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State test starts on Tuesday next week, and today is Thursday. It's getting close.
So today the kids wrote in their math journals about two quotes, not just one. Assignment was the same as always: give their reaction and say how the quote would help them on the test.
Christopher remembers today's quotes as being:
I'm thinking I should send in the quote Jeff Boulier found about automaticity, and suggest she have the kids journal about the importance of having utterly mastered one's work. That would be a novelty.
I have to go find my collection of Margaret Thatcher quotes about hard work and why people like to do it. Have I mentioned that in the state of New York it's against the law to homeschool your child in just one subject?
back again Can't find the Thatcher line I was thinking of. It's buried somewhere on the basement PC, so that's a project for another day. However, I did scare up a bunch of alternate quotes I'd like to throw up on that board.... In the meantime, here's Stephanie:
As usual, a KTMmer has read my mind.....you guys are starting to get psychic. Check this out. I've (obsessively) mentioned the fact that Christopher is not one of the straight-A students in math (or anything else). So today Christopher comes home full of pep, opens with his 500-millionth 'THE TEACHERS SAID YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO STUDY FOR THE STATE TEST' protest, then stands there in the middle of the living room looking cocky. 'What's up?' Math journal, two quotes, rainbow, rain, etc. 'Did you do any math in math class?' oh, yeah! We did problems about cups. 'Cups?' Yeah, how many cups in something. There was a really hard problem, and I was the only person who could do it. With some prompting, he finally remembered the problem:
______ quarts = 48 ounces
The kids were given a chart showing what all of the various liquid measures equal, and they had to go from ounces to quarts. This is the accelerated class. Christopher was the only kid who could do it. She's psyching them out. update: Christopher wasn't the only kid who could do it — though he was one of only a few — and no, she's not psyching them out.
dimensional analysis rocks One of my Mental Categories now, when I think about how to teach math, is to prefer to teach procedures that instruct while also solving the problem. For instance, I don't think cross-multiplication — which I would teach (it's just too powerful & easy to remember to forego) — has a lot of instructional value. (That's my guess.) Dimensional analysis, I think, is the exact opposite. Not only is it an incredibly useful, simple, impossible-to-forget procedure, BUT it gives you 'instruction' in converting units of measurement every time you do it. When you set up a sequence of unit multipliers, you see the conversion process all laid out in front of you. You see that to convert from ounces to quarts you're going to go through 4 steps (ounces to cups to pints to quarts). You see that sometimes you multiply & sometimes you divide.....You're getting a mini-lesson in what you're doing while you're doing it. Christopher didn't use unit multipliers to solve the conversion problem in class today. (Dang!) But the reason he could do it when everyone else couldn't (apart from the fact that we're not sitting around journaling about COPING WITH MATH FAILURE) is that he's done a bunch of dimensional analysis problems here at home. Thank you, Dan K.
Ms. K teaches dimensional analysis
-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Mar 2006 Back to: Main Page.
If you want the rainbow, you have to deal with the rain.
and
You'll always face challenges, but you should never be defeated.
I'm thinking I should send in the quote Jeff Boulier found about automaticity, and suggest she have the kids journal about the importance of having utterly mastered one's work. That would be a novelty.
They have so utterly mastered their work that they work without thinking;
Holding three-fifths of their brain in reserve for whatever betide.
So, when catastrophe threatens, of colic, collision or sinking.
They shunt the full gear into train, and take that small thing in their stride.
I have to go find my collection of Margaret Thatcher quotes about hard work and why people like to do it. Have I mentioned that in the state of New York it's against the law to homeschool your child in just one subject?
back again Can't find the Thatcher line I was thinking of. It's buried somewhere on the basement PC, so that's a project for another day. However, I did scare up a bunch of alternate quotes I'd like to throw up on that board.... In the meantime, here's Stephanie:
I cannot believe they're still writing in the journals! Do they have stress counselors standing by, too? At this point, they should be giving the kids practice in problems that the kids already know how to do, and that will appear on the test. How 'bout giving the kids some feelings of actual success on actual math problems before the testing starts?
As usual, a KTMmer has read my mind.....you guys are starting to get psychic. Check this out. I've (obsessively) mentioned the fact that Christopher is not one of the straight-A students in math (or anything else). So today Christopher comes home full of pep, opens with his 500-millionth 'THE TEACHERS SAID YOU'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO STUDY FOR THE STATE TEST' protest, then stands there in the middle of the living room looking cocky. 'What's up?' Math journal, two quotes, rainbow, rain, etc. 'Did you do any math in math class?' oh, yeah! We did problems about cups. 'Cups?' Yeah, how many cups in something. There was a really hard problem, and I was the only person who could do it. With some prompting, he finally remembered the problem:
______ quarts = 48 ounces
The kids were given a chart showing what all of the various liquid measures equal, and they had to go from ounces to quarts. This is the accelerated class. Christopher was the only kid who could do it. She's psyching them out. update: Christopher wasn't the only kid who could do it — though he was one of only a few — and no, she's not psyching them out.
dimensional analysis rocks One of my Mental Categories now, when I think about how to teach math, is to prefer to teach procedures that instruct while also solving the problem. For instance, I don't think cross-multiplication — which I would teach (it's just too powerful & easy to remember to forego) — has a lot of instructional value. (That's my guess.) Dimensional analysis, I think, is the exact opposite. Not only is it an incredibly useful, simple, impossible-to-forget procedure, BUT it gives you 'instruction' in converting units of measurement every time you do it. When you set up a sequence of unit multipliers, you see the conversion process all laid out in front of you. You see that to convert from ounces to quarts you're going to go through 4 steps (ounces to cups to pints to quarts). You see that sometimes you multiply & sometimes you divide.....You're getting a mini-lesson in what you're doing while you're doing it. Christopher didn't use unit multipliers to solve the conversion problem in class today. (Dang!) But the reason he could do it when everyone else couldn't (apart from the fact that we're not sitting around journaling about COPING WITH MATH FAILURE) is that he's done a bunch of dimensional analysis problems here at home. Thank you, Dan K.
Ms. K teaches dimensional analysis
-- CatherineJohnson - 09 Mar 2006 Back to: Main Page.