Using Challenges to Get Students Thinking

In previous blogs, I have demonstrated how to use games and activities to review content and increase fluency.  Today, I want to introduce using puzzles or challenges to jump start thinking skills before instruction.  

It is common for teachers to use some sort of starter to help students enter a classroom or transition from another activity.  Sometimes these starters include a skill review or an opportunity to practice a skill, and students are usually given no more than five minutes to work on them.  As a Special Educator, I used starters to help my students transition into the classroom.   

As a tutor, I can use this concept of starters to prime my students for thinking and learning, while also informally assessing what they know.  With math, I can do this by providing four problems of various difficulty so students can understand and complete at least part of the challenge.  Below is an example of a multiplication challenge for third grade students who are learning how to multiple. The problems in this challenge involve first and second grade foundational knowledge and the targeted third grade skill. 

A sample third grade multiplication challenge to prime students’ thinking.

To complete this challenge, my students will need to access their first and second grade math knowledge to group, count, and create a repeated addition equation.  They will also need to apply what they learned so far in multiplication to write a multiplication equation.  How the students complete this challenge will let me know if they are able to access and use their knowledge to solve new problems.  This will provide an idea of where I need to start with interventions.  

For example, if students are struggling with applying their knowledge of first and second grade foundational math concepts, then I need to start there with interventions and review.  If students are able to complete the multiplication equation, then I can review the grade level skill briefly and move forward with the next focus skill. 

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