Singapore Math Workshop

The Pi Project enjoyed a workshop in Honolulu with some great teachers from 3 different schools on Oahu. (OK... maybe we enjoyed a little beach time, too!)
An important question that came up at this workshop: What advice would you give a school that can only use SPM as a supplement?
Answer: Of course, we recommend that SPM be used consistently in order to be most effective, but if this is impossible, then we recommend: n

1. Adopt a UNIT perspective -- Adapt the most important lessons in the chapter to a problem-solving, concrete/pictorial format. Find tasks in the SPM books that address these big ideas. Keep it simple. Often a single multiplication problem, or an interesting word problem is enough. Prepare this one question well. Make sure your numbers are friendly, and predict your students’ outcomes.
2 . Do Mental Math most days. Again, make it short – this is visualization practice, not drill. Discuss and praise multiple ways to see a problem. Only do a few mental math problems on material that has already been covered. Remember: this is the last step of mastery.
3 . Ask Questions! Rather than telling students how to do something, ask. Ask "How do you know? Are you sure? Can you see it another way? What if we move these? Can you prove it? How do the 2 numbers compare? Which is more/less? What if we added more? What if there were twice as many?" With good questions, any curriculum can be made powerful!!