When dealing with word problems it can be tricky for students to decide which operation to use, so we need a way to help them memorize what to do in any given situation... right? In this episode Pam and Kim discuss how reasoning empowers students to skip rotely memorized steps to choosing operations and get straight to problem solving! Talking Points:
Word problems feel unfair to students who have only experienced fake math.
Students with reasoning develop intuition for what relationships a problem requires.
Rich Tasks and Problem Strings with mini-contexts prepare students to apply their reasoning to real world contexts.
Math is Figure-Out-Able!