Planning GuideGrade 5
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Estimation Strategies

Strand: Number
Outcome: 2

Step 3: Plan for Instruction

Guiding Questions

  • What learning opportunities and experiences should I provide to promote learning of the outcomes and permit students to demonstrate their learning?
  • What teaching strategies and resources should I use?
  • How will I meet the diverse learning needs of my students?

A. Assessing Prior Knowledge and Skills

Before introducing new material, consider ways to assess and build on students’ knowledge and skills related to Estimation Strategies.

Ways to Assess and Build on Prior Knowledge

B. Choosing Instructional Strategies

Consider the following general strategies for teaching computational estimation.

  • Encourage the students to take risks as they explore various computational estimation strategies. They must develop a comfort level in finding approximate answers to computation.
  • "Create a classroom environment that encourages student exploration, questioning, verification and sense making" (Reys 1992, p.5).
  • Have the students communicate their thinking as they estimate and then "share their reasoning with the class" (Reys 1992, p.5).
  • Capitalize on class sharing by highlighting the estimation strategies that result in close estimates; e.g., combining compensation with other strategies such as front-end or compatible numbers.
  • Provide opportunities for the students to explore the multiple relationships among numbers and among operations.
  • Provide regular reinforcement so that students always estimate before they calculate to determine the reasonableness of their calculated answers. Van de Walle and Lovin (2006) state, "A good place to begin ¼ computation is with estimation. Not only is it a highly practical skill, but it also helps [students] look at answers in ballpark terms and can form a check on calculator computation" (p.125).
  • Provide a variety of problem-solving contexts in which students decide that an estimated answer is adequate and efficient.  
  • Provide a variety of problem-solving contexts in which students have the opportunity to explore various types of computational estimation strategies and then choose the strategy that works best for them in a given situation.

C. Choosing Learning Activities

Learning Activities are examples of activities that could be used to develop student understanding of the concepts identified in Step 1.

Sample Activities
Sorting Problems Download Activities  Word
Estimating Using Front-end and Compensation Strategies Download Activities  Word
Estimating Using Compatible Numbers and Compensation Download Activities  Word