So this was the problem we tried today and it was interesting....after a discussion around the importance of visualizing math problems before solving them one of the students said "I wonder how it looks in your brain when you're thinking?" and discussion continued about the importance of being able to represent that thinking on paper. Another student said "The only way I can put it down on the paper is to solve it." So after allowing them 3 minutes to represent a solution and calling on volunteers to share this is what we got: (next time I'll include with the question....) - 72 x 6 - 126 - 6 - 6 - 6...until there is none left - a picture of a person with 6 eggs - and many reading what the many words on their papers that just restated parts of the question So time was spent having them explain and then modeling how what many of them were saying could be represented as a thumbnail sketch to be able to help them realize what they need to do to solve the problem. Will be interesting to see how they do on the next one....
So this was the problem we tried today and it was interesting....after a discussion around the importance of visualizing math problems before solving them one of the students said "I wonder how it looks in your brain when you're thinking?" and discussion continued about the importance of being able to represent that thinking on paper. Another student said "The only way I can put it down on the paper is to solve it." So after allowing them 3 minutes to represent a solution and calling on volunteers to share this is what we got: (next time I'll include with the question....)
ReplyDelete- 72 x 6
- 126 - 6 - 6 - 6...until there is none left
- a picture of a person with 6 eggs
- and many reading what the many words on their papers that just restated parts of the question
So time was spent having them explain and then modeling how what many of them were saying could be represented as a thumbnail sketch to be able to help them realize what they need to do to solve the problem.
Will be interesting to see how they do on the next one....