124 ◆ Modeling Thinking
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Math mats are great ways to get students to problem solve (see Figure 7.31).
They provide context by giving a picture of some type of background (a
circus, a playground, etc.). This context is a scaffold that helps students
understand what they are doing. Math mats are a type of graphical orga-
nizer that allows students to see and act out the problems they are trying
to solve.
Math mats also help to relieve some
of the anxiety that word problems cause
among students. Kouba, Brown, Carpen-
ter, Lindquist, Silver & Swafford (1988)
found that word problems cause a great
deal of anxiety, which I would say hin-
ders students’ problem-solving abilities,
often even before they get started. Math
mats can help to ease some of that anxiety
by tapping into the familiar. You can use
math mats to introduce, demonstrate,
reinforce, reteach and differentiate story
problem types. They also provide stu-
dents with a springboard for telling their
own stories.
To do any of this though, you have to start with a great math mat.
When using math story mats, it is important to have a focus in the guided
math group. Think about what types of stories you are focusing on in that
particular session. CGI provides excellent resources for understanding and
teaching story types. You want to make sure that students have some
concrete experiences, some pictorial experiences and some abstract
experiences.
Figure 7.31Great Math Mat Resources:
Sparklebox (look under
calculations and the spe-
cific operation)
http://www.kidsparkz.
com/theme-a-pedia.html
https://www.pinterest.
com/drnicki7/math-mats/