I've had my 45 minute walk, I've had my hot chocolate, I've discovered a brand-new miracle weight-loss drug for my mom, and now I'm going to do TWO lessons in Saxon Math.

Bliss.



-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Mar 2006

comments...

Then we go to bed grumpy.

At least, I do. When a show as good as Battlestar Galactica was two years ago gets as bad as Battlestar Galactica is today, I take it personally.

-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Mar 2006

comments...

All of my grades are based on percentages. I'm not one of these teachers who wants to convert someone's scores in my head, so I just weight grades differently. But all grades are based on 100 possible points. I can tell at a glance how a student is doing this way.

But this habit often makes it interesting when students are trying to figure out their grades on quizzes. I usually have a rather simple number of questions in terms of being able to calculate grades easily: 5, 10, 12, 20, 25, or 33 items. As I watched several of my AP students struggle with figuring out their grades, I had to suppress a groan of frustration. It was a 20 item quiz-- therefore each question would be worth 5 points, right? Young Frederick wanted to pull out his calculator to figure out what his score would be if he missed 7.

"No calculator. You can do this," I urged.

He couldn't begin to figure out how to determine his grade without a calculator. He is 16 years old and taking pre-calculus and other college-track classes (I never took a course beyond algebra 2, much to my chagrin). He doesn't immediately know that 7x5=35, and then subtract 35 from 100, nor can he figure out that 13x5=65. As a matter of fact, he stumbled over the 100-35 part and insisted the answer was 75.

It is obvious that his only problem is NOT that he didn't do his reading for my AP US history class carefully enough last night. His problem begins with a basic innumeracy. Of course, many would say that he is a victim of a larger educational trend which I pray to God is finally being placed on the pyre of idiotic educational theories: that rote memorization is bad, bad, baddety bad bad.

Frederick has to THINK about what 6x9 is, and he doesn't get that 6x9 is the same as 9x6 is the same as 3x2x9 is the same as (3 cubed) x2, and so on-- that's a related but different problem we could talk about all day. I think it's a crime that Frederick has to waste valuable thinking time on matters such as 6x5, much less 100-35. Frederick has much more complex things to think about, but by the time he gets there, his poor little thinker is all worn out on information he should have committed to recall 7 or 8 years ago.

The greatest civilizations of the ages depended upon rote memorization. The Torah was preserved through the power of memory for hundreds of years. The Iliad and the Odyssey were memorized and sung for generations. But somewhere along the line in the last forty or so years, memorizing was a skill that became shameful and vilified by someone among the educational cognoscenti. In the words of some of my students, I would like to find this dude and kick him in the shins.

I still remember huge chunks of poetry and music that I had to memorize over twenty years ago.

We're probably past that point now (i.e. we're past the point at which I can tell him to memorize something and make it stick), which is too bad.

I'm going to buy the book I searched out for this purpose anyway.



why Johnnie can't multiply

The comments thread is interesting. Some commenters say Frederick's problem is constructivist math; at least one other says his problem is rote learning:

I totally agree with you. And as to the first poster, even a Business/Consumer Math class requires the basic skill of muliplication...In my opinion, the constructivist approach to math is to blame for what you're (and the rest of us) are seeing.

+ + +

I teach a class in high school called "Numeracy" for students who are still below a 7th grade (and most below 5th grade) level. They have "learned" all of the algorithms that have been pushed into them by rote work and filling out worksheets, but they have no idea which algorithm to use when, or why. I would bet that your student knows how to do the multiplication problem, or could easily do the subtraction problem if you lined up the numbers nicely like on a worksheet. The deficit is in his ability to think mathematically. The real key to numeracy is being able to see into the mathematical nautre of a problem, and select the appropriate response - either something that has been learned and memorized, or a creative response synthesized from understanding the way numbers work. I completely agree that memorization of facts and algorithms is critical - but in math, this only has value once a concept is really understood.

