Problem Solving 1

This resource from Teachers TV features Rebecca Miller, class teacher of Year Five at Burnt Tree Primary School in Sandwell, as she collaborates with Pali Nahal, from the Teacher of the Future project, to develop resources and plan lessons which focus on problem solving, a topic that can be a difficult concept for Key Stage Two students.

Pali shares some resources for use with an interactive whiteboard, while planning and delivering a lesson together improves both the pace and structure of the activities. Students highlight key mathematical words to aid their understanding of the language used, which has a real impact on those students for whom English is an additional language, allowing them to concentrate on the concept and meaning of the problem.

Transferring the students to the hall and physically demonstrating the problem allows them to express their observations and visualise solutions, before exploring further combinations by working systematically in pairs.

By the end of the lesson every student has correctly identified the possible solutions to the problem they were given and some are ready to handle similar problems without concrete apparatus.