Favorite resources for reinforcing/teaching bar model problem solving

[sweetpea3829]

DS8 is having a surprisingly difficult time with this Singapore concept.  Part of it is that he doesn't really *need* the bar models to solve the math problems....he just intuitively knows how to solve the problem.  As a result, he doesn't even really want to work with bar models...he sees them as a waste of time.

 

I understand his perspective, however I really want him to master this *process* of problem solving.  I believe it will serve him well in later levels of math.  

 

He has completed Process Skills in Problem Solving through level 3, which is the level we are working through in Singapore Standards.  But he continues to have a difficult time with choosing which bar models to use, and with providing bar models that clearly demonstrate the information provided in the problem.  In other words, he's having a hard time with the application.  

 

1) Am I asking too much?  

 

2) Do you know of any online (free, preferably) resources/videos/games with which he can practice using bar models? Especially multi-step problems.  Or videos that demonstrate using bar models to solve problems?  Maybe a different presentation might help.  

[Coco_Clark]

Listening in.

 

My son is in MIF2, but having a similar issue. He can read a word problem, translate that into a numerical math problem, and then find the answer but he cannot draw the bar model.

 

Right now we are just doing it together over and over (and over) again. I'm giving it another shot tomorrow and if it doesn't click I'll just move ahead and circle back to this chapter in a few months. I'd love a different presentation, though, if there is one.

 

And to think, when I was reading ahead in the program I thought, "why is there so much practice on this concept? It's so easy!" Lol, apparently not.

[sbgrace]

I have a word problem struggler, and I would ask him before every problem in MIF: is this a one or two part? Is it a whole/parts or comparison? I thought of it as scaffolding his own thinking. Almost every problem will fall into one of those, at least until you get to fractions and those silly 2 legs/4 legs, 3 wheels/4wheels things.

 

As we worked through Process Skills, I would help him as needed on a white board if he couldn't solve something alone. Then, he would re-attempt the problem(s) alone the next day. We do work through CWP at each level following Process Skills. I guess that might have provided additional practice. That son goes through relatively slowly. I had found something online, but it wasn't helpful.

[kateingr]

Singapore bar models are an amazing tool for solving complex problems, but I worry when we're explicitly teaching the steps of the bar model, especially if the child can already solve the word problems. If using the bars becomes too rote, it almost takes the thinking out and reduces problems to a certain set of steps to follow. It feels like the purpose is serving the tool rather than the tool serving the purpose.

 

Rather than going over and over the bar models at this point, you might consider moving on and then reintroducing the bars as the problems get more complex in future levels. Your ds might be more receptive and interested when he can see their use more clearly.

[Ms.Ivy]

http://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.html

 

This is what I use to supplement for bar models.

[letsplaymath]

If he can do the word problems without the models, then I'm not surprised he wouldn't want to draw them. You have several options:

 

(1) Skip it. Don't bother with the bar models unless his intuition starts to fail him.

 

(2) Push him to do harder problems, where his intuition is no longer able to organize and interpret the information.

 

(3) Make "bar models" a separate lesson from problem solving. He doesn't have to *solve* the problem, just draw a model that shows the relationship. This was my solution, since it let my kids feel like they were getting off easy by not having to figure out the answer to the problem. But it made them do the analysis, which is what I felt was most important. At the beginning, I even "took dictation" by doing the drawing myself, and they just told me which labels went with which parts of the diagram.

 

(4) Go directly to algebra. Elementary students can learn to do algebra with words, which can give them a way to think through problems where their intuition fails. After all, the end goal is algebra. The bar diagrams are just a visual model that can help along the way, but some children are more comfortable jumping straight to algebra.

 

If that last option seems strange, you might want to read through the first couple of articles in my Word Problems from Literature blog series, which compare an algebraic approach to the bar model method. By the time I got to the 4th and 5th grade articles, I had switched to using only the bar models --- but the algebra approach can work fine all through elementary school, gradually transitioning from word algebra to the more abstract stuff.

[vaquitita]

For now I'm having my son draw a number bond instead. Simpler, but still gets him thinking about what operation needs to be done. Do I know the whole? Do I know all the parts? I've told him it's just for practice to get him used to working through the problems this way, for later when the problems are harder. I also only require him to show his work on just one problem per day. He has to write down the number bond, the addition/subtraction sentence and the answer (67 cookies). All the rest he can just jot down the answer 67. I figure as he gets to more complex problems where the number bond isn't enough, it will at least have paved the way for bar diagrams.

[sassenach]

1) Yes, 8 is too young to master the bar model.  Like pretty much all concepts with Singapore, mastery is not the goal.  You will come back around to those bar models over and over again.  Every year you will review the different types of bar models (comparison, parts to whole) and practice using them. Both of my kids were in Singapore 5 before bar models really clicked.  This year in 6, we have found them vital in working proportion and percentage problems.  It's worth it to keep revisiting the models.  It is not the hill to die on with an 8 year old.

 

2) I used to have a link for interactive bar models, but for the life of me I can't find it.  I used to use cuisenaire rods fairly regularly, but more than anything I use a lap board (small white board) and draw them out.  I'm pretty sure that Math in Focus has some bar model apps.

 

 

[Justified]

http://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.htmlThis is what I use to supplement for bar models.

This is what we use too. We use the app version. We don't follow the Singapore method. I just happen to like the bar model as a supplemental tool. Saxon uses a similar method of illustrating but it is mostly for fractions, multiplication and division word problems. We use Saxon as our textbook.

 

There are some problems that I wish my son would illustrate but I do want to encourage mental math at the same time. When the problems got a little more intricate, he finally started to see the benefit of illustrating his problems. He is in Saxon 5/4 and it's only in lesson 110s that he started to illustrate for himself. You could wait for the problems to get more intricate or give him some difficult problems that force him to see the value of illustrating using the bar model.