Anyone who thinks that the majority of students can really learn to divide fractions (in a lasting way, in a way that will be applicable to rational functions in algebra, to solving word problems, etc.) by "invert and multiply" has never really tried to teach.

+ + +

'Ms. Cornelius' replies to the second Comment:

I think he knows he needs to multiply. He doesn't know 7x5 (Or 6x7, from another conversation we had later.) He doesn't know how to borrow correctly, either.

You're right about the fact that he can plug things in if they're put to him in a familiar format. Go outside the box, though, and you've got problems, which somewhat touches on the subject of the post I put up today (Friday.)

But I have to tell him that each item is worth 5 points-- he and his pals don't know this either, because they don't know that 20 goes into 100 5 times and what that means.

And yet he takes pre-calc-- in which he depends upon a programmable calculator. God forbid he and his similarly situated classmates ever are without that little piece of electronics.....

I've never learned to find a percent on a calculator (apart from doing the obvious division problem).^*

Are these kids using a special 'percent' key or function?

Is that part of the reason this student needs a calculator to find out what his grade will be if he misses 7 out of 20?

Now that I've worked my way through nearly 3 superb K-8 math texts, I'm amused by my own experience with percents.

Sometime during my years in school, I learned to set up percent problems as proportions.

I was aware that there was a faster way of doing it, and that this way involved DIVIDING. But I absolutely could not remember, for sure, what it was. So I spent my entire adult life setting up percent proportions and solving them via cross-multiplication.

I did this a lot. I was constantly finding percents of this or that; I can't even imagine how Richard Cohen has managed to get through an entire adult life not being able to calculate a percent. Otoh, it's entirely possible that the reason I was constantly finding percents was that I wanted to know what percent something was — like 'what percent of this book have I finished reading?' for example. In other words, it's entirely possible that the reason I was constantly finding percents was that I had a bit of a fixation on statistics, and percent was basically the only statistic — along with simple averages & medians — I knew how to figure out for myself.

So, uh, I guess I can imagine how a normal human being could get through an entire life not knowing how to figure percent. Maybe.

The point is: I had immensely fragmented knowledge, though my fragmented knowledge was not without meaning.

Not only could I not remember how one would find percent the simpler, faster, more straightforward way, but I didn't recognize the fact that the simple, faster, more straightforward way was the exact same thing I was already doing setting up a formal, written-down proportion, but just skipping the first couple of steps.

If any of you Math Brains out there are wondering what fragmented knowledge looks like, that's it.



Liberty Common School

I'm wondering whether Carolyn, Doug, Greta, Chris (& any other ktm readers & contributors in CO) are familiar with this school?

Skimming through school policy on math (pdf file) the school sounds wonderful.

Here's a school newsletter. (pdf file) Haven't looked at it yet.







^*Actually, I think one of my books may have taught a lesson on doing percents on the calculator, but I forgot.


-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Mar 2006

comments...

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TwentyMillionths 02 Mar 2006 - 23:08 CatherineJohnson

Place Value Chart

                0.000000001   one billionth

                0.00000001   one hundred-millionth
                0.0000001   one ten-millionth
                0.000001   one millionth

                0.00001   one hundred-thousandth
                0.0001   one ten-thousandth
                0.001   one thousandth
                0.01   one hundredth (1 in the hundredths place)
                0.1   one tenth (1 in the tenths place)
                
                1   one (1 in the ones or units place)
               10   ten (1 in the tens place)
              100   one hundred  (1 in the hundreds place)
              
            1,000   one thousand (1 in the thousands place)
           10,000   ten thousand
          100,000   one hundred thousand
          
        1,000,000   one million
       10,000,000   ten million
      100,000,000   one hundred million
      
    1,000,000,000   one billion
   10,000,000,000   ten billion
  100,000,000,000   one hundred billion
  
1,000,000,000,000   one trillion...

source:
Math Forum


-- CatherineJohnson - 02 Mar 2006

comments...

