Math and Algebra By Example

 I visited a site called Serp Institute the other day. They have a couple of  free programs, Math by example and Algebra by example which can easily be incorporated into the classroom.  They are free if you download them directly which is nice.  I'll be looking at both today o you get a chance to see how they work and how they might provide supplemental help to the class.

The idea behind the two programs, is to help students learn to solve, analyze, critique, and discuss problems by looking at examples. In addition, the selected problems are designed to help students overcome misunderstandings both small errors, and fundamental. 

Students are provided with examples both correct and incorrect.  They analyze the correct ones to learn how to do the problems and the incorrect ones to figure out what was done incorrectly, so at the end they are able to work their own problems.  

Math by example is designed for fourth and fifth graders and addresses 125 topics and concepts from place value, fractions, and decimals, to geometry and ordered pairs, and more. The assignments are such that they are not required to be given in any particular order so they can be used to supplement assignments or be given instead of a normal assignment.  There is an assignment list which breaks down the assignments designed for fourth and fifth grade and provides the actual topics available.  

Algebra by example is designed to help teach algebra and looks at 40 different topics.  These examples are designed to specifically target normal student misconceptions, remediate errors especially repeated ones, provide flexibility while meeting common core standards, and promotes mathematical discussion.  

The example given on the example card gives the directions for the problem "Using the distributive property, rewrite in simplest form".  The examples shows the work which is 4w(5+12) = 20w + 48  with the statement "Pablo didn't rewrite this expression properly".  Then there are two questions. The first says "What did Pablo forget when distributing the 4w? and the second is "What should Pablo's final expression be?"  Finally, students are given a similar problem to correct on their own.

This site comes from Temple University in conjunction with several school districts.  It states the material is based on research so it provides what is needed to help students.  All you have to do is sign up and you'll have access to downloading any and all materials for free. If you need more material to help students learn to analyze errors, check out this site.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.