🛠️ Teaching Tools

TWO-STEP WORD PROBLEMS

I was recently working with a teacher whose students were struggling with two-step word problems. After observing her students, we realized they were struggling because they were putting more effort into solving the problems than understandingthe problems.

Students weren't visualizing the problem. They weren't creating that mental movie in their brains of what was actually happening in the problem.

I remember having this same frustration nearly ten years ago when I created the problem-solving template I'm sharing with you below!

This template helped my students slow down and think about the problem. To break the problem down into "movie scenes," they had to know what was happening.

If you use this template with your students, know that they might start by drawing detailed pictures to represent the problem. That's okay!

The goal is to get them to truly see the problem.

Eventually, their representations will progress to tally marks, bar models, or equations. We can encourage this progression by asking students:

• What's happening in the problem?
• How could you represent that with [insert desired model]?

We updated the template to be a bit more movie-themed if you decide you want to use that language of "creating a mental movie" with your students!

🎥 What We're Watching

TRACKING STUDENT UNDERSTANDING

If keeping track of where every student is at in their understanding of different math concepts feels overwhelming, I think you'll love this simple system I used. It's so easy that you could print two pages and implement the system tomorrow!

I recorded a 7-minute YouTube video (3.5 minutes if you watch on 2x!) that walks you through how to use two different printable data trackers. I also talk about how the data trackers can be helpful tools to make math review or test prep more individualized so that students are working on concepts that they need support in.

The year I first made these, I didn't start using them until January and they were a complete game-changer! So don't think that this is something you have to implement at the beginning of the school year. Take a few minutes to watch the video, download the data trackers, and release your inner data nerd 🤓

🎲 Activity to Try

A teacher asked me earlier this week what my #1 favorite manipulative is for teaching fractions... Without the slightest bit of hesitation, I said, "Pattern blocks!"

Even if you've never used pattern blocks before with your students or you use pattern blocks all the time, your students will love playing Last Block Down.

It's a simple game that you can place at a math center, use as a brain break, or engage students right from the start of class. While there isn't direct fraction discussion involved, it's a fun game that helps students get used to the relationship between the blocks. They'll see that three triangles are equivalent to a trapezoid, two trapezoids are equivalent to a hexagon, and other connections.

This comfortability with pattern blocks is incredibly helpful when we begin using pattern blocks to explore operations with fractions. If you want to play Last Block Down with your students, click the button below to download it for FREE!

🌎 Math in the Real World

Are your students wondering when they will ever need to multiply fractions in the real world? I had to use this skill a few days ago as I was figuring out how much to pay someone! Their hourly rate was $27 and I used their services for 25 minutes.

I needed to know what 25/60 of $27 was.

Adding context to numbers is an easy way to increase student buy-in for the math they're learning and it gives meaning to the numbers that students are working with.

If you're working on multiplying fractions, try using this situation with students! Here is a simple activity you can set up in just a few minutes...

Give students an hourly rate or let them choose from a list you've created​
​$12, $16, and $24 are all model-friendly and divisible by several factors

Write jobs and lengths of time on sticky notes; post them around the room​
​Examples: babysitting for 1/2 an hour, lawn care for 2 1/4 hours

Have students go to each job and complete (solve) it to earn money

Make sure students have access to manipulatives to solve the problems if needed.

Ask students questions about their earnings to extend the activity

How much more or less would you have earned with a different hourly rate? How much money did you earn altogether?

This is just an idea of how you can bring the real-world application of this concept into the classroom. Feel free to change up this idea in any way that works for you!

💬 Quote of the Week

"It's not that I'm so smart; It's just that I stay with problems a little longer." Albert Einstein

I've heard the word stick-to-itiveness a lot lately, to the point that I had to google it to see if it was actually a word... It is! It means "dogged perseverance." I've also heard it called "stick-with-it-ness."

Either way, I love the clarity "stick-with-it-ness" gives to a really important word we throw around the math classroom a lot. I was recently reading the book Hidden Potential and the willingness to persevere is one of the most important character traits in successful people (obviously there are many ways to define success!).

How cool that the work we do with students is developing one of the most critical traits! I love the quote above by Albert Einstein because it emphasizes what I personally value in math classrooms (and maybe you do too!)... "stick-with-it-ness."

If you love this quote and want to share it with your students, you can download a printable version that you can hang in your classroom below!