Intervention Description:
When I collected pre-data, I had students take a survey about their feelings on explaining
their answers in writing on the last test they took. Students had positive responses about
explaining their answers so I decided to create my intervention based on this. I wanted to help
students create good explanations for how to solve problems. On the pre-data test, I gave them
unscaffolded prompts after three problems saying “I know this is my answer because ___.” I
wanted to see if students would write an explanation about how they came up with the answer
and how good the explanation would be. Students’ explanations gave me information on how
well students could explain their answers without scaffolding so that I would know how much
scaffolding they would need during the intervention. The test gave samples on how good their
problem solving skills were. By problem solving skills, I mean how well they solve given
problems, using correct mathematical steps. I also observed who was asking questions in class,
and saw how students worked in groups. I used this information to pair students. I changed how
I paired students throughout the intervention which I will explain later.