Jen Goldschmidt

EDR524 Mini Lesson

Introduction: I will be teaching a literacy strategy of making visual representations in
regards to math. A lot of students have trouble interpreting word problems since they
need to turn the words in English into mathematical statements. If students know how to
draw a picture, they can make a mathematical expression and thus be successful in
problem solving. This lesson would be for an Algebra level class.
Purpose: This strategy will hopefully help students to relate literacy with math and not
just look at them as two different subjects. They need to use math and literacy together in
order to understand what is being asked of them in the word problem. Translating the
English words into math will help them to comprehend the problem. It is helpful to
visualize the problem in our heads and then draw it, figuring it out from there.
Procedure/Application: In order to use this strategy, students need to find relationships
and draw those relationships. They will be learning how to represent the English words
into pictures and then represent them in math expressions. They should review each
operation first. These are key words that show up in math problems, but students need to
be careful with these because they can be misleading. Just because a problem has the
word sum, for example, it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to add. It may be
implying the inverse operation of subtraction. These key words can be helpful to start
thinking about the different operations and to review them.
Adding:
Sum
Increased
More
Plus
Total
More than
Subtracting:
Difference
Less
Less than
Minus
Bigger
Smaller
Decreased
Has left
Multiplying:
Product
Times
Area

 Double, Triple
Factor
Dividing:
Quotient
Average
Half
Out of
Break up
Answer:
Solve
Find
Express
Simplify
Calculate
Solution
Evaluate
Equal:
Is
Was
Were
Have
Has
Total
Result
I will put the following problem on the board and will solve it as an example:
I have two numbers whose sum is 15. One number is 8. What is the other number?
8

15
We know we have two numbers whose sum is 15. This means that two numbers add
together to equal 15. So we can say that X+Y=15. Since one of the numbers is 8, we can
say 8+Y=15. Subtracting 8 from both sides, we get Y=7.

I will put the following problem on the board and ask students for help solving it:

I guess how many gumballs were in the jar and the correct answer was thirty less
than what I thought. Write this as a mathematical expression.

X Gumballs
(My Guess)

30 too many

X - 30

Since I guess 30 gumballs too many, there are 30 less than X. That is, X 30.
I will put the following problem on the board:
There are b blue shirts in the store. The number of red shirts is four more than two
times the number of blue shirts. Let r be the number of red shirts in the store. How
many blue shirts are there? (Just write it as a mathematical expression)
I will ask the students what we know so far.
What we know (I will write this on the board):
r is the number of red shirts
b is the number of blue shirts
The number of red shirts is 4 more than 2 times the number of blue shirts
Blue
Shirts

Red
Shirts

b
b

The 4 T-shirt pictures represent the 4 more and the 2 boxes represent the 2 times
since it is double the number of boxes of blue shirts.
This can be written as:
r = 2b + 4
Subtract 4 from both sides
r 4 = 2b
Divide by 2 on both sides
4
=
2
Thus the number of blue shirts equals

4
2

Conclusion: I will say that this strategy is effective in getting you to think about what
you need to do, but you need to be careful with clue words to make sure you are
comprehending the problem in the correct way. I will ask if there are any questions.
I will give the students a worksheet with some practice problems and I will tell them to
use this strategy. Whatever they dont finish during class will be homework. While they
are working on this sheet, I will go around to make sure they are understanding the
questions.

Suggestions for other content areas:

I think this method might be useful for a Chemistry class. Since there are chemical
equations, it might be useful to visualize what is going on and draw a picture like this.
Lets take H20 for example. There are 2 Hydrogen elements and 1 Oxygen element. So a
picture like this could be drawn in order to understand exactly what is going on.

