Name the Steps - Elementary Teachers Please Help!

The section on Name the Steps (#13) talks about the idea that those that are naturally talented athletes or actors rarely make the best coaches or teachers because they don't have to pay attention to the details of what they do. Unfortunately (fortunately?) I often am this way when it comes to math. Often, with time, I can find ways to articulate the hows and whys of the math we are doing in class in a step by step manner, but recently I have found my self completely confounded. Many of my senior Math and CTE (Career Technical Education) students cannot figure out when, during an application problem, it is time to add, when it is time to subtract, or to multiply or divide. For example:

Two fence posts are 94 1/4 " apart. Fence boards are 3.5" wide. How many boards can you fit between the two posts?

The area of a wall is 30 sqft. The area of a window is 6 sqft. How much paintable area is there on the wall?

I try to explain best I can, but I always feel that I am not speaking their language. These kids are about to graduate from high school. Its kind of our last chance here. How do you teach this skill in your class? Please help!

Flow

Even though we are reading a new book this year, I often find myself thinking about Drive. I am very interested in motivation. What motivates students to learn more? This last week of January I instituted "Flow" into my classroom. The idea came to me, maybe in the shower or maybe as I drove to work with Kerri Bain (those are the times I do my best thinking).

FLOW in our class stands for Focused Learning on Your Own. What I really needed last week was peace and quiet for some students to finish their state tests. I introduced it in the morning with the directions that Flow is working on something you really want to be working on, independently. I gave the students a list of ideas including 1) read a book, 2) practice math facts or do accelerated math, 3) write a story, edit it & then publish it, 4) research about an ocean animal, take notes and make some kind of presentation, 5) research about a famous person, take notes, and make a presentation, 6) write an ABC book. After morning recess the students chose their FLOW project, got what they needed, and we were off to the computer lab to finish testing. The only rules about FLOW were that it had to include reading, writing, or math, and it had to be independent (you could not ask the teacher for help and you can not work with a friend). Sounds mean, but I had to focus on the kids who were testing and it needed to be quiet.

My students LOVED FLOW. Understatement. They really LOVED FLOW. The students who really understood what they could do are doing amazing things. One boy is delighted to study the history of ships. One girl is writing an ABC book about Laura Ingalls Wilder. One boy who just got back from Mexico is reading about the Aztec. One girl (a lower reader) already made a poster about an octopus (with facts). One girl made a whole presentation trifold poster about sea horses. One girl read about and did a science experiment. The she wrote it up using the Scientific Method (that was my choice, not hers if she wanted to present her findings). Sure some kids didn't get it, one kept trying to pick dinosaur books because her friends had one, but she didn't read more than a page or two. Then we were able to have the discussion of do what you are interested in, not what your friend is.

Now we do FLOW every afternoon for 30 minutes. Some kids come during this time and work with me in small groups on math skills, but I try to give everyone some FLOW time. For most of my kids, FLOW is the best part of the day. I am not sure where I am heading with FLOW. I haven't yet decided if and when I expect a final project. It is exciting how it has started. I will let it go if and when the enthusiasm for it fades, or if too many students start treating it like free time (it is Focused Learning, not Free Time).