Mistakes

Mistakes.... Too many times I have corrected a student when they have made a mistake. My superintendent sent out a weekly professional development document about mistakes this week. Students can make mistakes. Adults can make mistakes. It is how we learn. More than ever I have seen students who have no problem solving skills. They have a helpless attitude when it comes to solving any problems whether related to math or just daily life. Yesterday I challenged myself to let my students engage in more academic talk and let them talk through their mistakes. One of my Title math fourth grade groups is working on long division. Yesterday I put a long division problem up on the board. The quotient, divisor and dividend were written on color specific card stock paper. The differences, subtrahend and minuend were also written on color specific card stock paper. We talked about why certain numbers were written on the same color of paper and then I asked students to solve a different long division problem, now knowing how those numbers are related. I sat back and listened to my students discuss the steps to solve the problems. My students worked together and worked through their mistakes. It took them the full 20 minutes of our time together, but at the end of class, they had a greater understanding of the process of long division and how the numbers are related. It was amazing to see my students grow from this activity. Have a great weekend! Go HAWKS and go CHIEFS!