Teaching materials of the type Comparison as a tool for developing the ability to solve word problems
Abstract
This article presents one type of teaching material aimed at developing word problem solving skills through the development of reading skills. Materials of the comparison type are based on inducing a comparison of the word problem solving strategies of two fictional children.
The pupils are first guided by questions to analyse the text of the word problem and to become aware of the actors involved and the relationships between them. Linguistic questions are also recommended, which can be used by the mathematics teacher or the Czech language teacher as a basis for developing language skills.
The core of the work consists in comparing two solutions of fictitious pupils. They can be correct or incorrect solutions.
Pupils are guided to understand the strategy and to be able to justify its different steps and, for incorrect solutions, to identify the nature of the error. In this way, they can become familiar with different strategies for solving word problems and learn to reflect on the nature of the errors that pupils often make when solving word problems.