8-Step Model Drawing: Singapore's Best Problem-Solving Math Strategies [Paperback]

Bob Hogan (Author), Char Forsten (Author), Sharon Smith (Editor), Soosen Dunholter (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

(1-6) At last, here`s the problem-solving approach to math you`ve been looking for. As Bob and Char walk you through this process, adapted from the much-acclaimed Singapore system, you`ll learn how to apply the same 8 steps to everything from simple addition to rates, ratios, and percentages. Includes lots of practice problems, plus fully illustrated answers. Full color. Can be used with any math program. (1-6) 160 pp.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bob Hogan an accomplished teacher and presenter, was a key part of a pilot project to introduce Singapore Math to Massachusetts schools in conjunction with the Massachusetts Department of Education. Char Forsten, a teacher and teaching principal for 18 years, is now a popular presenter who also works frequently as a consultant in classrooms across the country.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Crystal Springs Books; First edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884548954
• ISBN-13: 978-1884548956
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #984,785 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Math Teacher grades 1-12, December 20, 2007

By 

Z. Sanders "graced, growing, grateful educato... - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 8-Step Model Drawing: Singapore's Best Problem-Solving Math Strategies (Paperback)

I found this book to be very useful and to live up to its claims. The company that first brought Singapore Math to the U.S. sells this book on its math teacher resource website page. Their recommendation reads:

"This book can be used by teachers who want to learn and teach to their students a step-by-step process that facilitates using model-drawing to solve simple word problems. This process can help with teaching model drawing to solve word problems typical in U.S. elementary grade math textbooks to students who have not learned the process as taught in the Primary Mathematics curriculum. Model drawing is used extensively in the Primary Mathematics curriculum, but there is no prescribed 8-step process in the Singapore Math curriculum itself, nor is model-drawing the only distinctive approach that the Singapore Math curriculum offers." (www.singaporemath.com)

In the introduction to "8-Step Model Drawing", the authors make it clear that this book is an INTRODUCTION to bar modeling of word problems involving numbers. They include in the introduction a section entitled "What This Book Is Not," and they discuss the fact that model drawing is not the only aspect of Singapore Math. They highlight the fact that problem solving strategies not included in bar modeling (such as making an organized list, working backwards, looking for patterns, drawing a picture, etc.) still need to be taught above and beyond bar modeling.

That said, I found that this book accomplishes its stated goals: Now that I've read and worked through this book, I can model and solve math problems (grades 1-6) using bar modeling. TO SEE AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS BOOK, please feel free to visit my website at www.classwithsanders.com. There, click on the video clips menu tab and scroll to the bottom to see two example videos of bar modeling. I created these videos by following step-by-step the process laid out in "8-Step Model Drawing."

I observed high school math tutors teaching themselves bar modeling in minutes from simply flipping through this book. From the book's layout, that appears to be one goal of this book: To introduce bar modeling instantly and less densely than a mathematics education textbook, for example. In this regard, it functions as a workbook for the teacher to work through in the process of learning bar modeling techniques.

This book serves as a good, clear, quick-to-process INTRODUCTION to bar modeling. For more in-depth resources on the topic, visit www.singaporemath.com. Particularly informative is the book, "Elementary Mathematics for Teachers" by Parker and Baldridge.

33 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Why Johnny will never count, December 10, 2007

By 

Alexander Borisovich (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 8-Step Model Drawing: Singapore's Best Problem-Solving Math Strategies (Paperback)

One should be either insane, or an American math educator, in order to propose solving 1-3-step word problems by memorizing an 8-step plan first. This is exactly what the authors of this book do (are?)

Recently "Primary Math," the elementary school math program from Singapore, became very popular. It is excellent indeed: concise, efficient, self-explanatory, child-friendly - and perhaps the only one in English that is also correct mathematically. One of its prominent features is crystal-clear pictorial explanation of mathematical ideas. Suppose you are stuck in the problem: "How many boys are in a class of 20, if there are 2 more girls than boys?" In "Primary Math," the idea will be explained by representing the numbers of girls and boys by two parallel horizontal segments, one 2 units longer than the other, so that you could see at once: "Aha! The number of boys is a half of what is left of 20 classmates when the 2 extra girls are subtracted!" BTW, this is how "natural" problem solvers think, beginning with Euclid (although the segments in the "Elements" are shown vertical).

In "8-Step Model Drawing" Bob Hogan and Char Forsten, apparently unaware of the ways problem solvers think but fascinated with their body language, attempt to improve the 23-century old practice (which they call "Singapore strategy"). To solve a problem, kids need to follow the authors' 8-step plan of drawing and labeling diagrams: Read the entire problem - decide who is involved - decide what is involved - draw unit bars of equal length (I really have no clue what they mean by this: The segments needed are neither unit nor equal!) - read each sentence one at a time - put the question mark in place - work computation to the side or underneath - answer the question in a complete sentence.

Don't feel sick yet? Then "Search Inside" for two samples, and one more available through Contents_Samples at SingaporeMath_dot_com. Here is how the three exercises could be solved.
1. Kate read 2 books and 3 magazines. So altogether she read: bbmmm (count them!) 5 ITEMS. (The authors forgot that they can't add apples with oranges -- until a common denomination "fruit" is applied.)
2. If Alice has $6 more than Bobby, who has $10, then: Bobby's <-- 10 --> and Alice's <-- 10 --><-6-> dollars add up to (just look!) $26.
3. Abu earned $30 and spent 1/2 for a CD, and 1/3 of the rest for lunch. Just think of how much is left in his pocket: $15 after buying the CD, $10 after lunch. So it's not enough to buy a bike attachment for $12.98.

Now compare these several lines with 2+2+4=8 pages (!) of teacher's blabbing and diagram labeling found in the book. If even after that you don't see why trying it on live kids is child abuse, then -- Welcome to Bob-n-Char's club! Go buy the book, memorize the steps, recite the blabbing, mimic the body language, and throw this art of problem solving at the kids - your students or children. Help them become as numerate as you are.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love this book!!!! It has changed the lives of my students!, January 31, 2009

By 

Cathy Holman "Cathy" (Arkansas) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 8-Step Model Drawing: Singapore's Best Problem-Solving Math Strategies (Paperback)

I have been teaching math for 34 years, and this book is the best that I have ever bought. All of my students can work reading problems with the model drawing that is in this book. I love how the book will have the problem and then have a step-by-step solution for the teacher. I told my students that I would have loved to have learned this method as a sixth grader because it takes away all of the guess and check and wondering how to solve the hardest reading problems. I cannot say enough good things about this book. It has changed the lives of my students!!!!!!!!!!!!