Thursday, October 11, 2018

Does it look right? Does it sound right? Does it make sense?




These words were always such a big part of my instruction of reading workshop.  Students used hand signals to help them remember the three questions as they reviewed what they had just read.  Many times, they realized the word they had just read did not sound right or make sense in the context they had just read.  So---they worked to figure out what the new word was that they were struggling to read.

Do we teach our students to do this same kind of thinking when solving a math problem?  In my experience, it is a less common practice.  Sometimes, a teacher will ask the students if the answer makes sense, but really, shouldn't we be teaching our students to ask themselves that question?

Tying our math instruction to real world situations allows for the students to better make sense of their answer.  We need to be intentional in our plans to teach students to make sense of situations and solutions. One of our biggest goals during math instruction is for our students to EXPECT that their answer will make sense.



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