Math is Figure-Out-Able!

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on November 2, 2022. Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

In case you haven't noticed, Kim has a favorite strategy. In this episode Pam and Kim discuss one of the most important strategies and how to use it for addition.Talking Points:Great listener feedback!A Problem StringWhere does the Over Strategy fit in the hierarchy of strategies?How does the Over Strategy help build place value?Modeling is super importantWhere we find the Over strategy day to dayDownload free examples of the Over Strategy: mathisfigureoutable.com/over  Download the free ebook of major strategies: mathisFigureOutAble.com/big

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on October 26, 2022Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

How can we help cement students' learning without memorizing steps? In this episode Pam and Kim share the power of anchor charts and how you can make them with your students. Talking Points: What is an anchor chart?Why have students co-create the anchor chart with teacher fascilitation?Why is "Do, Say, Represent" critical for student learning?What kinds of things go on an anchor chart? Kim suggests 3 things.When do you create an anchor chart?Where does an anchor chart go? When do you refer to an anchor chart?How can students use the anchor chart as a tool?What do meaningful notes look like for students' notebooks?

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on October 19, 2022. Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others' strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

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. 

In today’s MathStratChat, Pam and Kim discuss the MathStratChat problem shared on social media on October 12, 2022. Note: It’s more fun if you try to solve the problem, share it on social media, comment on others' strategies, before you listen to Pam and Kim’s strategies.Check out #MathStratChat on your favorite social media site and join in the conversation.

When we teach Real Math, students come up with all sorts of cool strategies! But which ones are the main strategies, and how do we make the distinction? In this episode Pam and Kim take a listener submitted strategy and discuss where and what its uses are.Talking Points:The Most Important Numeracy Strategies are a relatively finite set.Are there other strategies that work and are mathematically coherent?Why do some strategies not make the short list?It's not about memorizing the strategies, it is about building relationships to help students become fluent.The less sophisticated strategies deal with single digits and partials.The more sophisticated strategies extend to multi-digit numbers and are more important.Our goal is to help students move to bigger and bigger chunks using more advanced reasoning.Teachers need to know the Landscape for Learning to recognize and acknowledge students' strategies.Check out Episodes 7 and 164 of this podcast for more about I Have, You NeedCheck out our free eBook to learn more about these strategies: https://www.mathisfigureoutable.com/big 

What fun rhymes will best help your students learn to round? Just kidding! In this episode Pam and Kim describe their wholistic approach to rounding that helps kids build relationships like place value!Talking Points:No rhymes needed.Modeling on a number line to reason about how far a number is from a landmark.Keep students reasoning about number with rich experiences.Conversations about the number line and rounding help develop students' place value and other mathematical concepts.Students need to understand the math that is figure-out-able and which is social knowledge.Context is an important part of rounding conversations.Clothesline math helps students build better intuition about numbers and their relationship to other numbers and rounding conversation can emerge.I Have You Need helps students find the greater landmark which is harder for students.Download the guide to playing I Have, You Need  HERE

Finding elapsed time can be a tricky concept, but when combined with a number line, we can make it figureoutable! Join Pam and Kim as they discuss using addition strategies to find elapsed time.Talking Points:Daily schedule on an open number lineI Have, You Need with combinations of 60How students might approach elapsed timeThree kinds of elapsed time problems