RICE for Word Problems

Happy Monday morning, everyone!  Many of us are off today in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. We spent a good part of last week discussing how much change our country has been through since his powerful speech.  The children are always amazed to hear his incredible story.  I am looking forward to building on that curiosity and wonder next month when we read Ruby Bridges.  But more on that later!

Today I have a freebie for you and I am linking it up over at Classroom Freebies.

Once again, I got this idea right from Singapore Math.  NOT that we have the program (wishful thinking!) It was something that I found in my Singapore Math research. The wording on this has been slightly modified to make it a bit easier for my little ones to remember. RICE stands for:

Read and record the problem 

Illustrate your thinking

Compute

Explain your thinking

In order to prepare my students for the (ugh) testing they will be facing, I think it is important to teach them in this format.  First of all, it gets them to SHOW THEIR WORK.  Really, there's no way around it here, when a bowl of rice asks you to illustrate your work, you do it!  Second, it gets them to EXPLAIN their thinking.  As you know, extended response test questions ask the students to do the same thing.

My students have really responded to this format and I saw even more of an improvement once I combined it with Bar Modeling for word problems (more on that later, too!)

I am currently working on a (huge!) word problems packet that includes this format (perhaps with a little time off today, I will be able to finish it??)  But for now, here is a freebie of the RICE poster from the packet for your classroom.  You can find it at either one of our favorite teacher stores, so come follow me and grab your freebie today!

TPT:

 Teachers Notebook: