Using CGI in Remote and Socially Distanced Classrooms - Part 1: Posing Problems, by Linda Levi
It’s hard to be a teacher these days. Health, economic, social, and environmental issues make life stressful for us, our families, our students and their families. On top of this stress, most teachers are teaching remotely and/or maintaining socially distanced classrooms and few of us have experience with these learning formats. Teachers receive a barrage of “helpful advice” each day in the form of new technology and/or new protocols to try. It’s no wonder that almost every teacher I talk with these days feels overwhelmed.
I have no magic solution to turn teaching in 2020-21 to a task with a similar level of challenge as teaching in 2019. However, the essential elements of good teaching right now are the same as they were in 2019. Teaching is, and has always been, a problem-solving endeavor. I recommend that you identify the essential elements of your teaching before you begin problem solving about how to improve your teaching in a remote and/or socially distanced classroom.
This is the first of several blog posts in which I describe an essential element of CGI math instruction and provide suggestions for incorporating this element in remote and/or socially distance classrooms.
Consider these suggestions the same way that you want your students to consider other students’ strategies for solving problems. Use only what makes sense to you and adapt suggestions to your situation.
Essential Element #1: Students solve problems using their own strategies
Student solving problems using their own strategies is an essential element of CGI math instruction because:
Students understand the strategies that they generate. (Students who can replicate a strategy that was demonstrated to them may or may not understand the strategy.)
We can assess what students understand from analyzing the strategies that they generate to solve problems.
Students are empowered when they see that their ideas matter and that they are capable of finding ways to solve problems.
Ensuring that students have opportunities to solve problems using their own strategies is particularly important in these stressful times because understanding concepts, being understood by the teacher, and knowing that their ideas are important help students feel empowered and connected with the classroom community. A sense of empowerment and connection supports students to handle the increased stress of life right now.
Here are some suggestions for posing problems in a remote learning and/or socially distanced classroom in a manner that support students to use their own strategies to solve problems.
1. Ensure that the students understand the context of the problem.
In the video clip below, CGI teacher Tanya Blais poses two Measurement Division problems to her third graders:
This problem wouldn’t work well for the children in my community because they would be confused about seeing horses on your morning walk, but the children in Mrs. Blais’s community are accustomed to seeing wild horses around their neighborhoods. Situating this division problem in the context of seeing wild horses helps Mrs. Blais’s students engage with the concept of division. Although it might be taking you a little longer to get to know your students this year, you already know your students far better than the author of your textbook. Consider situating problems in contexts that students already understand whether you pose the problems to students in a video, verbally, on a piece of paper or in an electronic document.
2. Take time to ensure students understand the problem.
Mrs. Blais did a lot to ensure that her students understood the problem. Note that she focused on helping students understand the problem but did not suggest strategies that students could use to solve the problem. If you are working synchronously with students, you can ask them questions about the problem to assess whether or not they understand it. Putting students into breakout rooms for 2 or 3 minutes to retell the problem in their own words to a classmate might support some students to better understand the problem.
Here is a problem that a fifth-grade teacher posed to his students:
I baked 3 small pizzas for my family last night. There are 5 people in my family. If we shared the pizza equally, how much pizza did each person get?
Before reading the problem, he showed students a photo of his family and talked about how everyone was really hungry last night. He mentioned that everyone loves pizza so he wanted to make sure that everyone got the same amount. He also mentioned that when they have pizza delivered, it is usually cut up. But with the pizzas that he bakes, he doesn’t cut the pizza until he is ready to serve it. He showed the students a photo of the uncut pizza because he wasn’t sure if everyone had seen uncut pizza before.
3. Start with problems that students haven’t been taught procedures for.
If Mrs. Blais had posed the problem, “There are 62 wild horses on the golf course. 27 ran away. How many wild horses are on the golf course now?” Many of her third graders would have used the standard subtraction algorithm to solve the problem because that’s what they were taught last year. Although there are many strategies that students could generate to solve the wild horses running away problem, it is a good idea to wait until students are accustomed to solving problems using their own strategies before expecting them to use their own strategies to solve problems that they have already been taught to solve.
Here is a problem that a second-grade teacher posed to her students in the first month of school:
Here is a picture of Jaxon’s family (An actual photo was shared with a parent’s permission). It’s going to be cold here soon. Jaxon’s mom wants to get some new mittens for everyone in the family. How many mittens does she need to get if she wants mittens for everyone in the family?
This problem could be adapted with a larger family or a sports team for older students. A problem with no numbers can be especially useful for students who are accustomed to pulling the numbers out of a problem and performing an operation on them.
4. Don’t make the problem too easy.
Most of us are careful to ensure that the problem isn’t overwhelming for students but sometimes we provide a problem that is too easy for students to engage in problem solving. For example, consider how many fourth graders might solve this problem:
I have already made 8 sandwiches. I want 10 sandwiches for my picnic. How many more sandwiches do I need to make?
Or how many first graders would solve this problem:
I saw 2 wild horses and then I saw 2 more wild horses. How many wild horses did I see all together?
Many fourth graders would immediately know that 8 + 2 = 10 and many first graders would immediately know that 2 + 2 = 4. These students would not be engaged in problem solving and it would be frustrating for them to explain their thinking.
5. Give students time to solve the problem.
Problem solving takes time. One indication that students aren’t engaged in problem solving is when they are able to provide an answer in a few seconds. Allow students to quietly work on the problem for 3 – 10 minutes depending on their age, the difficulty of the problem, and their experience with problem solving. When teaching remotely, you might ask students to turn their cameras off for a few minutes while they solve the problem. Tell them to keep the volume on and that you will let them know when to turn their cameras back on. Make sure you mute their mics during this time. Some teachers use a raise hand function for students who are feeling frustrated and can’t get started with the problem. When teaching remotely, you could choose to put students who raise their hands in a breakout room so that you could further discuss the problem with them.
This blog post was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education, through grant award number U423A180115 to Florida State University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the U.S. Department of Education.