durhamh+reading+word+problems

=Put a Short Activity/Lesson/Project Title Here=

2) Teacher shows the students 2 places to report words/phrases and the actions they denote - a word wall in the classroom and then a Wikispace designed for the that class to use. This could be done with 1 or 2 computers in the room set up as a station. 3) In groups, students are given many word problems to consume. They are supposed to reword the task in their own words and find prepositional phrases only. The students should have 10 or more questions to consume and can choose 2-3 to actually work on. Each group will need to add their words to the Wiki as well as the wall. 4) Once the groups have finished consuming, each group will go up to the Activboard and share their notes focusing on the prepositional phrases that are important as well as what the question is asking. Each group must explain their process by explaining how they came up with their sentence. Through the presentations, the teacher should facilitate conversation about how to solve each individual problem. As each group presents their work there should be additions to the word walls as well as brief explanations of the importance and/or use of the prepositions when solving word problems. 5) After the discussion, students will go back to their groups in order to create equations and solve the problems. Each group must choose a member to post their equation and solutions on the Wiki before they leave class. 6) The teacher then check problems through the Wiki and then decide whether reteaching is necessary or if key concepts need to be reviewed the following day. 7) Once the students understand the design of Word problems, they should create their own. Be sure that the students know their problems will go through revision and that they will be given to another class. Remix the kids into new groups and have them work in pairs or triads to create word problems. The problems should be something applicable to their own lives. ie. any shopping problems, going places that are more realistic (ie, a trip to Austin, etc.), rearranging furniture, etc. 8) Once the pair has created their problem, they must put it on the Wiki under a sample problem heading. The classes should know that their work will be revised and commented on by another period. The period that comments is not the period that will eventually work the problems for assessment. The following day the classes should devote to revising another classes word problems. They should begin by trying to work the problem, then proceed to give constructive feedback. 9) The groups will review the comments from the other classes and make any last changes to their word problems. By the end of the period, each class should have their word problems ready. || OR The questions can be given as a traditional quiz or test on paper. || > ||
 * Title: ||< **Breaking Down Word Problems** ||
 * Subject: ||< Algebra 1 ||
 * Grade: ||< 9 ||
 * Purpose: || To identify important prepositions in a word problem in order to set up an equation for solving. ||
 * Time Frame: ||< 2-4 periods (but should be repeated consistently) ||
 * Summary: ||< This lesson is designed to teach kids how to read a word problem in order to find the appropriate equation to solve them problem. This can be designed around a specific type of problem - ie. only mixture problems - or it can be designed to look at the structure of ALL word problems. This will depend on the comfort level of the teacher and the level of the students. ||
 * Tasks: ||< 1) The teacher first models how to approach a word problem. Before beginning the process, the teacher teaches prepositions - the basic definition. On the Activboard, the teacher puts up a word problem and takes the class through the process of finding all of the prepositional phrases. Once they are marked, the teacher will "think outloud" while deciding which of them are key and which are not important. The teacher then explains why the prepositions left are important and how to use the phrases to figure out how to solve the problem. From the model, the teacher will also begin creating a word chart on paper with the prepositions and prepositional phrases that are important to the word problem. This lesson and the word wall can beyond the prepositional phrases and students can also add words that they feel are important to solving any problem. ie. The word "total" would trigger addition. The word "product" would trigger multiplication. After this is complete, the teacher will reword the task in her own words - attempting to pinpoint what the question is asking them to do.
 * Objectives: || * Students will understand the design and purpose of word problems so they can solve them more efficiently and use the skills later for different word problems.
 * student roles, Information Literacy, higher-order thinking ||
 * Assessment: ||< This can be handled different ways. Students could be divided into pairs and given a flip camera. Each student will solve a problem on film and turn that in for assessment by the teacher. They can do it by solving it on paper and verbally explaining their process or in another spot dedicated for filming. The students should be using math tigger words - academic language associated with math - when explaining their process. The teacher can then assess the videos and post some on the Wiki for later review, tutorials, etc.
 * Resources: ||< * 2-6 laptops
 * flip cameras or any recording devices ||
 * Examples: ||< * Example Wiki

Discussion:
Use the Embed Widget tool to add a Discussion Area widget. Bump the number to 100. This will take the comments from the discussion tab and add them to the bottom of the page. This will encourage teacher reflection and modification.