Problem Solving Template

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

I hope everyone has had a great week.  I am a little overwhelmed at the moment, I had a super jam packed week and I have spent 5 hours today assessing and evaluating...and I still have hours left to do.  It is that time of year, pre-report card writing.  Here in Ontario we are using the Fall progress reports again, which are in check box format, but still require detailled comments to accompany the checklists. 

I have spent the past 5 weeks getting to know my students, trying some new activities with them (I love BRAIN BREAKS and so do the students!), and administering some diagnostic assessments (CASI, Morrison-McCall, a Math Survey, Laura Candler's Problem Solving assessment, OWA (Ontario Writing Assessment)) and I have been collecting samples of student work.

This weekend I had to bring home a basket full of literature response role sheets (the students have started literature circles with the book "Shakespeare's Secret), "Communicating Skills" unit tests, OWA (Ontario Writing Assessment) writing samples, and some addition and subtraction CHOICE activities for math.  I am finished with the role sheets (need to ask students to add more details to their responses) and with marking their tests (need to ask them to review nouns, proper nouns and verbs AGAIN) but I am putting off evaluating the writing samples and the math activities.  I have created some great rubrics to help me with the assessments and evaluations but it still takes a long time to do a quality job and I have 28 students this year.

So, instead I was thinking about our first CLIP (a version of a professional learning community pathway) at school this year.  We have chosen to focus on Problem Solving and problem solving strategies as a pathway for our K-6 staff and students.  As part of my leadership role, I have started to collect a variety of resources for the staff.  I handed out a template I have used in the past.  It is called a KWC and APEC model.  Some of you have probably read my APEC POST FOR LITERATURE RESPONSE.  Well, KWC and APEC are similar in design to that model.  The KWC stands for KNOW, WANT TO FIND OUT, CONDITIONS and the APEC stands for ANSWER, PROOF, EXPLAIN AND CONNECT. I was trying to think of another graphic to use for Problem Solving strategies that might be more appealing to the primary and LD students in our school.  The graphic organizer I have used for KWC/APEC seemed a bit daunting for students younger than the ones I teach in grade 6 gifted, so I have spent part of today creating a new template.

I have posted the template HERE FOR DOWNLOAD as a FREEBIE.  Let me know if you use it with your students.  I am going to try it out with mine next week.

If you missed out on downloading my Problem Solving Strategy Posters, CLICK HERE FOR ANOTHER GREAT FREEBIE.  

Thanks for stopping by!  I guess it is time for me to put dinner in the oven and tackle some more of my school work!  Have a great week everyone!