math strategies

[LaughingCat]

How have you taught picking a strategy?  I have Becoming a Problem Solviing Genius by Zaccarro and  Crossing the River with Dogs by Johnson and Herr.   Both are about teaching possible strategies (which does need to happen here as well).  But they don't seem to teach how to pick what strategy to use.  Should I just make a list of strategies we've gone over and have her go down the list?   or how have you taught that?

[regentrude]

what do you mean by "strategy"?

I think problem solving strategies are best learned by encountering, and solving, a variety of problems requiring different strategies, so that students have seen many possible patterns and can recall what strategies worked last time they encountered a similar pattern.

Maybe I am misunderstanding your question....

[crazyforlatin]

Writing it down is a good idea in order to have all the strategies summarized on one paper and referring to it when you need it. But I think it still comes down to having enough practice with word problems that you recognize what it is asking without referring to any other resources. The only thing to do is practice. One book that I have been using with DD is Johnson's How To Solve Word Problems in Algebra. http://www.amazon.com/Problems-Algebra-Proven-Techniques-Expert/dp/0071343075

 

Since Zaccaro's word problems are separated by strategies, and Johnson's separated by types of algebraic word problems, it means that the kid will know what strategy to employ within that chapter. The teacher will have to find another book of word problems, make up word problems so that the kid does not know which strategy to use or reuse some of the problems in the books.

 

I have Zaccaro's book, and probably have more word problem/algebra books than I have pairs of shoes.

[crazyforlatin]

I wrote the above post and left it unposted for an hour. Some hivers may not know how Zaccaro is set up which is basically how to solve a certain type of word problem and remembering it with a phrase. It works because not every child will know how to solve a word problem without some help. And, so if you say, Think One, the child will look at the word problem from that angle.

 

The only thing to do is lots of practice. The reason why I like AoPS prealgebra is that it has a lot of word problems that incorporate concepts from previous chapters. I'm still undecided about its algebra textbook, but DD is only now starting chapter 9. We take a couple of days each week to focus on word problems from other books. One mixture problem from AOPS is not going to help DD. She's the type to need a few more and with some variations to feel confident.

[LaughingCat]

By math strategy I mean the type of thing detailed in those two books --  what strategy to use to figure out how to calculate the answer

Here's Crossing the River with Dogs TOC: 

 

Chapter 1: Draw a Diagram

Chapter 2: Systematic Lists

Chapter 3: Eliminate Possibilities
Chapter 4: Matrix Logic
Chapter 5: Look for a Pattern
Chapter 8: Unit Analysis

Chapter 9: Solve an Easier Related Problem
Chapter 10: Physical Representations

 

Zacarro is similar only at a lower level I believe (meant for kids while Dogs is meant for college students). 

 

The problem is that DD does fine with Math when she is solving the problem that has just been taught.  So far it has been a math lesson vs. a strategy lesson - but I don't foresee it being any different.  Where she struggles generally is taking all the choices and picking what to apply.    I guess I'll have to pull together a mix of problems for each strategy that we've gone over (:sigh:  I so prefer open and go)

[Arcadia]

Ask her to read through this two page summary of Polya's How to Solve It. It is useful for other subjects as well.

https://math.berkeley.edu/~gmelvin/polya.pdf

[crazyforlatin]

I like what Richard Rusczyk says in some of his videos - when you don't know how to solve it, just do something, anything. When I see DD looking at a word problem and not knowing where to start, that's what I tell her. Just start working on what you know, write something out.

[Farrar]

My kids have trouble with this too. I like the Zaccaro strategies especially and I have tried to teach them, but they especially struggle to remember 2 and 10 (which is the plug in really easy numbers and see if you can solve it then strategy). I think you just keep working on it. I especially like that sometimes ds will be doing a problem that's supposed to use one strategy and he chooses a different one. That's always cool to me because then I know he's really thinking.