Guided Multi-Step Problem Solving
With teacher guidance, make sense of multi-step and more complex problems by planning a pathway to the solution, identifying relevant information, and choosing appropriate operations
What a learner can do afterwards
- When given a word problem within 20 or 100, identify the known information and what needs to be found
- Try a strategy (drawing, number line, known fact) and switch approach if the first attempt stalls
- Check the reasonableness of an answer using estimation or a different method
1 · Read
Some problems take more than one step to solve, like tracking stickers you get and give away. First, find out what you already know. Then plan what to do first, and what to do next.
Sam has 8 stickers. He buys 5 more. Then he gives 3 to his friend. How many stickers does Sam have now? First: 8 + 5 = 13. Then: 13 - 3 = 10. Sam has 10 stickers.
If your first idea does not work, try a different one. Draw a picture, use a number line, or think of a fact you already know.
When you get an answer, stop and ask: does this make sense? Check with a rough guess or by solving it a different way.
Big problems get easier with a plan: find what you know, try a step, and check your answer makes sense.
Rewritten readings were written for this dataset.
2 · Watch
Take it off screen
Where it sits
Where this leads
Jobs that lean on this skill. Follow one to see everything it is built on.
18 questions wait behind this lesson, each with its answer explained. Every answer feeds the sky: stars light as they are learned, and dim when it is time to come back.