Can Dividing Be Fun?!

This week in math, the 5th graders have been learning how to divide a decimal by a single-digit whole number.  In the past, my students have expressed anxiety about working with partial numbers, especially when it came to division.  However, this year, my students seemed ready and willing to take on the challenge.

When the students walk into math each and every day, they know that the expectations are to work hard and persevere when things get tough.  I particularly saw that today!  We were continuing our work of dividing decimals, but this time with remainders.  The students have become very familiar with using their place value understanding in order to help with division.  While this strategy is more time-consuming than the regular algorithm, it gives the students a much stronger understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it when dividing.  The most encouraging aspect of this strategy is that it helps the students learn the steps to the traditional method.

Today, the students worked collaboratively using the structure Sage and Scribe.  This is one of my favorite structures because it allows for 100% engagement.  Each student is actively involved in solving a problem.  The sage is the person that describes, step-by-step, how to solve a problem.  The scribe's job is to write down exactly what the sage says.  It is also important that the sage offers praise, or coaching if necessary.  It was so rewarding to see my students show great progress on this skill, but even more so to hear them work so well collaboratively.