It has been a blur getting up to speed with my new position as the Title I Technology Teacher at my new school. I find that being a specialist has a whole new set of challenges. Learning the names of all the students in the school is on that list, along with finding time to go to the restroom and trying to stay up on creating lessons for each grade level when I have no set curriculum to use. As I create new technology lessons, I plan to share them on the Highland Computer Lab website . I thought I’d share one of these resources with all of you here. It’s a .pdf version (a SmartBoard interactive version of this lesson will be available on the computer lab site, too) of a lesson I created for my 4th and 5th grade math groups to introduce them to some of the Teacher to Teacher problem solving lessons we’ll be doing this trimester related to their curriculum maps. I got the idea for this slideshow from the Teacher to Teacher newsletter of March 2009. Teacher Giny Christensen introduced a problem solving analysis guide that helps her students think through the important elements of a new problem they are being introduced to. BTW, the slide show is also linked to a set of problem solving strategy posters. Since this .pdf version is not animated, you can link to the posters on my website. Have you come up with any great ideas to help student become better mathematical problem solvers? I’d love to hear your ideas.
Posts Tagged ‘Mathematics Problem Solving’
Update on New Job
Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009Time Spent on Problem Solving
Friday, March 6th, 2009Very often when I work with a group of teachers, I hear the question, “How much time do you spend doing Problem Solving?” I have two different answers for this question. I will share both answers below.
For the first response, I remind teachers that problem solving is one of the process standards clearly discussed in the Principles and Standards of School Mathematics (PSSM), NCTM 2000. As is stated in the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence (NCTM, 2006),
“Organizing a curriculum around these described focal points, with a clear emphasis on the processes that Principles and Standards addresses in the Process Standards—communication, reasoning, representation, connections, and, particularly, problem solving—can provide students with a connected, coherent, ever expanding body of mathematical knowledge and ways of thinking. Such a comprehensive mathematics experience can prepare students for whatever career or professional path they may choose as well as equip them to solve many problems that they will face in the future.”
Therefore, the answer to the question would be, “I would ‘do’ problem solving as often as I possibly can.” For example, whenever I introduce a new concept, I create a problem solving task as part of the introductory Warm Up. Asking students to reflect on their understandings, communicate their thinking, utilize a variety of strategies and so on are the foundations of a problem-based curriculum and are all part of my instructional standard operating procedures.
However, I believe what the questioner really intended to ask was, ” How do you structure your daily and weekly math times? Then, the answer would be the following. My main block of math time runs about 50 minutes. As mentioned above, if the lesson focus is on developing a new concept, the structure will definitely be problem-based. If we are at a point where I want students to practice and reinforce skills, that block will likely consist of small group station activities. Often these games and activities have a problem solving strategy component built into them, as well. At other times of the day, I have a calendar time for about 20 minutes I use to develop math vocabulary and reinforce and practice skills previously taught and a math journaling time that usually runs for another 15 minutes or so, where students reflect and self-evaluate around the concepts they have been learning. Therefore, 90 minutes a day are usually devoted to math in my usual daily routine.
My answer would be a little different if on the other hand, the question being asked is really, “How often do you use the Making Sense of Problem Solving (MSPS) materials?” In that case, the answer would be that approximately once a week I use the MSPS materials. Because there are 15 units, one week I focus on introductory Warm Up activities followed the next week with Problem Solving and Enrichment tasks assigned to the appropriate level students. I may carry over to a second day, student presentations of their solutions. How about you, my readers? How much time do you spend doing math and how is it structured?
Greetings
Saturday, January 24th, 2009Jan. 24, 2009
Wow! My own blog. That’s not something I would have seen coming even a couple of years ago. Truthfully, writing has been a newer development in my life. Guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks. In 1999, when I was approached to consider training to become a co-editor for The Oregon Mathematics Teacher (TOMT) journal, writing was not even a blip on the radar screen. I remember being startled when I was asked to take over the editor’s position from Anne McEnerny-Ogle. Here I am 10 years later still going strong with TOMT and loving every minute of it. Now I’m setting out on this brave new adventure as a bold blogger.
As a part of the team of Oregon classroom teachers who have worked to revise the math problem solving series called Making Sense of Problem Solving (MSPS) published by Teacher to Teacher Publications, I’d like to use this space as a place to address any issues regarding the teaching of MSPS lessons. Feel free to send me your questions. I’d also like to invite feedback on any of the MSPS lessons. What lesson did you try out? How did it go?
I’ll use this space to write about my thoughts as a teacher of young children for over 28 years. I’ll pull from my experiences as a Scoring Director for Oregon’s Mathematics Problem Solving Assessment. The insights shared here will also be influenced by my experience as a math coach working with teams of teachers to revitalize their math instruction. And of course, these days my world is totally colored by my three granddaughters and my grandson, so I’ll probably talk about them some, too. I hope you the reader will find something of value here, and will come back time and again to consider what has been posted and share your own thoughts and experiences related to teaching young children to be mathematical problem solvers.