She has been trying out problem solving in her class and has been surprised at the results. She has been encouraging the students to use a graphic organizer (seen above) to help her students comprehend what is being asked of them.

Karen is finding that the level of engagement her students have has increased since they started doing problems. As well, she admits that the first few times made her want to pull her hair out - But - now that the students have more schema to draw upon, they are achieving success and doing so independently.

The second picture shows some student samples from a problem that the class had done around fractions.

What is a Bansho?

Bansho is a High Yield strategy that you can use in your class with your students. It is used in Japan as a way to help students learn different processes in which they can solve a problem. Bansho literally comes from the Japanese word meaning "blackboard." In math, we use it as a way to display student solutions from the least to most mathematically rich. It is not about assessing the students work - It is about looking at solutions, annotating work and discussing solutions.

The above Bansho was done at the FOS Transitions session. The teachers completed a problem in pairs and then we (the facilitators) organized their solutions. The organization of the solutions also involves some thought and discussion. As more samples came up, some were moved to different places along our Bansho. Once the solutions were organized, as a group we discussed them and put a label at the bottom of each one. On the far left we had identified the work as logical reasoning, to the far right we had graphing.

Bansho allows students the opportunity to see many different ways of solving a problem. It works best when your students are in an environment where the consolidation (or congress) is happening in your class. In fact, once your students are comfortable in consolidating their work you can then move onto doing a Bansho as consolidation.

You can learn more about a Bansho by visiting these websites:

www.lkdsb.net/Program/elementary/junior/OAME2007%20JapaneseBanshoHdt.pdf

(This one is a PowerPoint from the LNS - Lots of colour pictures)

http://www.eworkshop.on.ca/ - Grade 5 - Growing Weave Designs

www.criced.tsukuba.ac,jp/math/sympo_2006/takahashi.pdf

www.curriculum.org/secretariat/may2.shtml

(This is a video with not only a Bansho clip - but other High Yield strategies in Literacy and Numeracy as well)

Visual Data

We have all become aware at how important data has become in education. As part of our PLC time at Dorset Park we took a traditional data wall to a whole new level - We made it visual, and practical.

Our session began by doing moderated marking on our Pre-assessment activity. As the marking was underway, we began to select examples of student work that was from the four levels. The students names were removed, and then placed under the grade that they were in (and under the appropriate level). Once the moderated marking was done, we then added the percentage of students who were at each level for each grade.

As we were posting the work there were some great conversations happening. One of the benefits to doing this kind of data wall is that since all of the teachers are doing the same concept (fractions) they are able to talk about strategies and teaching points that they have found successful. In addition, you can see similarities and differences between the levels, and gain a better understanding of what the students can do to improve.

Having it up allows for the conversations to continue, and then grow. Our plan is to put the culminating task activities (in the four levels) beside the Pre-assessment so we can see the changes in how the students respond.

(Thank you to Ed for being in our picture.)

Problem Solving in Kindergarten

In Gwen's kindergarten class they have been talking a lot about the weather - And the topic of rain clouds and rain drops came up. Gwen used this discussion to have her kindergarten children participate in a Parallel Task.

The children were given a drawing of a rain cloud. They could choose between one rain cloud or two (this is what makes the task parallel). Once they had made their choice the students then rolled the number cube to determine how many raindrops the cloud would have. They wrote the number, and drew the rain drops.

From this activity, Gwen met many different Kindergarten math expectations:

Process Expectations:

* Problem Solving, Connecting, Representing and communicating;

Overall Expectations:

* Demonstrtate an understanding of number, using concrete materials to explore and investigate counting, quantity, and number relationships; and

Specific Expectations:

* Investigate some concepts of quantity through identifying and comparing sets with more, fewer, or the same number of objects;

* Recognize some quantities without having to count, using a variety of tools or strategies;

* Use, read, and represent whole numbers to 10 in a variety of meaningful contexts; and

* Begin to make use of one-to-one correspondence in counting objects and matching groups of objects.

