Guest Post: Math EVERYWHERE (with a problem solving freebie)!

We all know how important it is for a student to see the connection between what they learn in school and their everyday life.  Sometimes students have a hard time seeing these connections.  I personally think it should be easy for our students to see math in our everyday lives but I'm apparently wrong.  I asked my students to write down all the ways their family uses math at home. Most students wrote when cooking you use measurement but that was about it.  Can you believe it?  I was blown away by this response.  I was expecting a whole lot more since I have a pretty bright class.

To help my kids make more "math connections" I read the book Math Curse by Jon Scieszka.  My students loved the book and even better, I heard a lot of, "Oh yeah", "Duh, that is math too", "I didn't think about that as math", etc.  {Click on the picture below to read more about the book}



We had a great discussion after reading the book and talked about ways we use math in school (besides during math time) and at home.   Students love to read the book on their own or with a friend as well. 

One place in the classroom where we see math connecting to real life situations is in word problems!  My students (like most students) love to see their names in word problems.  As one of my students said, "I feel famous when my name is in our math assignment".  I even include my name in word problems too....... It kinda does feel like you're famous.  LOL!   Even if the word problems are from a book or our district curriculum it only takes a few minutes to retype the names or situations to meet my students lives.

Word problems can be fun but they also can be very difficult especially for those students who have reading comprehension problems.  In my classroom we act as if we are detectives when trying to solve word problems.  We use this four step scaffold I made to help us solve all word problems.

Here are the steps we use, but once you download the scaffold {by clicking here or the pic above} for yourself, you will also see the "substeps" that are even more specific and will guide your students to successful problem solving.

                                            Step 1: Understand the Problem

                                            Step 2: Come up with a Plan

                                            Step 3: Carry out your Plan

                                            Step 4: Look back/Check

If you use this scaffold, or what we like to call our problem solving map, frequently enough the steps become second hand to the students.  Hopefully you will see a positive change with your students in problem solving once you give this a try.

I'd like to thank Mrs. Zrihen for inviting me to be a guest blogger today!  I am a big fan of hers as I am sure you are too.   My name is Lorraine Vasquez and I teach 4th grade in South Texas.  If you want to learn more about me or my classroom adventures be sure to hop on over to my blog, Fabulous 4th Grade Froggies.

Have a TOADally Awesome day!