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Teaching Student-Centered Mathmatics grades 3-5

Chapters 1-4

The idea of using problem-based lessons in math intrigued me when I heard about it during a recent math in-service. Giving students the opportunity to investigate, experiment, and constuct their own way of arriving at a solution has to develop a deeper understanding of math concepts.
 
This book gives many ideas to foster flexible as well as reflective thinking in children. I found the activity introduced on page 12,  Learning Through Problem Solving: A Student-Centered Approach,  offered a way of working with multiplication that I had never thought about. The figure on page 18 really made me think when I looked at all the different and inventive ways students could approach a problem solving situation.

Chapter 3, p. 88-96, caused me to rethink the traditional methods of teaching multiplication and division, for example timed tests, which the author feels have little value in the learning of multiplication facts. There are some excellent ideas presented, some that I already use, but taken a step farther. One of these is the use of arrays not only to introduce the concept of multication, but as needed to help understand any unknown facts.