4 ◆ Real Stories, Deep Understanding
keep standing up. She eventually got them to see the metaphor! There is
a video entitled Brain Jump with Ned the Neuron (https://www.pinterest.
com/pin/142004194478586625) where the brain is talking to the students
and teaching them that when they struggle to understand, they are actu-
ally exercising the brain and helping it to grow.
Whole Group Lessons: Rethinking
Problem of the Day
A problem of the day is often an exercise in answer-getting. Students are
given a problem, a bit of time to work through it and then the answer is
discussed. I propose we do something radically different. That we don’t
rush to the answer. That we do what Phil Daro says, “Delay answer-getting”
(http://serpmedia.org/daro-talks/index.html). Sometimes, even give the
students the answer so that part is done. Then, focus on the process of
problem solving. Rather than a problem of the day, consider it more of like
a problem of the week.
Students get the problem the first day, they read it, visualize it and discuss
it with partners, in small groups and together with the whole class. The initial
emphasis is to get everyone to understand the problem. In order to do this,
they need to visualize and summarize the problem. That means they need to
make a picture of the problem in their heads and then talk about what that
picture looks like. As part of the whole class routine, students should share
out their thinking and then discuss that thinking to see if everyone agrees
what the problem is about. That might be all they do on day one.
The next thing the students should do is decide what type of problem
it is and what they are looking for. Students should write a set-up equa-
tion with a question mark or letter for the unknown part. It is important
that students can identify what they are looking for exactly and that they
write a set-up equation. Students should use the letters of the things that
they are working with. For example, if the problem is about marbles, then
the students use an M to designate the unknown.
The next thing students should do is make a written plan rather than
simply picking some numbers and jumping into the problem to find an
answer. The practice of thinking about the problem and really deciding
what it is about is powerful. Students should write what they are going
to do and then do that. After they have solved using one way, they should
always be encouraged to check another. This might take two or three days.
It is important for students to be able to make connections between
different representations of the problem, such as equations, verbal descrip-
tions, tables, graphs, sketches and diagrams (NCTM, 2000; CCSS, 2010).
They should always read the work of others to see if it makes sense, and
if it doesn’t, they should have the language to challenge each other or ask
for clarification.