The Curriculum Through ICT Program
Ideas Bank

Exploring Mathematical Story Problems
Years P - 3Years 3 - 7

THE TASK

A think board is a classroom tool for exploring mathematics concepts. It is a physical board, divided typically into four sections, in which students explore a number sentence or story problem in different ways: using concrete materials; pictures; in words; and using mathematical symbols.

An electronic think board template can be created for students to use to solve story problems either independently or in small groups. Audio can be added to help the children read the problems.

Students interpret the story problems and decide how to write number sentences which represent the situation mathematically. Eg., given a story problem such as “there are 5 tables and 6 children can sit at each table, how many children can be seated?" students represent this with a picture or diagram and a number sentence, either 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 + 6 = 30 or 5 x 6 = 30. Finally they add audio to describe how their number sentence is linked to the story.

Later, students can be asked to write their own stories from a given or self-selected number sentence. These stories can be shared for other children to solve.

ICT ENRICHMENT

  • Clipart makes it easy for students to represent the stories in images, particularly when the numbers are large; students can also individualise their stories.
  • Teachers can record word problems orally to enable reluctant or non-readers to engage in the mathematics.
  • Students can record speech, enhancing multi-modal learning. Speech contributes to the assessment value by capturing more reliable evidence of learning.
  • The electronic think board provides a record (print-out or digital) of the students’ work.

SUGGESTED RESOURCES

ASSESSMENT

  • Teachers can monitor learning as the think board is completed, in the same way as a traditional think board. However, it is easy to save the completed think boards for viewing and assessing at a later time.

LEARNING AREA OUTCOMES

Mathematics
Number
Understand Operations

An idea by David Katz & Kaye Treacy.
Home page