1.) Lydia rides her bike 3 miles from her house to the store. Then she rides her bike 7 miles from the store to her friend’s house. Then she rides her bike home. She doesn’t know how far it is from her friend’s house to her own house, but she knows she biked 15 miles in all. How far is it from Lydia’s friend’s house to her own house?
2.) On Monday, Holly rode her bike for 39 minutes. On Tuesday, she rode her bike for 26 minutes. On Wednesday, she rode her bike for 31 minutes. How much longer did Holly ride on Monday than Tuesday?
3.) Ava had 7 quarters and her brother gave her 4 more. She had a hole in her pocket and 5 of the quarters fell out on her way to school. How much money did Ava have left when she got to school?
Source These three tasks found in–Bridges in Mathematics, Grade 3, Unit 1—were shared by Lauren Ross and Anne Pumphrey from Nixon Elementary School in Sudbury, MA.
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Lauren and Anne selected these three tasks from their curriculum to introduce the Three Reads routine to your 3rd graders. Here’s what they had to say about why they selected the tasks and sequenced them in the way they did.
“The word problems we selected were purposeful for this routine, but were also included in the student workbooks of our new math program, which helped the teacher not feel as though this routine was something “extra” on top of learning a new math program.
~For the first day with the routine, we wanted one that contained a good amount of text, but simple numbers and a familiar context (so we could really focus on experiencing the routine for the first time)
~For the second day with the routine, we wanted a problem that contained extra information. This worked out really well when we were focusing on what the question is and what are the important quantities.
~On the third day, we intentionally selected a problem that could have multiple “right” answers (it was great hearing students debate/discuss whether the answer was 6 quarters, 150 cents, or $1.50). ”
Thank you ladies for sharing your thoughtful task selection thinking with us!
Our third graders did a wonderful job learning this routine and reflecting upon the lessons. After the routine was first presented, many students were already able to state that next time they interpret a word problem they would ask themselves “what is the question?” or “what is the problem about?” or “what information is important?”. For all three tasks, it would have been interesting to see how introducing a visual representation of the problem may have supported swld/ELL students. It may have provided a relevant context for some students, provided opportunity for more discussion before launching into the three reads routine, and would have been a nice visual complement to the verbal classroom discussions.
-Lauren Ross
After doing this routine three times with one class of 3rd graders, we received my favorite reflection: The next time I read a word problem, I will pay attention to…”The important quantities” because “the unimportant quantities will mess you up”. This reflection came from a student who receives ELL and special education support, and made us feel that this student truly recognized the value of the routine and saw how it could help him in the future.
~Annie Pumphrey