Mathematicians Are Writers, Too!! : Day 5

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

Today students worked in their notebooks to solve a multiplication word problem. Students identified known and unknown material that would help them solve the problem. Then, students chose a multiplication strategy to solve the problem. Last, students selected a sentence starter to help them justify their thinking. Today I noticed that students were selecting a variety of sentence starters. This is showing me that my students are developing a deeper understanding of different ways to support their thinking through writing. Students participated in "Turn and Talk" with their seat partner. Finally, three students were selected to share their writing on the ELMO.

Based on my other blog post, I am trying to find a way to incorporated shared writing and mathematics. So I thought about my students working in groups to create anchor charts. The groups for this activity were created with students counting 1-5 until each student was given a number. Therefore, I did not group the students based on any reason, I wanted to ensure that each group was mix ability.
Each groups anchor chart is going to focus on a different multiplication strategy. I choose a group approach to this learning activity because students will have to defend what they would like on the anchor chart. Students will have to explain to each other why that information about their strategy is correct. Students meet with their groups for ten minutes to brainstorm ideas for their anchor chart. My goal is for groups to spend 10 minutes brainstorming more ideas tomorrow. I am going to begin conferencing with individual groups on Thursday to provide feedback. Conferencing with each group should be completed by Friday. Therefore, students will spend Monday creating the anchor charts and Tuesday presenting the anchor chart to the class.