I am working with a class of 4th graders and while I am there math and reading/writing is what they work on. This past week the class was working on story problems and how to identify key words that would help them know whether they needed to add, subtract, multiply and divide. It was interesting to see how many of the kids picked up on it right away and others really struggled with picking out the words.
One particular questions asked about 2 classes went walking and together they walked 30 meters, but one class walked twice as far as the other class. I think every student had a different way of doing it and though some of them came up with the correct answer they really couldn't tell you how they got that answer, or they weren't confident in the way that they did it. The teacher was going through different ways of trying to explain it, talking it through, drawing a picture and even having some of the kids come up and act like they were in the class and had them walk around the room. As each different approach was taught you could watch as each time a couple of kids began to understand and by the time she was done all the kids had an understanding of what the story problem was asking.
It was neat to see how learning different ways people learn help you teach the kids so they can all understand it. And none of the kids seemed bored with learning it different ways it just seemed to strengthen their understanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment