As you start to make a change in your teaching to one that allows more student thinking, you quickly notice that your math resources don’t really change with you, and most people don’t have the time or money to get new math materials. 

I’m Christina Tondevold, The Recovering Traditionalist, and today we’re going to take a look at Adapting Math Resources to Encourage Student Thinking in our quest to build our math minds so we can build the math minds of our students.

Watch the video or read the transcript below:

Most math resources are very focused on having kids solve problems one particular way.  But you don’t have to completely throw out these materials as you move to a more student-centered style of teaching. 

I’ve got four suggestions for you on how you can adapt your math resources to encourage more student thinking, and they all start with a C. So let’s call this the 4 C’s to adapting your math resources. 

#1: Connect to prior knowledge.

One of the ways to allow more student thinking is to connect a current problem with something that they have learned in the past. So a quick way you can do this is to do a number string or take whatever is in your textbook or worksheet and just attach a “helper problem.” If you’ve ever done number strings, you know what I’m talking about. But a helper problem is, basically, you give students an easier problem, or a problem that they’ve done in the past, to help them connect the two together. 

So if you’re doing multi-digit addition, you could start with single digit addition and have the kids solve 9 + 7, and then move into 49 + 37. So the 9 + 7 would be the helper problem. 

I saw this just the other day with my son on his 2nd grade homework.  This wasn’t exactly it, but it showed 41 – 20, and then the next problem was 41 – 19. Now in 2nd grade, there’s probably some kiddos in that classroom that if the problem was just 41 – 19 on the worksheet, they might be stuck, they might not know where to start. And most parents would be like, “Well, I’m just going to teach you the algorithm.” 

But because it started with a helper problem of 41 – 20, the kids might be more likely to see how 41 – 20 connects to 41 – 19, and the parents (or whoever is at home helping them) might too. When they see the 41 – 20 and then 41 – 19, it might trigger in them to encourage the child to take a look at the relationship instead of just moving towards, “Solve it this way, the way that I learned how to solve it.” 

#2: Catch the mistake.

So textbooks will often give kids a bunch of different ways to solve problems and all it does is basically confuse a whole lot of kids, and it frustrates parents as well, and we get people saying, “Why do we need to have five different ways to solve an addition problem? Just teach them one way.” The textbooks are well-meaning, like they want kids to develop different ways to solve problems, but it comes across as learning five different procedures when one might work. 

So one of the ways I like to help kids get exposure to different ways to solve problems, but NOT force them to solve it a certain way is to do four problems completely solved out for the kids, however you want to do it, but in one of the problems, you’ve made a mistake. 

The kids go through and solve each one of those problems, trying to figure out which one’s got the mistake. It’s a great way to practice problems without kids having to solve it a particular way but also get exposure to seeing different ways to solve a problem. 

#3: Convince me.

A lot of textbooks and worksheets have a set of problems to solve. So my adaptation is just put in the answers, correct & incorrect answers.

You want some that are correct answers, some that are incorrect answers, and it’s not the job of the student to go through and solve them because there’s already answers there. It is for the students to go through and convince you whether that answer is true or false. Is it the correct answer or was it a wrong answer? And they can prove that any way that they want. 

So let’s say the problem on the worksheet was 45 + 37. You could put the correct answer in there, but a very common, incorrect answer, is 72.  Anytime I try to put an incorrect answer, I try to think of what is a common mistake that kids would make. 

Convince Me allows your students’ thinking to come out and still use the resource of your textbook. 

#4: Cut out.

Yup, most of the resources we have have way too many problems for the kids to do.

When kids see the number of problems they immediately think, “Well, I don’t have time to really work through this. I need to just give an answer because I’ve got all of these problems to do. I don’t have time to show my thinking on every single one of them.”

Also, the room that we give kids to solve the problems doesn’t allow for their thinking.  The worksheets have just a little, tiny space and it’s basically only asking for an answer. So take any worksheet that you have, your textbook, or whatever resource, and have the kids do every other problem. 

If it’s a worksheet, take some paper and cover up every other problem, then make a copy of it before you give it to the kiddos. Just allowing that extra space on the page frees up their time because they aren’t feeling the pressure of having to get so many done, but it also gives them the space to show their thinking. 

That is such an important feeling for kids to be able to look at the paper and feel like, “I’ve got room to actually show my teacher my thinking process.” 

So as you work to provide your students different types of experiences, ones that are more student-centered, you don’t need to completely throw out the resources you have. You don’t have to be spending time on the internet, searching on Teachers Pay Teachers, Pinterest, and Google, trying to find things. 

Use the resources you have, but use those 4 C’s (Connect, Catch, Convince, Cut) to help you adapt those math resources to allow time, and space, for students to think through problems and solve the problems in their own way. 

I hope this video has helped you build your math mind so you can go build the math minds of your students. Have a great day.

Pin This To Pinterest for Later