Hey there! As I mentioned in my first post, it’s super important to make sure you understand a problem well enough yourself first, before you begin to teach it. A super helpful way that I’ve used in my course this semester is Polya’ s problem solving method. Essentially what this is is a map to help guide you through working out a math problem. This method consists of four steps.
- Understand the problem- This is where you begin to understand what the problem is asking for. What information does the problem give you and what do you need to find out.
- Devise a plan- Now, take the information from step one and decide what to do with it. Will you need to use a fomula? Create a visual? Guess and check? Use the information you have to decide what’s best.
- Carry out the plan- Now put it into action. Here is where you will show all of the work done to find the answer. You can even try out a few methods here and see what works best.
- Look back- like always CHECK YOUR WORK. Take time to go back, check your reasoning and make sure it all makes sense. Also re-do any mathematics and check to see that your answers match up and check out.
I found that this was super helpful in my understanding of a lot of the work done in my course. Hopefully using this method helps you too! I have provided a link below that explains in further detail what the outline should look like.
My experience in Math 257 