Support for long-term classroom planning and professional development. Information covering important topics for today's educators and parents. Strategies for mastering performance problems. This supplementary student workbook, developed for grades 6 and 7, contains performance activities on such topics as percentages, classification, probability, and data representation. Designed to teach students how to approach and solve problems that require them to read, write, and speak about mathematics, performance problems require students to explain the reasoning behind their solutions.
Emphasis is placed on understanding the concept rather than simply finding the right answer.
This workbook begins with an introductory activity, Sportsmanlike Conduct, which has students explore problems that can be approached several different ways and that have multiple solutions. Each of the ten units in this workbook begins with a sample problem followed by two model responses. These responses show different approaches to the same problem and are offered as models of the type of clear explanations expected of students. For example, in a problem involving combinations, A Watch of a Different Color, students try to find out how many watches can be created with seven different strap colors and seven different face colors. One solution involves a matrix, while the other is a clearly explained arithmetic solution.