As I was planning this lesson, I looked back to Mr. Popper's Penguins and using words as labels for variables. I knew that even if that website was geared towards 2nd graders, I could use that strategy with struggling 5th graders.
Click on the image above to access the slideshow I used to teach my lesson. Apart from using words to label variables, I also emphasized that words have the power to change what the answer is.
In slide 5, when I asked for keywords, I got "sum" and "and". I told them that "is" is equivalent to an equal sign. I told them that "What" is also a keyword, and I was asked why. I answered by way of giving examples. I asked, "What are the answers to the question 'Are you eating right now?'?" and they said "Yes or no". I asked them if they still would answer yes or no if the question was "What are you eating right now?", and it became clear.
As we continued with the lesson, we had more opportunities to analyze the questions that are asked. My students tended to know what needed to be done mathematically, and automatically assume that the answers to the questions were numbers. I emphasized reading the question twice. For example, in slide 8, it asked, "Does she have enough money?", to which the answer is either yes or no.
The last slide was tricky, and it was meant to be tricky. I did not intend for it to be an assessment of my students' skills. Rather, it was meant to increase awareness of how we all tend to assume that we know what is being asked. We tend to focus on certain words and not others. My students saw the word "volume" and assumed that they knew what to answer. However, the question was not about the "volume of the hole", but rather the "volume of dirt in the hole". My husband got it wrong, too. How about you?
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