Problem Solving with

Model Drawing

NCCTM 39th Annual State Conference

October 2009

North Carolina Teacher Academy

909 Aviation Parkway, Suite 700
Morrisville, NC 27560
Julia Kron, Executive Director
Karen Kelley, Mathematics
karen.kelley@teacheracademy.org
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Mission Statement

The North Carolina Teacher Academy is a professional development

program for teachers established and funded by the North Carolina
General Assembly. The Mission of the North Carolina Teacher
Academy is to enrich instruction and impact student achievement by
supporting the growth and retention of highly qualified teachers
through research-based professional development in the areas of school
leadership, instructional methodology, core content, and instructional
technology.

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What is Singapore Math?

The term “Singapore Math” refers to the mathematics

curriculum in the country of Singapore, developed by the
curriculum Planning and Development Institute and approved
by their ministry of Education.

In the US, the term generally refers to the Primary Mathematics Series, which is the
textbook series for grades 1 through 6.

What are the strengths of Singapore’s Primary Math Curriculum?

The curriculum is highly coherent; it is taught in a logical, step-by-step manner that

builds on students’ prior knowledge and skills. It follows a concrete to pictorial to
abstract approach, which is based on Jerome Bruner’s work in the 1960’s.

Fewer topics are taught in greater depth. The goal is conceptualization and mastery.

Problem solving is the heart of the Singapore curriculum. Place value, mental math,
and computation are reinforced through problem solving, particularly through the
model drawing approach.

Singapore’s Primary Mathematics education culture is reflective and based on

students developing the following core understandings:
Number Facts
Number Sense
Patterns
Visualization
Communication

The term “Singapore math” is sometimes used interchangeably with the key
strategies. They are NOT the same. Singapore math refers to the entire curriculum.

Key instructional strategies used in Singapore’s Primary Mathematics curriculum

relate to place value, computation, mental math, and model drawing. These strategies
are applicable and highly effective when used to supplement US math programs.

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE).
Pre-Model Drawing Review and Practice Progression

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“Looks and Talks”

Number Bond Stories

Word Problems, Using Actual Pictures

Word Problems, Using Tiles or Other Manipulatives

Word Problems, Drawing Units/Tiles (Discrete Model)

Word Problems, (Continuous Model)

Model Drawing is . . .

A continuous model strategy to help students understand and solve word problems.

The pictorial stage in the learning sequence to move student into more abstract
thinking.

A process to develop students’ visual-thinking capabilities and algebraic thinking.

Model Drawing Develops Problem Solving and Algebraic Reasoning

Skills:

The unit bars model the relationships among the components of each word problem.

While building models, given information is identified as well as the unknown

quantity, which is a key concept in algebraic thinking.

Model drawing encourages students to look beyond the surface to discover the
concepts and relationships at the core of every math problem.

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE).

Steps for Model Drawing:

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1. Do a reflective reading of the problem.

2. Identify the variable – the “who”.

3. Identify the variable – the “what”.

4. Draw a unit bar to model each variable.

5. Place the question mark in the mode.

6. Adjust the unit bars to match the information in the problem.

7. Compute and solve the problem.

8. Write a complete sentence to answer the question.

Sample word problem:

Kayla had 4 blocks in her toy box. She added 7 more.

How many total blocks did Kayla have in her toy box?

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE).

Model Drawing Problem Sequence

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The problems below are increasing in complexity and range in grade levels from K-5.
While they may be solved in a variety of ways, the purpose is to practice and showcase
model drawing.

1. Tinesha had $12 in her savings account. She added $6 more. What was her
total savings?

2. Jackson had 18 math problems for homework. He did 5 problems before

dinner. How many problems did Jackson have left to finish after dinner?

3. Maxine has $67. She wants to buy a Blu Ray player that costs $105. How
much more money will Maxine need to buy the Blu Ray player?

4. Carlos read 221 pages of his book over the weekend. Jasmine
read 198 pages. How many more pages did Carlos read than
Jasmine?

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5. A total of 1200 concert tickets were sold over a 3-day period. If 471 concert
tickets were sold on Monday, and 347 tickets were sold on Tuesday, how
many concert tickets were sold on Wednesday?

6. Miley and Hannah both had money. Miley has $35 more than Hannah. If
Hannah has $65, how money do they have altogether?

