This post is about providing students a process for solving math problems that also helps them show their work.
The ability for students to solve word problems and showing their work are both very important skills for them to be successful. And it is also in showing their work that we as parents get to see that our kids truly understand the concept at hand. When we see how they answered the question can we further their mastery of the topic by engaging in useful discourse to find additional solutions or digging deeper into the concept.
On the other hand, if the student did not answer correctly, we can see where he went wrong – was it just an addition error or did he misunderstand the concept altogether? Your approach in helping the student will then adapt to address the root cause of the error.
Lucky for us, there’s a problem-solving process that was devised by mathematician George Polya (How to Solve It, 1945) that is still being used today. It involves just 4 sequential steps that almost seem like common sense:
- Understand the problem
- Devise a plan
- Carry out the plan
- Look back
If the student documents the plan, she will invariably have provided the logic behind the solution thereby fulfilling the “show your work” requirement. Let’s use a 3rd grade math example to see how this works.
If you decide to teach your student this process, use a math problem that they can easily solve so he can focus on the process itself and not the problem. Then next time your student or child is doing some challenging math, just do the 4-step!
It Takes a Village 