Problem Solving Friday

Our math curriculum institutes "Problem Solving" strategies for students. This focus is on those nasty "story problems" from our youth! Today however, students LOVE to solve problems. No longer is it the dreaded problems of ... if a train was heading North at 2pm going 60MPH and another was heading South .... and looking at the words you would think OH-EMMM-GEEE, I am going to fail math and story problems are the devil. No, instead, we work SO hard at creating STUDENTS who are problem solvers, not just in math, but in every facet of their lives.

The math problem solvers I actually LOVE to teach. For the past year I have worked diligently to teach kids to teach each other. We think think think--I let them flounder and as we apply new strategies, we use the old SKILLS that we have learned. We know that sharing our work doesn't mean that we are always right in our answer, but we can share our work and try to find the gaps in our thinking to ge the correct answer.

Boys and girls are risk takers. RISK TAKERS. They share their work under the document camera and explain the answer, how they thought about it and if pictures, number models, words, etc were used to help explain the problem. Students then call on one another to "agree" or "disagree" with how the problem was solved, the answer, or thinking strategies to have a better plan in place next time. We celebrate the good parts, focus on how to make sure we know how to solve it and what we can do better next time to help OTHERS understand the problem.

Did I tell you that it is a 7 year old discussion where the words, "I agree with your answer, however, I think that your picture does not really show how you got the answer. You might only get a 1 out of 2 on your rubric scoring" are used? They really do! It is amazing to see the ideas, solutions, and interaction to solve the problem, and think about the THINKING that is involved. We have three weeks of discussion and then, like today (well ususally Fridays--pesky field trip) we take the test! I cannot wait to see the results!

When these boys and girls take the SAT (if it is still part of the requirement HA!) they will sit down and be like Oh yeah, whatever. Going NORTH and SOUTH! What about the two trains that went East AND West.... bring it....