7. A cheesecake weighs 3 lb. 11 oz. A chocolate torte weighs 4 lb. 2 oz. What is
the total weight of both cakes?

8. Matthew went into the bakery and saw 8 cookies on each

plate in the display case. If there were 9 plates, how many
total cookies were in the display case?

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9. Some students need to set up 84 chairs for a meeting. If

they set up 7 rows, how many chairs will be in each row?

10. Some students need to set up 72 chairs for a meeting. If they only want to
put 8 chairs in each row, how many rows will they need?

11. Drake and Knox volunteered at the local Red Cross Blood Drive. Drake
drew twice as many pints of blood as Knox. If Drake drew 16 pints of blood,
how many pints of blood did both Drake and Knox draw?

12. Piper had half as much money as Eric. Ari had 3 times as much money as
Eric. If Ari had $24, how much money did Piper have?

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13. If 2/3 of a number is 18, what is the number?

14. If 3/5 of a number is 24, what is ¼ of that number?

15. In the fourth grade, 3/7 of the students were girls. If there were 28 boys in
the grade how many girls were in the grade?

16. After spending 1/3 of his money. Jake had $11 left. How
much money did he have at first?

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17. One number is one third of another number. If the difference between the
numbers is 28, find the two numbers.

18. The ratio of the number of girls to the number of boys is 2:3. If there are 86
boys, how many children are there all together?

19. Mrs. Baker correctly answered 70% of the questions on her science test. If
there were 50 questions on the test, how many questions did she answer
correctly?

20. Dan and Greg both worked as waiters. On Saturday night, the
boys earned a total of $140 tips between them. If Dan earned
$25 more in tips than Greg, how much did Greg earn in tips?

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21. Mr. Bryan earned a weekly salary of $1520. He put ½ of the money in his
savings account, and used 3/5 of the remaining money to pay bills. He then
gave each of his 2 daughters $120. How much money did Mr. Bryan have
left for himself?

22. Mr. Tightwad saved an average of $32.50 a day over a 3 day period. If he
saved an average of $31 a day over a 2 day period, how much did Mr.
Tightwad save on the third day?

23. Penny bought some eggs. She used 1/3 of them to make cookies and ¼ of the
remaining eggs to make a cake. She had 6 eggs left. How many eggs did
Penny buy?

24. Nick rented 3 DVD’s and 2 video games. Each video

game cost $1.20 more to rent than each DVD. If
Nick’s total cost of renting the DVD’s and the video
games was $17.40, what was the cost of renting the
video games?

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE).

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Problems that Don’t Lend Themselves to Model Drawing:

True Guess and Check Problems

Find a number between 50 and 75 . . . .

More Then One Correct Answer Problems

Make a list, Combination Problems
Use each digit once to make 24 . . . .

Find a Pattern Problems

Fill in the next three number of the pattern:
1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, __, __, __ , . . .

Draw a Picture Problems

Complete the picture to show symmetry.

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE),

Interactive Model Drawing Website:

www.thinkingblocks.com

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SUBTRACTION ACTION
Write a number (less than 100) in each of the four squares: A, B, C, D. Begin
subtracting and write the difference between A & B, B & C, C & D, D & A, in
the large circles shown by the arrows. Continue subtracting the numbers in the
circles, then write that difference in the smaller squares. Continue this pattern to
find a pattern.

A B

D C

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE).
SUBTRACTION ACTION

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Write a number (less than 100) in each of the four squares: A, B, C, D. Begin
subtracting and write the difference between A & B, B & C, C & D, D & A, in
the large circles shown by the arrows. Continue subtracting the numbers in the
circles, then write that difference in the smaller squares. Continue this pattern to
find a pattern.

A B

D C

Taken from Singapore’s Key Math Strategies, Staff Development for Educators (SDE).

Bibliography

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Char Forsten. Singapore’s Key Math Strategies and Other Classroom-Proven Methods

You Can Count On to Help Students Learn! Staff Development for Educators

(SDE): Peterborough, New Hampshire, 2009.

Hogan, Bob and Char Forsten. 8-Step Model Drawing Singapore’s Best Problem-

Solving MATH Strategies. Crystal Springs Books: Peterborough, New

Hampshire, 2007.

Primary Mathematics Series US Edition. Marshall Cavendish International: Singapore,

2003.

Useful websites:

www.ncctm.org

www.nctm.org

www.sde.com

www.singaporemath.com

www.thinkingblocks.com

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