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Experience a trial lesson that equips your child with the critical thinking skills to solve Math Problem Sums with Confidence.
Equipping Students with the Thought Process to Solve Problem Sums
Hi Parents, is your child struggling to do problem sums, even though he/she is scoring well in paper 1?
To help your child improve, you go to great lengths to buy various assessment and guide books, even setting aside time to guide them through the various problem solving methods.
Eventually, after your child manage to complete a few questions under your guidance, they end up stuck again... when you give them a similar question to try on their own.
We Understand How You Feel.
Which is Why We Designed our Math Classes to Focus on the Skills and Thinking Process to Tackle Problem Sums.
High chance is, your child has spent lots of time in school learning math concepts and various methods such as "Model Drawing", "Branching Method", "Part-Whole Concepts", "Ratio Method", etc.
But what they lack is a clear and guided structure to understand question requirements, identify the concept involved and apply the steps correctly.
This problem solving process has to be broken into parts so your child is fully aware of what to do, when solving a math problem.
These critical thinking skills can then be nurtured through 'practice', when your child is approaching every question with a systematic and structured thought process.
So if you are interested to find out how to boost your child's ability to solve problem sums, read on.
The 'I-A-S' Framework
A Systematic Approach to Solve Any Math Problem Sums
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"It is important to give your child a structured process with clear steps to take, when solving any problem sum"
Step 1️⃣: Identify Keywords and Concept tested in the Question
When attempting any problem sum question, we train your child to take out keywords that provide the information required to solve the question.
Example of common keywords would include:
"5/11 of the remainder"
"2/9 of the total left"
"At First, ..."
"After ..."
"half as much as"
These words provide essential information that is needed to solve the problem. It also tells the student what concept is tested in this question, which will guide them to choose the most appropriate method (As seen in Step 2)
Step 2️⃣: Apply the Appropriate Method or Heuristic
This is arguably the most important step in the problem solving process.
Many students get stuck despite knowing the various methods, because they lack the skills to link the information to the correct concept and apply the appropriate method/heuristic.
For example..
"5/11 of the remainder" would suggest that remainder concept is tested, and students can use the "branching method" to solve the question.
The words "At First" and "After" would suggest that there is a before-and-after scenario in the question, and the student can make use of "model drawing" to answer.
In class, your child will be trained to understand the different methods and heuristics, so they know when to apply the most suitable method, based on the question they face.
Step 3️⃣: Solve the Question by Performing the Correct Steps
There are students who falter in this final stage because they fail to adapt the method/heuristic according to question requirements.
For instance...
When solving a question involving "equal fractions", your child needs to know which are the fractions to make the numerator the same.
When drawing the models for "before-and-after", your child needs to know the strategies to spilt the units so they can identify the value of one unit.
When using the "Branching" method, your child needs to know how to manipulate the fractions, based on the information given and what the question is asking for.
These are the skills that your child will be taught in class. Through close guidance and practice on similar question types, your child will learn to approach any problem sum in a systematic and consistent manner.
We Focus on the Process, Not just the Answer.
Use of Guiding Questions to Stimulate Your Child to Think Critically
We Do Not Spoon Feed Students with the Answers.
Instead, we like to use "Guiding Questions" and "Hints" to give students clues, so they can work through the steps and derive the answer on their own.
This implores them to think critically and trains them to pick out essential information. It also enables us to check that students truly understand the question and are not blindly copying the answers.
For example, when guiding students on "Model Drawing", we ask questions like:
"Given this fraction, how many units should we draw for Helen and Kelly?"
"How should we represent the 120 books that are given away?"
"Why do we spilt each unit into 3?"
Through this process, students take part in problem solving and gradually build confidence to tackle problem sums on their own.
"I Try - We Try - You Try"
A Progressive Approach to Develop Your Child's Ability to Solve Problem Sums on Their Own
"I Try"
We demonstrate the step-by-step process to solve the math problem, with detailed explanations of each essential step.
"We Try"
Students are given a similar question to attempt. We use hints and guiding questions to point students in the the right direction.
As much as possible, we offer minimal help to allow students to work it out themselves.
"You Try"
Students are given questions to attempt on their own. This trains them to apply what they just learn and check that they truly understand the concept.
Once students can solve them on their own, they will be able to answer similar questions in future.
This Approach allows students to internalize and understand the concepts/methods taught, by giving them a chance to participate in problem solving. This ensures that they are NOT just copying solutions without thinking. It also allows us to correct any mistakes on the spot.
Extensive Resources For Fuss-Free Revision
Get Access to Bite-Sized Learning Videos and Detailed Worked Solutions to recap what was taught in class
Here's a Sneak Peek of How We Guide Students to Solve Problem Sums Using the I-A-S Framework
Get Access to a Library of Bite-sized Teaching Videos, covering Different Problem Sums
From Remainder Concept to Model Drawing, our videos cover the 16 main concepts/heuristics tested in the PSLE.
Watch and learn from concise teaching videos that will guide your child through questions in a step-by-step manner.
Still have doubts after watching the videos? Simply drop us a whatsapp or email and we will answer your questions directly.
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Detailed Worked Solutions for Revision After Class
During lessons, we want students to focus on understanding the concepts and learning the problem solve process.
Worked Solutions are given so your child can easily refer to detailed solutions for recap of what was taught in class.
This allows you, as parents, to sit down and revise with your child easily.
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