When I started my teaching career, every time I would present a word problem I would have students writing equations and finding a solution before they even read the question that was asked of them. I knew I needed a way for my students to critically think while they were reading and process the information without looking for numbers immediately. I was using three act tasks from Dan Meyers, which helped to build students inquiry and problem solving but I was still searching for something beyond word problems. That is when I first came across the site “Newsela”. I signed up free as an educator and was able to search for articles related to math that my students could read. I built in about twenty minutes every few weeks for my classes to read an article and reflect on it. Most articles I chose were related to mathematics but not about solving a math problem or asking them to answer a question. The students read the article, responded to a reflection, and discussed with their classmates. This helped to build a culture of inquiry and expose them to reading for information not just numbers. It easily allowed for interdisciplinary connections to happen and gave students a “brain break” from the specific standards being learned at the time.
Another way to increase reading in a math classroom is numberless word problems. I first learned of these problems at the NCTM regional conference in Salt Lake City. Brian Bushart has written several blogs and has pages upon pages of numberless word problems for you to use in your class. While most of the provided word problems are meant for the elementary level, he has also written about how to create numberless word problems yourself. You can learn about numberless word problems at https://bstockus.wordpress.com/numberless-word-problems/.These problems are intended to be a gradual release for students to read for information before even knowing what question will be asked of them and without numbers given. This allows for student discourse on what could be asked of them and what information was provided.
Both of these ways helps students to analyze given information without looking for an equation to write, a solution to find, or a quick answer based on numbers given. I found my students were not so quick to number pluck and stopped to think about the problem presented.
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