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  • Sales Price Entry Point

    Sales Price Entry Point

    A pseudo- concrete representation of a sales price problem is shown below. This is what I use as an entry point for teaching these problems. The entire shape represents the total price of $80. This is 100%, which in student language is “the whole thing.” The discount rate is 25%. Cut with scissors to lop…

  • Introduction to Solving Equations

    Introduction to Solving Equations

    I introduce solving equations by building off of the visual presentation used to introduce equations. The two photos below show an example of handouts I use. Below these two photos I offer an explanation of how I use these handouts. First I develop an understanding of a balanced equation vis-a-vis an unbalance equation using the…

  • One More or One Less Scaffolding

    The photo above shows a screen for a hundreds table was shared by one of my students in a Math for Children graduate course. She found it on Pinterest for use a class presentation. I love this idea and came up with some revisions I think can make it more effective. It seems to me…

  • Making Slope Less Complicated

    Slope is the rate of change associated with a line. This is a challenging topic especially when presented in the context of a real life application like the one shown in the photo. The graphed function has different sections each with a respective slope. One aspect of slope problems that is challenging is the different…

  • Fraction Word Problems Scaffolded

    Above is a handout used to scaffold student work with fraction word problems (more on this below). Here is a type of word problem I recently encountered in working with a student with special needs: There are 60 students. 3/5 of the students are girls. How many students are girls? The student struggled with this problem…

  • Targeting Gaps in a Math Topic

    A key to intervention for math is to drill down into a topic to see which step is causing a student problems. This is a big reason why ongoing progress monitoring is vital to intervention. In this case a student in a previous session had occasionally added the percent to the dollar amounts – the…

  • Assessment of a Math Objective

    Assessment of a Math Objective

    List all the steps for the objective. Use this table (above) as a pretest to identify gaps. Provide instruction on the gaps. In the photo below I used color coding to show what to multiply and scaffolding to align the digits in ONES and TENS place. NOTE: I provide the problems with some steps already…

  • CEC 2014 Presentation on CCSS Math Support

    This link is for a drop box that contains the handouts for this presentation. Please email me with follow up questions ctspedmathdude at gmail.com.  

  • Counting Out Total Value of Coins

    Counting Out Total Value of Coins

    The chart shown in the photo below was created and used by my former co-teacher and I to teach students in a high school life skills program how to count out the total value for coins (dimes, nickels and pennies). Here is how we implemented it. The students are given a pile of coins, set…

  • Interpreting Slope Intercept

    Slope is one of the most important topics covered in high school algebra yet it is one of the least understood concepts. I have two observations about this. First, slope is often introduced with the formula and not as a rate of change. Second, students intuitively understand slope as rate of change conceptually when presented…