Practice Puzzles: Math Practice One

 The first few weeks of this school year, I stumbled across a way of introducing and using the Math Practices that really worked for Room 29, so I wanted to share it. I've seen lots of examples of "kid friendly" language for the SMPs (Standards for Math Practice) but this is a little more organic. What I did was, I started our Problem Solving Workshop time on the second day of school. And as my students struggled to make sense of problems, to explain themselves, to model the mathematics and find viable solutions, I just looked for ways that they were already, intuitively, using the SMPs. Little kids are natural mathematicians....never once did I have to tell them how to be mathematical. I just had to open my mind to the possibilities of what each practice might look like.....as performed by a 6 or 7 year old.

Once I had collected all eight (and I'm not going to lie, a couple were a real stretch haha) I used blank puzzles and I drew the incident right on there, labeling it all up. I am nobody's artist, but they are easily impressed and it turns out hairstyle is an easily identifiable attribute among my students. So even though any picture was only marginally akin to the child, everyone totally GOT IT.

 I gave each group of four students a tray with the puzzle pieces for one practice ready to be put together. They had a blast putting it together and then they went NUTS when they realized it was THEM. Oh my gosh! SO GOOD. :D

 

Once they had the puzzle together, they read it to each other, and made sense of what it was saying. Since they were right there when it happened, and I had made such a big deal out of each one and even repeated it over and over, they had a built-in context for making sense of each one.

Math Practice One : Make sense of a problem and persevere in solving it

            All the kids were on the carpet. I had written a simple “put together” problem on a poster at the front on my easel. “Diva had  _____ stickers. She went to the store and bought another _______ stickers. How many stickers does Diva have now?” In this process, the students have acted out the problem with a variety of numbers I supply them. She had 4 and bought 7. She had 8 and bought 3. She had 12 and bought 4. Different students act out the building of the numbers and combining them. When it comes time to do the problem on their own, I give them bigger numbers they wouldn’t really be able to do in their heads, like she had 17 and she bought 18.

            After giving them the numbers 17, and 18, I ill-advisedly did one more check for understanding. That’s when I asked Janiya what was happening in the problem. After a tense 60 seconds of silence, she slowly said, “Divaaaaa….is….she has…..stickerssssss?” Yes! And how many does she have? Janiya stares off into space. She clearly thinks I will lose interest and ask somebody else. No way, Sister. We are at an impasse, until she absentmindedly swings her head around and looks toward the poster.

            “OH MY GOSH!” I practically yell, “DID EVERYBODY SEE WHAT JANIYA JUST DID????” The other 34 students (you heard me, it was a rough first month) look at me expectantly. That’s how I imagine them, anyway. And I make a VERY big deal out of THIS THING Janiya did….because when Janiya wasn’t sure what number to build, SHE LOOKED BACK AT THE PROBLEM! Isn’t she a good mathematician? That’s what mathematicians do, when they are making sense of a problem, they LOOK BACK TO FIND WHAT NUMBERS TO USE.”

            It was a stretch, but it’s a point we’ve made over and over….’Remember what Janiya did? She did what all mathematicians do….she looked back at the problem when she needed to remember which numbers to build.”