Singapore Math Strategies: Model Drawing for Grades 1-6
In
this professional development course for teachers, you'll get the training
you need to start teaching model drawing, the powerful Singapore Math
strategy that gives word problems a visual context. As a teacher, you know
that many students groan when it's time to solve word problems. Why is that?
Are the problems too difficult? Do students get lost trying to decipher the
wording or figure out the computation? Do they simply not know which
strategy to use? Actually, it's a combination of all these issues. Luckily,
model drawing, a Singapore Math strategy for working word problems, will
help your students start to enjoy math in a way they may never have before.
The secret behind model drawing is that it gives students a concrete,
reliable set of seven steps that they can use to solve 80% of the word
problems out there. They won't have to memorize 20 different techniques and
know when to use which anymore. Instead, they'll learn how to read the
problem, determine its variables, draw a unit bar (the visual model), adjust
that bar, place the question mark to indicate what they're solving for, do
the computation, and write a complete sentence at the end.
Does it sound too good to be true? This six-week course will prove to you
just how effective model drawing can be in your classroom!
To enroll in this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Requirements:
Internet access; e-mail; and the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser.
Syllabus:
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end.
Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course.
You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must
complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each
month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to
space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
| Do your students get frustrated when it's time to
solve word problems? Perhaps they find the process confusing or
can't seem to figure out what the problem is asking. In our first
lesson, you'll discover a wonderful solution to this common
problem—it's a Singapore Math strategy called model drawing,
and it give students seven reliable steps that will help them solve
just about every word problem they encounter. |
| Friday - Lesson 02 |
| Are you ready to learn about our seven steps?
With model drawing, we begin by reading the problem. Then we
determine our variables, make a visual representation of the problem
(the model), adjust that model for problem information, place our
question mark to indicate what we're solving for, do the
computation, and write a final sentence. Guess what? It's really
simple! We'll go over all of it in this lesson. |
| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
| Whether you teach first grade or sixth, it's
helpful to know how to solve basic addition problems with model
drawing. These are great learning exercises for older students
because the computation is simple, and they can focus on the
process. But these problems are also part of the basic curriculum
for younger kids. In this lesson, we'll solve a variety of addition
problems. |
| Friday - Lesson 04 |
| Subtraction word problems can be pretty tricky.
Sometimes it's hard to keep track of what goes where, and other
times, it's confusing to do the math itself. Which number do you
subtract from which? Today, you'll find out how to harness the power
of a visual model that shows students how the subtracted quantity
fits into the problem. |
| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
| Remember those problems where Sally types 62
words per minute and you had to figure out how many words she types
in 15 minutes? Well, guess what? These problems don't have to be as
hard as they seem. In fact, in today's lesson, I'll show you how
easy it is to show each quantity in our model drawings. |
| Friday - Lesson 06 |
| Now that we've mastered multiplication problems,
it's time to discover their cousin. Division word problems are often
the ones students stumble on the most, but after today's lesson,
you'll soon be gliding through them with ease. You'll even discover
how to solve those tricky before and after scenarios. |
| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
| If you have half as much fun taking this course
as you do going to a theme park, how much fun will you have? A lot!
Today we'll tackle fraction word problems that are easy to visualize
with our unit bar model. You'll be amazed by how much a simple model
can help students understand complex fraction concepts. |
| Friday - Lesson 08 |
| If you've ever needed to figure out how many
miles you'll get out of a few gallons of gas, you'll appreciate
today's lesson on rate word problems. You'll learn how to set up the
two different things we're comparing in a typical rate problem (like
miles per gallon or cookies per plate). You'll soon be breezing
through even the most complicated rate problems-like how long it
takes to fill a pool with a hose that puts out 8 gallons per minute. |
| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
| Now that you've discovered rates, let's talk
about their close friend: ratio problems. Let's say you have 3 candy
bars to my 1, and Jill has 2 to your 3. That's a 3:1:2 ratio. If I
have 16 candy bars, how many do you have? These problems don't have
to be any more complex than multiplication problems—it's all about
finding the base unit and working from there. You'll learn how in
this lesson. |
| Friday - Lesson 10 |
| Do you ever find yourself calculating the bill
before your check comes at dinner? Or perhaps you keep a running
total in your head as you throw items in the shopping cart at the
market. Well, decimal and money problems are so much a part of real
life that we've got to figure out a practical, reliable way to solve
them. Get ready for a fun-filled lesson. |
| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
| The nice thing about percent problems is that
most of the time, you're not working with more than 100%. A school
can't have 115% students, and a pie can't have 200% pumpkin filling.
With our handy percent ruler (a great model drawing trick), these
problems become a snap. Let me show you how in today's lesson. |
| Friday - Lesson 12 |
| Now that you've learned how to successfully
integrate model drawing with so many kinds of word problems, today
we'll go over how you can take all of this information into your
classroom. It's all about introducing model drawing the right way,
doing lots of practice before you present the lessons, and giving
students ample opportunities to learn with you and on their own. |
To enroll in this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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