“UPSC”
Quarter 3: Student Strategy
Need: Increase student performance in
mathematics.
**We chose a word problem strategy where we could reinforce
reading comprehension skills and the QAR strategy.
UPSC Student Strategy
1.
Understand: What do I need to find?
2.
Plan: How can I solve the problem?
3.
Solve: What strategies will help me solve the
problem?
4.
Check: Did I answer the question the way the
problem asked?
Sample Word Problem
Mrs. Lewis has 25 white
elephant gifts leftover from her
holiday party. She has 5 super
teammates she would like to
give them to. She wants them to
have the same number of gifts.
How many gifts will each person
receive?
UNDERSTAND
Mrs. Lewis has 25 white elephant gifts leftover
from her holiday party. She has 5 super
teammates she would like to give them to. She
wants them to have the same number of gifts.
(How many gifts will each person receive?)
“Tips for Success”
• Bracket the question.
• Circle the numbers THAT will help me
solve the problem.
• Underline key vocabulary.
PLAN
Mrs. Lewis has 25 white elephant gifts leftover
from her holiday party. She has 5 super
teammates she would like to give them to. She
wants them to have the same number of gifts.
(How many gifts will each person receive?)
What are the clues?
Key vocabulary: each, same number of gifts
(Sharing a total number of 25 gifts with 5 people-number
of total gifts will be reduced so my operation can only be
subtraction or division. Clue word each.)
Operation: Division
SOLVE
Mrs. Lewis has 25 white elephant gifts leftover
from her holiday party. She has 5 super
teammates she would like to give them to. She
wants them to have the same number of gifts.
(How many gifts will each person receive?)
Here I Must Show My Work!!
Could be pictures:
/////
/////
/////
/////
/////
T1
T2
T3
T4
T5
Could be written form:
25 ÷ 5 = 5gifts
or
5gifts
5 25
-25
0
CHECK
Mrs. Lewis has 25 white elephant gifts leftover
from her holiday party. She has 5 super
teammates she would like to give them to. She
wants them to have the same number of gifts.
(How many gifts will each person receive?)
Did I Re-check the question and label my
work accordingly?
The question asked me: “How many gifts will each person
receive?” So each person had 5 gifts and there were 5
people. Inverse operation is multiplication 5 x 5 = 25 gifts
SO: 5 gifts is correct
3rd Grade Sample Problem:
Deb Norman
Michelle had 198 candy canes.
Her sons ate 59 over break.
How many does she have left?
(How could you differentiate the problem?)
4th Grade Sample Problem:
Natalie Lindberg
Kathy got a lot of presents for
Christmas. Her favorite was the
fruitcake. However, she received 28
of them. She decided to share them
equally with her 5 team members.
How many did she and each of her
team members get? Were there any
left over?
(How could you differentiate the problem?)
5th Grade Sample Problem:
Rich Fuhrmann
Ron decided to bake a cake for his
family. They love chocolate cake.
The recipe called for 2 ¾ cups of
sugar. He had 1 ½ cups of sugar. He
also had ¾ cup of oil. How much
sugar did he have to borrow from his
neighbor Gail?
(How could you differentiate the problem?)
Critical Attributes for
Success!
•
•
•
•
•
•
Teach key vocabulary
Model each step (develop
independent skills)
Guided practice through each
step
Daily practice (supports reading)
Make it personally relevant
Connect to concept of
instruction
Action Plan
•
Give pre-assessment on Monday ( 5 questions--20
points total: 1 point operation listed, 2 points for the
answer and unit, 1 point showing work)
•
Introduce strategy Tuesday
•
Focus on each step, each day
•
Bring pre-test data sheet to cluster on Thursday
•
Develop weekly assessment plan and student
tracking form
UPSC Integrated
How can this strategy by integrated across the
content?
•
Reading
•
Writing
•
Science
•
Social Studies