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TooMuchMoney 03 Mar 2006 - 13:24 CatherineJohnson





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Stapler is 5.5" x 1.5" x 3.25".
Tape dispenser is 4.5" x 2" x 2.25."

available to order from:
Horchow
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Proving once and for all that it is possible to be too rich (& too thin, but that's another story).



speaking of too thin

"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti."
- Sophia Loren






I should probably be writing about barren environments & companion animals right about now, yes?

Because, um, that's my job.

Either that, or go take my 45-minute aerobic walk in the bitter cold so as to trick my limbic brain into thinking it's springtime in the Serengetti. (in the Serengetti or on? I'm guessing Susan & Doug will know.)

These are my options.



question

Just how stupid is the limbic brain anyway?



another question

Who's Margaret Anderson?

It is rarely that you see an American writer who is not hopelessly sane.
- Margaret Anderson


So I guess that explains my 4% score on How Abnormal Are You?.



Google to the rescue:






too much money
Younger Next Year



-- CatherineJohnson - 03 Mar 2006

comments...

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BrainFood 03 Mar 2006 - 17:32 CatherineJohnson



I was Googling around for a good article on Younger Next Year (no luck so far), and came across a WAPO Q&A with Molly V. Wagster, Ph.D., Program Director for Neuropsychology of Aging research of the Neuroscience and Neuropsychology of Aging Program at the National Institute on Aging (NIA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Bethesda, Md.

Here's what she has to say about fish oil:

Washington, D.C.: What is the value/correlation of Omega-3 fatty acid and is it a suggested part of the daily diet?

Dr. Molly V. Wagster, Ph.D.: Consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids, found in foods such as oily fish and walnuts, has been linked to protection against cognitive decline. There also are some studies in animals that have been genetically engineered to carry a gene for development of Alzheimer's disease that show that these animals show protection against the brain pathology of Alzheimer's disease when they are given omega-3 fatty acids.

She also talks about research linking depression in one's younger years to Alzheimer's, which would go along with the observation that depression is connected to low levels of Omega 3s.


Omega 3 fatty acids
brain food



-- CatherineJohnson - 03 Mar 2006

comments...

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ImpendingDoom 03 Mar 2006 - 23:01 CatherineJohnson




The kids took a sample state math test today. It was a debacle. Especially the 'short answer' questions, where you have to actually do some math and find an answer. Christopher got 13 out of 24 right. The smartest kid in the class scored 19.

Meanwhile the kids in Phase 3 are coming up with scores like FIVE.

I'm sure TRAILBLAZERS will solve these problems.



update

Remember Christopher's friend-in-flunking from 4th grade?

This was the boy who was in Christopher's math class, getting the same Ds and Fs Christopher was getting. He's in Phase 3 to this day, and hasn't made up the lost ground as far as I can see.

He just called. He got 4 answers right. Out of 24.

So all my hard efforts are paying off!

Christopher is now flunking math at a much higher level!



Glencoe top secret test prep

The kids are preparing for the state test using a Glencoe booklet called Mastering the Intermediate Level Mathematics Test: Diagnose - Prescribe - Practice Workbook.

Apparently, this is a booklet only Official School Personnel can purchase. Its existence is mentioned nowhere in any materials available to parents or students. You can Google it all you want; you can look up the ISBN number; you can drill down into the deepest, darkest recesses of the Glencoe website.

It's not there.

This kind of thing makes me nuts. A couple of years ago I tried to buy the SRA spelling curriculum, Spelling Through Morphographs. It's a remedial program, co-written by Seigfried Engelmann. I had no idea who Engelmann was at the time, which makes Spelling Through Morphographs the second Engelmann book I picked out 'cold,' the first being Engelmann's book about teaching your kid to read.

Apparently Seigfried Engelmann and I are as one.

Here's the description:

Spelling Through Morphographs
Grade Levels 4 - Adult
Successful spellers in just 20 minutes a day!

Spelling Through Morphographs is a remedial program, designed to give older students the tools they need to learn to spell. The program teaches a variety of morphographs -- prefixes, suffixes, and word bases -- and a small set of rules for combining them so that students learn a spelling strategy they can apply to thousands of words.

