Questions are concepts

Small inroads were made this week on my instructional goals. I decided after looking at several things to try Math Fact Café as an assessment tool for a few weeks. The page itself is not hard to look at and there aren’t a whole bunch of adds. I am prompting the student to use manipulatives with each step. I think the student’s inability to ask internal questions like, “What do I do now?” or “What do I know?” inhibits their ability to move through a multi-step process or concept. So, I am trying to focus in on the language and the process behind the concept. For an addition problem the language model would look like  “I see 6, I think inside my brain 6, I count 1,2,3,4,5,6. I see +1. What do I do? + means add. I get one more. = 1,2,3,4,5,6,7. 6 add 1 equals 7.” This is supported by counting objects during the explanation and following it up with picture, stick figure, and thought bubble clarifications.