Math can be tough, Believe me, I KNOW. But the good thing is that with math, we can show very easily WHERE we stop our understanding.
In class we always talk about how when we read a problem, we can usually take ourselves SO FAR before we become stuck. We NEVER Draw a picture first, we NEVER just dive right in - we start from the beginning. I may not know what to do right now, but there is stuff I can do to start off.
I can pull out the information, I can draw a picture to match it, I can write out my thinking.
Some things we do in class to trick our brains into remembering what to do:
Look below at steps to solve a problem we did in class.
In class we always talk about how when we read a problem, we can usually take ourselves SO FAR before we become stuck. We NEVER Draw a picture first, we NEVER just dive right in - we start from the beginning. I may not know what to do right now, but there is stuff I can do to start off.
I can pull out the information, I can draw a picture to match it, I can write out my thinking.
Some things we do in class to trick our brains into remembering what to do:
- I can temporarily change fractions into whole numbers to see how I would solve the problem. Example: If my tree was 4 2/5 feet tall last year, but is 5 4/7 tall this year, how much did it grow. If I'm confused, I can change those numbers to 5 and 4 and immediately know I would subtract. Just because it's fractions doesn't mean the process changes
- I can change the names of the people in the problem to my own name and names of people I know. When I am dealing with REAL LIFE situations that pertain to me, sometimes that makes the problem easier to understand.
- I can talk and ask myself questions and write out my thinking on my paper.
- If none of these work, I can follow EVERY Step Ms. Logue talks about in class- NO SKIPPING STEPS.. and hopefully it will trigger my memory.
Look below at steps to solve a problem we did in class.