This site provides a lesson design for teaching third grade students about story problems in mathematics. As a third grade teacher, I am aware of the difficulty that teaching story problems presents to all students, particularly those who have math-based learning disabilities. Not only are children asked to calculate using standard operations (enough of a challenge on its own), but they are asked to translate linguistic sentences into mathematical ones. I am also aware of the significant importance of story problems in providing a basis for later math success; high stakes testing of mathematics in grades five and up require students to complete open-ended word problems which are, in essence, just complex story problems. This website endeavors to provide the plan for an introductory lesson on story problems that is appropriately designed not only for the general student, but for the student with dyscalculia as well. The lesson is based on the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a theory that suggests curriculum should be designed to support the widest range of students possible, instead of retrofitting, in hindsight, to accomodate students with learning disabilities or alternative learning approaches.
The site is seperated into six main pages, each listed above on the link bar. On each page a bar on the right hand side of the screen (just like the one you're reading now) will provide justification for the design and an explanation as to how the design demonstrates UDL principles.
Dyscalculia
For more information on dyscalculia from my first project, click here.
Or visit some of my colleagues' sites: K.Allen, J. Lopez, J. Ma, M. Manglani, L. Novelline, S. Salgado, N. Vengerlekar, L. Wellman.
Story Problems
For a definition and example of a story problem (sometimes called a word problem) click here.
Universal Design for Learning
For background information on UDL click here.