How To Help Your Child By Asking The Right Questions

Hi Parents,
 
2 days ago, we spoke about one of the ways to helping your child in Math problem sums is asking him the right questions pertaining to the context and mathematical concept of each sum.
 
But some may ask, how do I ask the right questions? 

Effective Exam Strategy #2

Direct your child to the key point in the problem sum statement to guide him to vocalise his thoughts.  

Example: There were 1201 Chinese and English books in the school library.
After 280 English books were borrowed and 31 Chinese books were returned, there was an equal number of each type of books in the end.

Source: +hinkingMath P4 Essential Problem Solving Skills Workbook Pre-exercise

 
Some possible questions to ask your child on the sum above:

1. What does the value 1201 refer to?
   Purpose of this question – to have the child vocalise the mathematical words “total”, “sum of” and “altogether”. Over time, this process will help the child to internalize the use of common but important mathematical words and expressions.

   Also, notice the question asked included the word “value” - a subtle way of seeding mathematical words into the child to build knowledge.  

2. What does the word “After” mean to you?
   Purpose – we want to hear the child talk about the concept of “Change” or “Before-and-After” which will lead to the next thinking order “What changed and how does the change affect the total at first?”

3. How did the “equal number…in the end” happen?
   Purpose – this is to help the child to infer from the previous information provided in the statement and from there to further guide him to attempt to relate the information gathered to start solving the sum.

Approach: In the above example, we have applied part of the GAP Approach that is used across all the 11 tuition centres certified by onSponge. GAP is used to draw a response from the child to guide and articulate the thought process which is key to understanding every problem statement. With GAP, the child will start to solve without staring into the blanks. Many parents whom have been demonstrated the GAP approach have observed positive outcome in their children’s ability to extract the right information from problem sums, regardless of the complexity and challenge.

We hope that this sharing is helpful for you in view of the upcoming SA1. Try out the GAP Approach today when you guide your child with their Math homework, and you’ll start to notice the change!
 
If you think your child can benefit from the GAP Approach as well as other essential skills in problem sum solving, you might be interested to know that our certified tuition partner, Oodles Learning will be covering this approach during the ‘SCORE for SA1’ preparation workshop for parents this March!
 
To find out more, visit the registration page here!
 
Yours sincerely,
The onSponge Team







 

 










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