Transcript

This is our math problem-solving wall. This is where we focus on group work, real-life connections in mathematics, and the mathematical processes. These are problem solving, reasoning improving, reflecting, communicating. The problem you see beside me involved teams of 4 to 5 students presented with a question, a blank piece of paper, hands-on manipulatives, and some measuring tools. And its up to them to work together and come to a solution. They have to demonstrate their solution in a visual way and they have to explain their solution on the paper. 

Once the groups are finished working on the problem, we consolidate through a gallery walk. At this point, each group was given 2 sticky notes, 1 pink one, and 1 yellow one. On the yellow sticky note, they were to write down something they noticed about the other groups problem-solving methods and on the pink sticky note they were to write a question they had about the groups problem-solving methods. I circulate during this period and I take notice of the different strategies and the different observations that the students are making. 

After the gallery walk is finished, we post some of the problems on the board and as a class, we talk about some of the problem-solving strategies. This is where we then co-construct success criteria. We write down some of the successful strategies that the students used to solve the problem. The success criteria then stays up as part of our learning wall to help support the student learning throughout the unit. For instance, if they were working on measurement strategies, we write down some of those strategies on the learning wall so that when they go measure other things throughout the unit, they can apply these strategies and if they need any reminders or examples of them, they can visit the learning wall to see the visuals and read the explanations. 

For the problems behind me, my class and I talked about homeless shelters. You can see the floor plan of a homeless shelter behind me. The students were given a blank floor plan. We talked about how often in homeless shelters theres very little space between sleeping mats; just about this much space between people. We gave these measurements to the students and we asked them to figure out what the most number of sleeping mats was that they could fit in the shelter using these measurement guidelines. There were specific measurements about how far away from the wall the sleeping mats had to be and how much space between sleeping mats there had to be. This was an important lesson for the students because these were about real-world connections. 

We brought in UN statistics that talk about the amount of space people have in refugee camps. It was interesting to note that the amount of space people have in homeless shelter is very similar to the amount of space people have in refugee camps and yet, a homeless shelter is in your own city. We talked about what it must feel like to be living as though you were in a refugee camp in your own city. 

These are very powerful lessons for 5th and 6th grade students to be learning.  Its important for them to see how mathematics is infused in these real-world situations.

Related References