Combining Integers

Numeracy Skills

Strategies

• Teach and encourage the appropriate use of calculators.
• Connect all mathematical concepts to real life situations.
• Model and encourage the use of manipulatives and multi-sensory objects or tools for math concepts (e.g. ruler, number line, soup cans).
• Model a variety of ways to solve the same computational problem.
• Provide immediate feedback about the process as the student works.
• Encourage students to compare answers with a study partner as an alternate means of receiving immediate feedback.
• Decrease the volume of questions without compromising the concept covered (this may be most appropriate with drill and practice type questions).
• Provide alternate texts with less complex visual material.
• Encourage the use of graph paper to ensure correct organization of numbers within columns.
• Observe students' work for observable errors in strategy.

Strategies

• Recognize the complexity of mathematics as another language system and teach the symbols directly (i.e. 1/2 can mean part to whole relation, can mean a representation of a ratio, can mean finding a quotient).
• Model a variety of problem solving strategies.
• Assist students to develop criteria for choosing a strategy
• Apply reading comprehension strategies to problem solving (i.e. deciding what the main idea is and what information is extraneous to the problem).
• Use simpler problems of the same type to model methods.
• Encourage students to represent problem in pictorial or other visual form before attempting solution.
• Focus students' understanding of algebraic symbols as representing real numbers or operations.
• Permit extended time for problem solving, including presolution stage trial and error.
• Teach prediction and estimation skills.
• Consider the use of pictoral flow charts to plan strategies before setting up equations.