ACES Problem Solving Anchor Chart 😍

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Last spring while ELA was working through A Fresh Look at Phonics, the math team was talking about Math in Practice and specifically having conversations about problem solving, what it really means to be mathematically proficient, and vertical alignment of the four operations at ACES (more to come on this). One of the outcomes of our time together was evaluating the idea of problem solving in our math classes. 

How often are students thinking about math in context vs. isolation? 

What do we expect our students to do when encountering a math problem? 

One quick search on Pinterest can bring up hundreds of different problem solving techniques and anchor charts. In fact, walking from one classroom to another, we could see evidence of this in our own building. How confusing for our students to learn different acronyms or problem solving expectations each year!? But when we know better, we do better, right?!

In one of our sessions together, the team brainstormed what we want or already expect our students to do when solving a problem. We found that many of the ideas we brainstormed fit into organized groups. If we are saying that we all want our students to be able to exhibit these certain behaviors when solving problems in math, then we could create a consistent anchor chart for our students here at ACES. 

One goal in this process was to move away from the search and circling of specific key words. We have learned that specific words (key words) do not always indicate specific operations and our students may choose from a variety of strategies to work through a problem. In fact, in single step word problems, key words are only effective about 50% of time and in multi-step word problems it is less than 9%. The ideas we brainstormed are actually "attack strategies". The team came up with these ideas as a foundation. Students do not need to work through this process every time and complete the whole series like a check list, but more of a reference for what to do when we get stuck in any part of the problem solving process. 


Clearly, simply hanging a consistent anchor chart in our rooms is not the magic bullet for students to master problem solving. As teachers, we naturally model these ideas for students but we can build more student accountability and ownership with our students in the classroom. 

In your mailbox (2nd Grade-5th Grade) you will receive a laminated copy of this anchor chart.
1st Grade and Kindergarten, a modified version is currently in the works for you! 

If you are interested in printing a copy of this (for math notebooks, small group, etc.), you can find them in our ACES Math Shared Drive. In this PDF, you will also find a blank version of this anchor chart that could be used with your students. Use the completed one as a guide for you BEFORE students see it. Students could share ideas for problem solving and sort them into the four categories or as you work through problems. Or you could have the students share different strategies mathematicians use while working through a problem together and label them by adding them on the chart. After building the blank one with your students, you could replace with the finalized version for your wall! Making students a part of the process is HUGE so that it is not just another poster on the wall but truly follows the meaning of the anchor chart!

Thank you to the math team for working through this process and putting this together! We are excited to hear feedback or see how it is working with our students in our classrooms. 🙌




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