Episode 149 - Things to Say Instead of IDK

The two ends of the spectrum when teaching math seem to be “here are the exact ways to solve this problem, follow it exactly,” and “you figure it out, I’m not telling you anything.”  Neither of these tend to work.  Instead it’s about finding a balance between these. We need to give some guidance, but not too much.  We want them to figure out ways to solve problems on their own but we can’t let them flounder.

The book 7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom by John Seidlitz & Bill Perryman gives educators, as the title says, 7 steps and the first one is: teach students what to say when they don’t know what to say. This also applies when a student doesn’t know where to start with a math problem.  So this week’s episode is helping students have Things to Say Instead of IDK.

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7 Steps to a Language-Rich, Interactive Classroom by John Seidlitz & Bill Perryman

Build Math Minds YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/buildmathminds