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Monday, September 21, 2015

Start, Change, Result vs. Part, Part, Whole

I literally spent the entire weekend contemplating the role of the part, part, whole diagram so prevalent in enVision math. This versus the role of the vocabulary 'start, change, result'. It is hard enough to get second graders to solve story problems using a part, part, whole, I wondered how to add to that with start, change, result. I was convinced struggling students would never handle both. And then there is, "Is this a joining problem or is this separating?" The words seem to never end. And then I consulted the 'Bible' (the CCSS) and realized that part, part, whole is not specifically stated anywhere in the standards (please correct me if I am wrong). I came to the conclusion that it is not start, change, result that is the problem. I actually love how start, change, result so clearly assists in equation writing with a symbol for the unknown. Truly, for strugglers I believe it is part, part, whole that is confusing! But part, part, whole does have an excellent use as an organizer for decomposing numbers. My question is do you prefer to use the vocabulary 'start, change, result' with struggling students while teaching problem solving, or do you think they better understand the part, part, whole when writing an equation to match a story?