Write To Explain How To Guide: Creating Word Problem Models and Explanations

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4.9 (97 ratings)

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Core Inspiration by Laura Santos

18.9k Followers

Grade Levels

2nd - 4th, Homeschool

Subjects

Math Test Prep, Word Problems, Writing

Resource Type

Printables, Rubrics, Centers

Standards

CCSSMP1

CCSSMP2

CCSSMP4

CCSSMP6

CCSSMP7

Formats Included

Pages

45 pages

$6.75

Wish List

$6.75

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Core Inspiration by Laura Santos

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What educators are saying

This was a great resource! I loved how this was laid out and how it models what a math explanation should look like.

— Kelly R.

Rated 5 out of 5

Description

Standards

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Reviews

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Q&A

Description

Are your students struggling to explain their math reasoning? Are your young mathematicians creating confusing or vague math models?

This Write To Explain How To Guide will walk your students through five steps for creating detailed math model and explanations. Guiding examples and rubrics are provided for each step. This guide is designed for use with any math problem requiring modeling and explanation.

THE WRITE TO EXPLAIN PROCESS

Step 1 : Record the Question

Step 2: Model and Solve

Step 3: Record the Solution

Step 4: Explain Your Thinking

Step 5: Reflect on Your Learning

Consistently using these five steps when solving complex math problems will help your students develop the ability to independently create organized math models and communicate their math reasoning clearly and concisely.

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THREE HOW TO GUIDE FORMATS

Projectable Slides: Display these slides as you teach your students about the five steps for creating detailed math models and explanations.

Printable Binder: Print these slides and store them in a binder to create a step-by-step Write To Explain Guide. As your students work to explain their math reasoning, their printed guide will walk them through each detail of the Write To Explain process as they become confident, independent masters.

**Color and black line master formats included.**

iPad/Tablet Guide: Upload the iPad/Tablet Ready PDF to your library or Google Drive so students can access the step-by-step Write To Explain Guide digitally. Exactly like the printed guide, this digital guide will walk your students through each detail of the Write To Explain process.

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OTHER PRINTABLES INCLUDED

Recording Sheets

Recording sheets for task cards and non task card problems are provided (each type of recording sheet is distinguished by the words “Task Card” or “Problem” in the lower left corner. Both standard and primary lined recording sheets are provided for individual needs.

Student Rubric

Print the Write To Explain Rubric on the back side of each recording sheet so your students can reflect on their learning as they complete each math task. Often times, students will revise their work once they review the rubric so they can award themselves a stronger score.

Teacher Rubric

Meaningful feedback can greatly enhance student learning, growth, and achievement. The teacher rubric is designed to help you give your students timely feedback that is meaningful and specific. It is almost identical to the Student Reflection rubric except for a change in pronouns. This rubric can be used to give formative feedback or as a summative assessment tool.

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If you are looking for a strong collection of rigorous math problems that require models and explanations, check out my Write To Explain Task Card Decks.

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Total Pages

45 pages

Answer Key

N/A

Teaching Duration

Lifelong tool

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Standards

to see state-specific standards (only available in the US).

CCSSMP1

Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Mathematically proficient students start by explaining to themselves the meaning of a problem and looking for entry points to its solution. They analyze givens, constraints, relationships, and goals. They make conjectures about the form and meaning of the solution and plan a solution pathway rather than simply jumping into a solution attempt. They consider analogous problems, and try special cases and simpler forms of the original problem in order to gain insight into its solution. They monitor and evaluate their progress and change course if necessary. Older students might, depending on the context of the problem, transform algebraic expressions or change the viewing window on their graphing calculator to get the information they need. Mathematically proficient students can explain correspondences between equations, verbal descriptions, tables, and graphs or draw diagrams of important features and relationships, graph data, and search for regularity or trends. Younger students might rely on using concrete objects or pictures to help conceptualize and solve a problem. Mathematically proficient students check their answers to problems using a different method, and they continually ask themselves, "Does this make sense?" They can understand the approaches of others to solving complex problems and identify correspondences between different approaches.

CCSSMP2

Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Mathematically proficient students make sense of quantities and their relationships in problem situations. They bring two complementary abilities to bear on problems involving quantitative relationships: the ability to decontextualize-to abstract a given situation and represent it symbolically and manipulate the representing symbols as if they have a life of their own, without necessarily attending to their referents-and the ability to contextualize, to pause as needed during the manipulation process in order to probe into the referents for the symbols involved. Quantitative reasoning entails habits of creating a coherent representation of the problem at hand; considering the units involved; attending to the meaning of quantities, not just how to compute them; and knowing and flexibly using different properties of operations and objects.

CCSSMP4

Model with mathematics. Mathematically proficient students can apply the mathematics they know to solve problems arising in everyday life, society, and the workplace. In early grades, this might be as simple as writing an addition equation to describe a situation. In middle grades, a student might apply proportional reasoning to plan a school event or analyze a problem in the community. By high school, a student might use geometry to solve a design problem or use a function to describe how one quantity of interest depends on another. Mathematically proficient students who can apply what they know are comfortable making assumptions and approximations to simplify a complicated situation, realizing that these may need revision later. They are able to identify important quantities in a practical situation and map their relationships using such tools as diagrams, two-way tables, graphs, flowcharts and formulas. They can analyze those relationships mathematically to draw conclusions. They routinely interpret their mathematical results in the context of the situation and reflect on whether the results make sense, possibly improving the model if it has not served its purpose.

CCSSMP6

Attend to precision. Mathematically proficient students try to communicate precisely to others. They try to use clear definitions in discussion with others and in their own reasoning. They state the meaning of the symbols they choose, including using the equal sign consistently and appropriately. They are careful about specifying units of measure, and labeling axes to clarify the correspondence with quantities in a problem. They calculate accurately and efficiently, express numerical answers with a degree of precision appropriate for the problem context. In the elementary grades, students give carefully formulated explanations to each other. By the time they reach high school they have learned to examine claims and make explicit use of definitions.

CCSSMP7

Look for and make use of structure. Mathematically proficient students look closely to discern a pattern or structure. Young students, for example, might notice that three and seven more is the same amount as seven and three more, or they may sort a collection of shapes according to how many sides the shapes have. Later, students will see 7 × 8 equals the well remembered 7 × 5 + 7 × 3, in preparation for learning about the distributive property. In the expression 𝑥² + 9𝑥 + 14, older students can see the 14 as 2 × 7 and the 9 as 2 + 7. They recognize the significance of an existing line in a geometric figure and can use the strategy of drawing an auxiliary line for solving problems. They also can step back for an overview and shift perspective. They can see complicated things, such as some algebraic expressions, as single objects or as being composed of several objects. For example, they can see 5 – 3(𝑥 – 𝑦)² as 5 minus a positive number times a square and use that to realize that its value cannot be more than 5 for any real numbers 𝑥 and 𝑦.

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Core Inspiration by Laura Santos

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