What do third to fifth grade teachers JUST LIKE YOU say they struggle with the most? Differentiated math instruction when the range of abilities in their classroom is so wide. They have students that need help and support with previous grade level content. At the same time, they have students that are ready to move on or be challenged. It’s frustrating. It’s challenging. It’s hard. So how do you meet the diverse needs in your math classroom?
A Solution
One solution is numberless word problems. Why? Struggling students are often denied access to word problems because they are trying to grasp computational or procedural lessons in math.
Their brain is working hard on rote learning that brain science says should have happened in early elementary school.
We want their brains to work less, and let’s face it, word problems are stories that involve inferential thinking. That requires more brain power.
We spend time catching them up on content to minimize their brain workload, but this means they continually remain behind.
At the same time, above grade level students may understand a solution in isolation, but struggle when it is in word form. More often, they are SO focused on the numbers in the problem, they don’t focus on the structure or situation and choose the wrong solution.
Furthermore, if we want our students to become creators, they need to understand the pattern of word problems so that they can craft their own. Creation is high on our list of challenging students to demonstrate understanding.
With diverse needs in our math classrooms, it can feel that we are teaching more than one grade level. We can feel overwhelmed and that we aren’t doing enough to meet the needs of our students.
So, how do you structure your math time to meet the diverse needs in your math classroom?
1.) Whole Group Instruction:
Introduce any concept with a word problem, but leave out the numbers. This allows your students to focus on the situation of the problem and discuss it. You can model to both below and above level students the procedure for comprehending a word problem. Your students can identify context clues to support their thinking about which operation to use. Discussion is powerful and ALL students need access or exposure to these higher level discussions.
2.) Small Group Instruction:
In small guided math groups, use the numberless word problems to work on the skills specific to that group. Whole numbers, fractions with like denominators, unlike denominators, or decimals, you can vary the content of word problems to meet the diverse needs in your math class.
For your struggling students, building concrete models of story problems helps them better comprehend the problem and work at a level that supports them, rather than just abstract pictures and numbers on a paper.
For higher level students, studying a specific problem type helps them build word problems and better understand their structure.
For all groups, building their prior knowledge with word problems is key to student success. Just like we assess student schema in reading or other content areas, we need to activate and help them broaden their understanding when it comes to word problems.
Want to know more about building student confidence with word problem types through differentiated instruction? Be sure to grab your FREE Differentiated Instruction With Word Problems Guide. Then, share which strategy you are MOST excited to implement on Instagram.
