CoL 2025 - Part One

This is my third year reflecting on this very same question; How can I support my lower literacy students with their comprehension of word problems in maths?

Last year I thought I'd worked out an effective solution; use the CPA approach to strengthen their foundational and conceptual understanding, however there was a limitation in this. Most frequently the A in CPA was symbolic, it was using digits, numbers, and operational symbols. It did not address the hole in their understanding that was decoding, and comprehending what the word problems they faced were asking of them. 

 

For the first time since I began teaching I have struggled to find a focus for my inquiry; not because I haven't identified areas in my student's learning that needs further support, but because for the first time in my own career I am teaching to a structured program.

This year, like all of you, I have been tasked with rolling out a structured Maths program, in our case Scholastic's Pr1me Mathematics, and boy has it been a learning curve. 

First, let me start by saying I am thoroughly enjoying the program so far; as someone who can be very pedantic about the resources I use in my class I have spent countless hours trying to create learning experiences that are engaging, interesting, and enjoyable for my students to use. Pr1me has done an incredible job of taking that job off my hands.

However, it is through the using of resources not produced by me that I encountered the first obstacle for my students. The first part of the Pr1me program is a diagnostic test. This test is used to determine which Book of the program the students will take on for they year. For our students this was a gruelling experience. 14 pages, back and front. Writing with pencils, instead of their mouse. Questions with a wide variety of difficulties, some straightforward, some multi-step problem solving. This was definitely not something our students were used to. The results of the test spoke for themselves; most students answered between 5-10 of the 30+ questions in the test with some accuracy, or indication of strategic thinking.

After they finished the test, we did a little bit of a debrief; 

How did you find the test? What was the hardest part about it? What did you find most confusing?

There were a wide range of answers, however the fundamental theme throughout them was a lack of understanding around what the question was actually asking them to do. 

I rewrote 3 questions on the board, mimicking the style of questions they had just done in the test. We went through it together, drawing out the key numbers, and finding the operative words in the question. With plenty of support and guidance we ended up turning the word problem into a numerical equation, that the students were able to very easily solve using strategies they had been learning with me.

So where's the barrier; what is it that they are not understanding? It has to be the words. It just has to.

So; here our journey begins. I'm narrowing down my target group, but I am going to look at the students in my class with lower level literacy, and low level of maths, and tracking their progress, as I learn to better support them, now with the structure, (or restrictions) of the Pr1me program.

Follow along to see where how far we'll go!