Give a cooperative group of students a subtraction word problem. Marzano feels that cooperative groups help students take chances in their learning. The problem's complexity should be based on the ability of the students. A basic problem asks a difference unknown question. For instance,"Susie has four pencils. Juan has three pencils. How many more pencils does Susie have than Juan?"
Provide the students with math manipulatives to aid them in solving the subtraction problem. Linking cubes, poker chips or blocks are all easy items to count and sort in the math problem. Don't explain how to use the manipulatives to solve the problem. Given enough time, the cooperative group will discover how to use the manipulatives to it. Marzano explains when students are given a problem, make a hypothesis and test its validity, they are engaged in one of the most powerful ways to gain knowledge.
Give feedback to the groups as they are working on their hypothesis for subtraction. Immediate corrective feedback helps to guide the students in the right direction. Marzano recommends highlighting what the group is doing correctly, not what they are doing incorrectly.
Provide time for the students to organize their solution to present to the class. The groups use pictures, words and the algorithm to explain their findings. When students use non-linguistic representations of their hypothesis, they are elaborating on their knowledge. This elaboration results in a deeper understanding and greater recall of the process to find a solution to the subtraction problem. Marzano believes if a student is able to explain her solutions, she has developed a deeper understanding for that objective.
Ask each group to present their solutions to the class. Each group may have found the solution differently. Encourage the groups to share their findings. Marzano recommends setting up a time for parents to visit. The students share their findings with the parents.
If a group finishes before the presentation time, provide them with a more complex subtraction problem, "Susie has eight cookies. She has three more cookies than Juan. How many cookies does Juan have?" Marzano recognizes that the key to success of this discovery type of learning is the teacher's ability to understand the complexity of different types of problems and her ability to present them to her students at the proper time in their learning timeline.