Yesterday we did great work at the tables we visited and showed great persistence in solving the problems our friends designed for us. Who can tell me something they noticed about a problem they worked on?
We stop and discuss reading, re-reading, pulling out important information, re-stating the question and creating steps for ourselves when we come to a difficult task. I cover all of these skills because not each skill works for each student but I want to ensure they have plenty to choose from to be successful.
I have one of your problems here on the board, please take a minute to solve it at your seat because I will need someone to come up and teach the rest of us about how solved it.
I have all of the students word problems from the previous day cut up into individual problems in plastic bags. Each table will have a separate plastic bag for students to work from. I will rotate students from table to table every 20 minutes so they see a variety of questions. We will work on this all week so that students rotate to all 6 tables.
I post one problem on the white board for students to solve on a note card at the end of the math block today. Students will need to show all of the steps they used to solve it and I will use this information to see which students still need small group intervention.