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Steve,
My name is Kyle Berry and I am a 7th grade math teacher in Cabell County, WV. I’ve been amazed at the positive effect that the splat slides have had on my students’ ability to model and solve equations. Something I’ve noticed this week as I have had students writing equations and inequalities from a given situation: the students can demonstrate almost immediately – some verbally and others in writing – the solution to the equation without actually knowing what the equation is that models the situation.
For instance, in one problem the equation that describes the given problem is 590 = 15.5x + 94. Quite a few students, when I look at their paper, have something like this: (590 – 94) ÷ 15.5 = x or they can tell me “You’d just take 94 off of the 590 and divide by 15.5”. In neither case can they tell me where they started from to know those were the right operations in the right order.
Have you even encountered this? It’s something I didn’t notice before the splats, and I’m still noticing it on questions that aren’t presented visually. I’d love to know more about how to help them translate the solution-finding process they are showing me into the intended equation or inequality. This may become a point of inquiry for a networked teacher community I am part of.
I really appreciate your work and hope you have a pleasant day.
Hi, Kyle. I haven’t experienced it with this specific context, but I recognize how students come to more intuitively understand what appears to be an abstract equation. It maybe be that they are navigating back and forth between representational and abstract and are finding intuitive sense-making spaces by thinking of abstract concepts more representationally. It’s a great question!
I can not thank you enough for these high quality math tasks! This is helping bridge the gap for kids and teachers. THANK YOU!
It’s truly my pleasure!