Analysis By Lisa Englard

Lisa Englard is a math teacher who takes her job seriously; when her class presented trouble with word problems she began to research. Upon doing so she found that students had trouble solving problems when key words are left out. Singapore corrected this by developing the model method which has proven to be useful seeing as they rank among the best in math. When using the model method students draw pictures to represent quantities and their relationships this helps them choose operations and sequence steps. When Englard used this method she saw excellent results in the third grade students. Traditionally students are taught that they need to look for key words when solving problems but this can often be confusing. Certain words like “times” could mean division or multiplication. In the example given many students got mixed up with the word and solved it like a multiplication problem resulting in an incorrect answer. When using bars of various lengths and words like “fewer” students solved more problems correct. Bar modeling also emphasizes the relationship among operations. In the picture examples shown, you can see
The group equaled or out-performed on 19 of the 20 problems. Bar modeling provides teachers a way to infuse problem solving in their instruction. The method also builds throughout the grade levels.
At first I taught this method looked time consuming and difficult, but after reading the article I see the benefits. It is actually quite simple once you get the hang of it. Honestly I hate to admit it but the fraction problem in figure 8 I most likely wouldn’t have been able to complete as easily as the student did. While the Singapore model method may not work for certain learners or classes a teacher may have it is certainly worth giving it a chance considering what it has been able to