Hydrogen

Hydrogen

Oxygen

It might be more effective for the more complex chemical equations to see exactly how
much of each element there are.
This could also be used in a Physics class, since there is math and numbers involved.
Research:
A new approach to solving word problems derived from the research findings
above is to use bar diagrams as visual representations that show how quantities in a
word problem are related. Seeing those relationships and connecting those to
operation meanings enables one to select an appropriate operation for solving the
problem. A diagram can serve to unpack the structure of a problem and lay the
foundation for its solution (Diezmann and English, 2001, p. 77). Nickerson (1994)
found that the ability to use diagrams is integral to mathematics thinking and
learning
(http://assets.pearsonschool.com/asset_mgr/current/201034/Randy%20Charles%20Monograph.pdf)

Good problem solvers generally construct a representation of the problem to

facilitate understanding. Visualization is well recognized as a powerful problem
representation process for solving problems, especially in mathematics (Denis, 1991;
Hegarty & Koshevnikov, 1999; Jencks & Peck, 1972; Kaufmann, 1985; Kosslyn,

1983; Piaget & Inhelder, 1966; Polya, 1957; Presmeg, 1986a, 1986b; Rieber, 1995;
Zimmerman & Cunningham, 1991)
(http://resolver.ebscohost.com/openurl/?sid=google&auinit=D&aulast=Van+Garderen&atitle=Visual%u20
10spatial+representation%2c+mathematical+problem+solving%2c+and+students+of+varying+abilities&id
=doi%3a10.1111%2f15405826.00079&title=Learning+disabilities+research+%26+practice+%3a+a+publication+of+the+Division+fo
r+Learning+Disabilities%2c+Council+for+Exceptional+Children+(LEA)&volume=18&issue=4&date=200
3&spage=246&linksourcecustid=1613)

Worksheet:
The sum of two numbers is 84, and one of them is 12 more than the other. What are the
two numbers?

There are 264 marbles in a bag, some of them being red, some blue, and some yellow.
There are five times as many blue marbles as yellow marbles, and two times as many red
marbles as yellow marbles. How many of each color marble are there?
(Hint: Let x = the number of yellow marbles)

Split up $15.20 among three people so that the second will have one dollar more than the
first, and the third will have $2.70 more than the second. How much money does each
person get from the $15.20?

Worksheet Answers:
The sum of two numbers is 84, and one of them is 12 more than the other. What are
the two numbers?

X + 12

84
X + (X + 12) = 84
X + X + 12 = 84
2X + 12 = 84
2X = 84 12
2X = 72
72
X= 2
X = 36
X + 12 = 36 + 12 = 48
The numbers are 36 and 48, which add up to 84
There are 264 marbles in a bag, some of them being red, some blue, and some
yellow. There are five times as many blue marbles as yellow marbles, and two times
as many red marbles as yellow marbles. How many of each color marble are there?
(Hint: Let Y = the number of yellow marbles)

Yellow Marbles

Blue Marbles

Red Marbles

Yellow + Blue + Red = 264

Y + 5Y + 2Y = 264
8Y = 264
264
Y= 8
Y = 33

264
Marbles

There are 33 yellow marbles

Blue: 5Y = 5 x 33 = 165
Red: 2Y = 2 x 33 = 66
Check:
33+165+66= 264
33 Yellow
165 Blue
66 Red
Split up $15.20 among three people so that the second will have one dollar more
than the first, and the third will have $2.70 more than the second. How much money
does each person get from the $15.20?
Person
1

Person 2

Person 3

X + $1.00

(X + $1.00) + $2.70

Person 1 + Person 2 +
Person 3
= $15.20
X
+ (X+ $1.00) + (X + $1.00 + $2.70) = $15.20
X + X + X + $1.00 + $1.00 + $2.70 = $15.20
3X + $4.70 = $15.20
3X = $10.50
X = $3.50
Person 1 gets $3.50
Person 2 gets $3.50 + $1.00 = $4.50
Person 3 gets $4.50 + $2.70 = $7.20
Check:
$3.50 + $4.50 + $7.20 = $15.20
Person 1: $3.50
Person 2: $4.50
Person 3: $7.20

$15.20