Dinah Harvey - Maths P.D - 18/02

Dinah Harvey - Maths P.D - 18/02

WHAT/SO WHAT

- Don't test facts, give the opportunity for kids to test out facts.
- Give the opportunity for students to explore maths
- We want students saying "I wonder"
- One game we practiced -

Word problems - Focus - Routine problems 

5 steps:

- Reading recognition - Read the problem (you read it)

- Comprehension - What are we trying to do? (re-state in their own words)

- Encoding the answer int to the required format 

- Students work to solve the problem (Can't remember what this is called)

- Come back to the answer

In word problems the verbs and nouns are not the most important words to understand. It is the small words - of, many, and, off, more etc 

In maths there are a number of words for the same thing - we need to expand the repertoire of words we use to increase exposure

Get students to re-state the problem in their own words rather then highlight

Before students get working on a problem, get then to write the answer sentence e.g there are ___ legs on the animals altogether, 

Teacher action - anticipate - it's hard to respond to teachable moments if you don't anticipate beforehand. Do the problem first yourself.

Change student perception. I'm nodding to say that i'm listening, not to say that you are correct. 

NOW WHAT

During my maths sessions my main course has been working on word problems. The big thing that I need to do more of is encoding the question for the students so that they know exactly what it is they are being asked to do. Re-stating the problem so that students understand the essence of what is being asked will help less fluent readers access the maths within the problem.