Fast-paced lessons and a systematic review of every morphograph, combined with a few simple spelling rules, ensure that spelling strategies are mastered. In the first half of Spelling Through Morphographs alone, students learn over 252 morphographs and the rules needed to spell over 3,000 words. By the end of the program, they learn over 500 morphographs, and are able to spell over 12,000 words. And the fact that morphographs have meaning not only helps students remember their spelling, but it also helps them figure out the meaning of unfamiliar words.

Features:

• Students learn to spell over 500 morphographs and are able to spell over 12,000 words
• Students learn to generate correct spellings from morphographs, not memorization
• Expanded writing and proofreading activities reinforce the connection between spelling and composition

So that's right up my alley. Mathematically speaking, a kid who can't spell has to have some kind of 'lever'; there's not enough time between now and adulthood — or now and the SATs — to memorize each one of however many gazillion words in the English language are known & used by smart people. You have to learn the component parts and a finite set of rules for putting them together.

Naturally, nobody teaches spelling that way any more.

Today spelling is taught 'thematically,' meaning kids are supposed to learn to spell whichever words happen to be used in that week's social studies or ELA units. At the beginning of the week kids are handed a vocabulary list of words they'll be seeing and using that week. Then, at the end of the week, they're supposed to be able to spell them.

This has created a generation of what spelling researchers call 'Friday spellers.'

I'm sure there are many excellent Friday spellers out there.

Christopher is not one of them.

If Christopher's going to learn to spell, he's going to have to have a rational, coherent, intelligent curriculum that's been specifically designed to teach spelling. As in spelling per se.

I figured Spelling Morphographs was it.



foiled again

So I called up the folks at SRA.

They said Forget it; they wouldn't sell me the program unless I could prove I was a bona fide homeschooler. I had to have papers.

I was furious.

My school wasn't teaching my kid to spell, I was spending hours trying to figure out what the he** spelling was in the first place (turns out spelling is reading, only harder), I was trying to find the relevant research fast and get a handle on it fast, and I wasn't having fun doing any of this. Learning math & math ed so I can teach math at home is fun. Learning spelling & spelling ed so I can teach spelling at home is not fun.

I was ready to be done investigating spelling.

I wanted to get whatever book I was going to get and go back to doing routine stuff like earning a living.

I wanted Spelling Morphographs.

But no.

I couldn't have Spelling Morphographs, because I'm not CERTIFIED. I'm not OFFICIAL.

I MIGHT BE TRYING TO CHEAT.

The big textbook publishing outfits have all kinds of bans on selling to parents.

Think about that.

The big textbook companies have formal, fully-enforced rules against selling educational materials to parents.

The big textbook companies are cheerfully oblivious to the fact that it's our money that supports their products in the first place; without parents and other tax-paying citizens, SRA could hang it up. But their products are Top Secret. Can't be sold to us. If our school district elects not to send the textbooks home in the backpack, we don't even get to see what we've paid for.

The customer service rep was a sweet-sounding Texas gal who in fact was homeschooling her own kids. Sounding sympathetic, she rattled off a list of online Christian textbook outfits I could try, and told me she'd give me the phone number for my local rep so I could maybe twist his arm and get him to bend the rules.

This just made me more furious, although I managed not to bite her head off. You're telling me I'm gonna have to dive into the whole arcane world of online Christian homeschooling bookstores (until that moment I hadn't even known there was a whole arcane world of online Christian homeschooling bookstores)^* and figure all that out, too???

You're telling me, Go back to Google and start all over again?

No!

Wrong!

I don't want to start all over again!

I don't want to Google online Christian homeschooling bookstores!

I don't want to call my local SRA rep and beg him to sell me an illegal Spelling Textbook!

My kid can't spell, my school isn't teaching him to spell, and I can't buy a remedial spelling book from SRA?

Because why?

What is the reasoning here?