In addition to this, Gwen was given a great assessment opportunity as she could then make observations about her students knowledge of number. For example, she could see who was able to print numbers correctly, who could demonstrate one-to-one correspondence, who could show synchrony (assigning one word for every object), and who can use the 1-9 sequence when counting (stable order principle) and cardinality. As well, she was able to see who can self correct when they make a mistake.

Problem solving can be done in kindergarten - And when it is, the results are amazing!

Thanks for sharing Gwen!

Assessing For Learning and Consolidation

Nancy and I have been doing a lot of co-teaching in her Grade 5/6 class. All of our co-teaching sessions have been focused around teaching through problem solving in a three part lesson. This past week we had the students work on a problem around conversion of fractions, decimals and percents. (Picture #3)

We used the Assessing for Learning tool(A for L) as a way to document not only what strategies the students used to solve the problem, but also what errors they make. What came to our attention was a rather large error which became the topic of our consolidation or the third part of our lesson. (Pictures # 1 & 2) Nancy has also modified the A for L tool to meet her needs by making the squares a bit bigger, and also including a box for her to level the students work as well. (Not every time that we use the A for L sheet do we give the students a level - it is mainly used to simply assess for learning)

The students were quite easily able to figure out 1/4 of an amount and then find out what 50% of the remaining amount was. We saw several strategies and heard several different explanations as to how they got through steps one and two. However, where the misconception occurred was when the students got to the part of the question where they had to solve for 0.3.

The students were well aware of how to convert the decimal into a fraction - Except that they were trying to convert this particular decimal into 1/3 which then would give them the wrong answer. Many of the students said that they didn't know what to do when it came time to "deal" with the 0.30. For some that were stuck, we prompted them with open ended questions to them to help make sense of what they should do next.

During our consolidation piece we had one pair come up and share their work with the group. We had pre-selected this pair because we knew they had used the same strategy as most of their peers, and had made the same mistake. As they explained their answer I annotated what was missing from their words and their sheet by using a different coloured marker. When we came to the part about the 0.3 we had them share their answer and asked the class if this looked right. Almost everyone agreed. We then led the students into looking back on the first two questions they solved using the fraction and the percent. We put each one of those into a decimal, percent and fraction form on the board beside of us. We then did the same with 0.3, 30% and then 1/3. It was at this point that a few of the students got the "light bulb" look and put up their hands. They said that 1/3 was not equal to 0.3 but it was 0.33 instead. We then used number lines to help us show the difference between 0.3 and 0.33.

One other group - who were the only ones to correctly get the answer in the first place - put up their hands to share (and show us) how they solved for 0.3 and what it would look like in the context of the problem.

Had we not been doing this problem, this issue might never have come up. The three part lesson is a really powerful tool to help us teach our students better - It allows us the chance to take a simple, and easily corrected, mistake and fix it on the spot. Because of the consolidation piece (or congress) we were able to not only show our students different ways to show a number as a decimal, a fraction and a percent, but also stop them from making the same mistake later on.

Student Centered Assessment

Adrienne's Grade 2/3 class is starting to work towards self assessment. We were co-teaching a lesson together in a three part lesson format (M.A.T.C.H.) and things took a different turn when we were about to consolidate:

Here is how the lesson went -

Minds on - We had the students discuss things they don't do everyday, but perhaps every other day.

Action - The problem we decided to do was about Jake and his sisters and how many times in a month Jake walked the family dog. Before we sent them on their way to solve the problem, we had them complete a KWC chart to help clarify their knowledge. They wrote the items in the "K" column, but for the sake of Time, we scribed their answers for the other two columns.

Consolidation - As we were about to start the consolidation piece. Adrienne brought forth the idea of turning their work into an anchor chart to help the students assess themselves on their own work. This is what her school is focusing on for their pathway for this term (Note: the pathway is rooted in Literacy, but Adrienne wanted to try it out in Math as well).

