What do they know?

I was helping in a 7th grade math class. This teacher is well organized and puts process charts with step by step directions on the walls.

So yesterday students were figuring slopes and having trouble subtracting negative numbers. The charts were on the wall. She even pointed them out. A student asked about a problem and the teacher referred to the chart and asked the student to read the steps. The student did..... and then asked the same question..... as though she could not apply the steps to her problem......

I have noticed in my intensive a similar thing. We keep notebooks with definitions and model problems. Some students seem to have a difficult time recognizing similar problems. Some will not take the time to look?

To Ponder: How do you get students to use resources they have? How do you "force" them to think about a problem and not immediately ask the question? And how much help is too much?