Math "Problems"

The title of this post may be deceiving. I am not referring to math problems such as "2+2=". I am referring to problems, or struggles, in math. I have been very fortunate with my math abilities. It has always been my strongest and favorite subject. This led me to be very excited to begin teaching math. Today I ran into a huge disconnect. I've always been aware that many people struggle in math. It does not come easy to everyone. Today that hit me like a brick wall during my lesson.

We were doing problem solving lessons today. All of the problems were similar to the following:

Max has 56 apples. He can fit 10 apples in each basket. How many baskets does Max need.

We began by using red counters (apples) and cups (baskets) to show the problem. I had all the students write down predictions, and then we "acted out" the problem. We came to an an answer of 6 and everyone seemed fine. We did a few more examples using the counters and cups and we also used the students and chairs to represent seats in a car and going on a trip. Again, everything seemed fine, everyone understood what we were doing.

It was time to complete the workbook pages on this lesson. We did a guided problem, the students that answered answered correctly and everyone had the correct answer on their page. It was now time to move onto independent work. A few students came up with the correct answers and drawings to show their work. However, the majority of the students all of sudden were coming up with blank pages and blank stares. They didn't know what to do when they were working individually. At first I think I was coming across frustrated. That wasn't the case at all, I was just confused. I didn't understand how just 10 minutes before everyone was giving me correct answers and showed no signs of being lost in the lesson. After multiple attempts at helping the remaining students come to a solution I pulled those students back up to the carpet and did an intervention lesson with them. Again, they all knew exactly what to do! I must say I was even more confused now than ever. After doing that one problem together I sent them back to their seats to do one more. This time it went better and students had the right answers, however, I still do not feel confident that they fully understand this lesson. I am hoping to get some time tomorrow to help these students one-on-one with the concept.