We brought the students back to the carpet and asked someone to share the answer with us. The answer was written down verbatim. It was "He walked 8 times." We asked the students what kind of answer this was and why. At first, the students thought that it was a Level 1 answer. But then quickly decided that it was not a Level 1, but a Level 2 answer. (The bright pink paper is because of this change). They then provided justification for their levelling: It doesn't explain how or why we got the answer; the answer is a little confusing; not sure how they got the answer. We then began to work ahead and had someone share why they thought that their work was a Level 3. Once again, they went through the same criteria and came up with justification: there is an explanation that is clear; only 1 small mistake; fully answered the question; showed the work - the pattern rule.

At this point we had to stop for recess and then prep. However, later in the day Adrienne went back to the carpet with the students and had them do the same for Level 1 and Level 4 work. Once all of the Levels and justifications were up, students then got the chance to Level themselves according to the criteria that they had come up with. But - They didn't stop here.

The students then went back and, (using a coloured pencil crayon) made additions to their work to help the quality of their work improve. This was called the "editing process."

For Home, the students were then asked to complete a journal question relating to the work that was done in class today.


The picture shows the work displayed on her wall. How it is set up shows both the problem and the graphic organizer (In this case the KWC chart) and it also has the samples of the student work (with the names cut off) of where it would have fallen BEFORE "editing." If you notice, there are a lot of samples in between Level 2 and Level 3 - This is because those students are at a Level 2+ (based on their original work).

This activity was very powerful for both Adrienne and her students. She now will plan further lessons with those Level 2 students in mind and have a visual reference to help guide her in her planning.

Including the inital part of the lesson, she spent about 50 minutes in total on this lesson - Not a great amount of time, but a powerful use of time. Which goes to show, that a three part lesson can be accomplished in one day.

Ch-Ch-Changes

For us in education, the next few months are a time of change: Some may hear that they are surplus from their school and will begin to put together a new resume; Some may find themselves in a new grade, and begin to gather resources and ideas to use in September; Some may apply for jobs at other schools, or for other positions; and for some, they may find themselves moving up into a more visible leadership position as a coach, instructional leader, vice principal, principal, or even a superintendent.

Regardless of where we find ourselves in June, we need to remind ourselves that we are all leaders, not only in our classrooms but in our schools, and our FOS. A friend of mine recently forwarded me these thoughts on leadership: May they help inspire you in whatever you wish to achieve in the next few months.

When leaders make a mistake,they say, "I was wrong."
When followers make mistakes,they say, "It wasn't my fault."


A leader works harder than a follower and has more time;
a follower is always "too busy"to do what is necessary.

A leader goes through a problem;
a follower goes around it and never gets past it.


A leader makes and keeps commitments;
a follower makes and forgets promises.

A leader says, "I'm good, but not as good as I ought to be;"
a follower says, "I'm not as bad as a lot of other people."


Leaders listen;
followers just wait until it's their turn to talk.

Leaders respect those who are superior to them and tries to learn something from them;
followers resent those who are superior to them and try to find chinks in their armor.


Leaders feel responsible for more than their job;
followers say, "I only work here."

A leader says, "There ought to be a better way to do this;"
followers say, "That's the way it's always been done here."

~~ Author Unknown ~~

Anchor Charts - Problem Solving

In Ellen's Grade 2/3 class they have been creating math anchor charts to help them when they get stuck. One of the charts that the class made was on what to do when they come to a problem. They laid out their problem solving process into four steps: Read, Think, Talk, Write. Each part was detailed on the main anchor chart and the students can refer to it at anytime.

To help her students remember where to look in the class for help, she puts the "Read, Think, Talk, Write" phrase at the end of the problem. (See the first picture for an example of this). As the students solve their problem, they are encouraged to write down their thinking onto their work. In the second picture, you can see how the students used circles around their work in order to keep their ideas separate. They listed things that they knew and didn't know, and then worked together to come up with an answer.

Getting your students to communicate their thinking is a road block that we face year after year. It is not something that comes easy. We need to allow students time to not only comprehend the problem, but also talk about their ideas and strategies (congress) and make corrections when their thinking changes. Problem solving is a skill that takes years to improve upon. This is why the curriculum insists that children start at Kindergarten and continue on for their entire educational career. It's not easy to teach, in fact at times you'll want to pull your hair out - but - you really help students not only make sense of the math they are working on, but see how it applies to the world around them.