This activity indicates a reference age and specific situation. Your job is to take the procedure as an example and adapt it to the target you work with and the discipline you teach.
Activity:
Class 2 primary school. Column subtractions.
Prerequisite
Pupils have acquired the ability to perform column additions even with the use of carry-over. (C, D, U)
Delivery
Tell the class you’re about to give them a mission to accomplish. They will first have to solve an enigma individually and then as a group.
How to guide the activity:
- Give to solve 3 subtractions in column without change. Ask for a collective answer on what the result was. I’m sure someone will be able to solve it and share it with the class.
- Now deliver the mission. Assign a subtraction that involves the exchange rate without explaining it
- Give two minutes to try individually. Then give another 2 minutes to confront classmates (leave free choice whether to do it and with whom to do it).
- Ask who has the solution to present. Choose a child who can explain what reasoning he or she made to solve the puzzle and ask his classmates if they agree
- Explain the class the right procedure of doing it.
In this way we induce the child to want to find the solution, to feel like a hero, to help solve a problem, to be part of a group mission. Their attention and openness to learning will inevitably be much more than while explaining how they perform with the blackboard.
