Chapter 4 Problem Reflection
Thinking of the problem as a game similar to Scramble inspired me to piece the puzzle together leading to solutions. Brain storming also took place in hopes of more quickly finding answers.
The use of the Alphabet is cross-curricular since this includes not only Math but Language arts. However, it took me about a half-hour to find three words that added up to
forty-three. In hindsight this was not a very efficient way to solve the problem. Fortunately, there are other means to come up with solutions.
Differentiation can be and should always be taking place in the classroom. As previously noted allowing for
differentiation when creating until and lesson plans, and certainly in our
daily teaching, reaches children that may have otherwise tuned out.
Visual learners may prefer to use a number line. Some
students may use rods and base units to help formulate answers. Other children may
find counters helpful. Positive whole
numbers and negative integers can be utilised.
Children maybe allowed to work in larger groups, with their teacher directing
learning, or with a partner to solve the problem.
I am VERY interested in your thoughts about how to make finding the solution to this problem more efficient.
ReplyDeleteHow would you feel about using a problem such as this with your students as the lesson? Would it be worthwhile? What skills would students build while participating?
Jill
The problem was complex to figure out. It was made more interesting by thinking of it as a word game, however, it is unlikely that I would give this kind of Math problem to students that were in grades two or lower. Possibly, grade three students, and above would be receptive to solving these kinds of problems.
ReplyDeleteIf some of the students were to finish their Math early, this type of problem maybe beneficial for some who enjoy solving puzzles including word and math games.
The problem itself could be made more efficient by requiring fewer letters. Forty-three as a requirement was inefficient, because it took a long time to come up with the solutions. Therefore, unless the problem were changed it's unlikely that it would be used in my classroom.
The problem may work better of the children were to work in groups including the teacher or in groups with a manipulative such as dice adding some fun to finding the solutions. Rather than adding alone, subtraction, multiplying or dividing would also provide a larger number of solutions. Since, this problem is also a word problem; the teacher is also integrating Language Arts.