Sometimes I feel like a magnet, with a trail of students behind me as I walk around to conference/help during work time.  We are working on Open Ended Word Problem Challenges right now (I have gone through set one in the first quarter, and we are beginning set two.) These problems include a lot of reading, are many steps, and are open ended.  There can be more than one right answer.

So they hit the panic button right away!

Right now, I am in the middle of training my students to trust themselves, to be okay with feeling a little uncomfortable. I want them to seek the answers to their problem WITHOUT me.  This is very hard for them, especially when we are working on challenging math concepts.

Here is what one of those problems looks like!

Here are some ways that I try to raise rigor, and to help students persevere:

1. Ignore them! (What? Are you kidding? How horrible!) Of course the kind of ignoring I am talking about, is the kind where they ask for your help without trying the problem first.  There is nothing worse than when you pass out a tough problem, and the hands go up immediately. This leads to my next tip, a very simple tip.

2.  Make sure the students read the problem three times. Read it once to get familiar, read it a second time to zoom in to what you need to do, then read it even closer a third time to circle key details. The answer to their question is almost always in the problem. Most times I’ll read it out loud!

3.  Encourage students to do what they can in the problem while they wait for help. Sitting there with a hand up, or following the teacher around, trains students that they must rely on the teacher to continue on. When I approach students my first question is always: “What parts did you understand?” They realize that they can do much more than they originally thought.

4.  I teach routines when solving problems. For example, my students cannot actually get up and follow me, rather they wait as I circulate so that everyone gets equal time. Sometimes I’ll have a schedule posted where I meet with small groups.  Knowing that they will all get equal time with me makes everyone relax (including me!).

Teach the students that an “I can do it!” attitude is the most powerful problem solving strategy!