The issue:
Comparing various data points over several years, GO for teaching and The Wong Teacher came across a trend within students' numeracy skills. Students seemed to be capable of interview style assessments and problems that were pure abstract maths, but were less capable when solving word problems.
The hunch:
Students are having difficulty comprehending word problems therefore reducing their test scores and not presenting an accurate measure of mathematical capability. This is not to say that students' numeracy skills are in fact much greater than they test or that the assessments were flawed. In fact the comprehension of word problems may be closer to a reading comprehension issue than a numeracy issue.
The proposed solution:
GO for teaching and The Wong Teacher figured that if a literacy component is required to solve mathematical problems, then literacy skills in maths should be taught. To achieve this, we took the concepts of reciprocal reading and tried to adapt them for usage in a mathematical context. See our first attempt below. This Reciprocal Maths™ is intended to leverage peer learning and increased oral language use.