What am I gonna do with my own personal Parent Copy of a remedial spelling textbook?

Tell my kid the answers before he takes the test?

Wait!

Wait!

That's exactly what I'm gonna do!

I'm gonna tell my kid how to spell the words that are gonna be on the test and make him practice until he can spell them!

The reason I'm gonna do that is: THIS IS SPELLING.

THERE'S NO 'MEMORIZED THE ANSWERS'-TYPE CHEATING IN SPELLING.

MEMORIZING THE ANSWER BEFORE YOU TAKE THE TEST IS SPELLING.


So then naturally I got sidetracked trying to find some way for the state of New York to certify me as a part-time homeschooler, which went nowhere and got me even more aggravated.....and at some point in there I discovered Megawords, thank the Lord.



So now My Tax Dollars are paying for a Top Secret Glencoe Test Prep Diagnose Practice Assign grade 6 workbook that I'm (apparently) not allowed to purchase as a mere parent of a kid who has to take this freaking test.

I can't stand it.






New York state math test prep over vacation
state test impending doom

SRA spelling research

How many words in the English language?
How many words in the English language? (another view)
a million or more words in the English language
FAQs: how many words?



^*Now, of course, I get invited to special Christian homeschool days at Six Flags. I am among the initiate.


-- CatherineJohnson - 03 Mar 2006

comments...

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KippAcademyContract 04 Mar 2006 - 12:57 CatherineJohnson






via Eduwonk, a US News & World report on the KIPP Academy with this passage on contracts:

Under a contract signed by students, parents, and teachers, students go to school from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every weekday, every other Saturday morning, and for an extra month in the summer--over 60 percent more class time than the average school year. Teachers are on call 24-7 to answer questions about homework (the better they teach, the fewer the calls), and parents are held accountable.

I suspect that the wording here — 'parents are held accountable' — comes from the writer, not from KIPP.

My understanding of KIPP is that they're careful to ask no more of parents than what parents really can, and should, deliver.

No parent is asked to serve as his child's re-teacher; hence the 24-7 on-call policy for teachers. IIRC, the parent's job is to make sure the child does his homework, gets enough rest, and gets to school on time. And that's it.

Here's another passage that gives the flavor of what really goes on at KIPP:

Once, when an exasperated Feinberg couldn't get a student to do her homework, he went to her home and, with her mother's permission, hauled the family's 37-inch TV out of the living room and installed it at the front of his classroom. When the student delivered, she got the TV back.

In that case the parent was failing to do her job. The school stepped in and helped — without resorting to a lot of blather about 'holding parents accountable.'

Here's more:

A bigger question for KIPP's founders, and for public education in general, is whether the success of their program can be replicated elsewhere. Some observers argue that KIPP parents, however underprivileged, are inherently more motivated than the parents of other public school kids. To which Feinberg responds: "More motivated? They have to answer a knock on the door and listen to us for an hour and sign their name? How difficult." Levin invites doubters to compare the statistics of KIPP kids when they enter the program and when they leave. "The kids in fourth grade started out with the same low scores, the same sorts of disciplinary problems," he says.

Again, we see 'observers' attributing a child's learning to something the parent is doing, not something the school is doing. This cuts both ways. If the child fails, it's the parent. If the child succeeds, it's the parent. KIPP kids are succeeding; therefore KIPP parents are different.

Richard Rothstein is big on this idea. KIPP parents aren't normal poor people. They're abnormal poor people. I find that shocking coming from an advocate for the poor. The poor are bad parents by definition? Awful.

Here's Rothstein:

But [KIPP] schools do not enroll black children from typical low-income families....Parents who send their children to such schools are already unusually interested in their education; children are accepted only if parents agree to monitor their homework, enforce approved disciplinary measures, and limit television-watching. If children or their parents violate these agreements, the children can be expelled—a rare occurrence, but a threat nevertheless.

source: Must Schools Fail? by Richard Rothstein
New York Review of Books $
Volume 51, Number 19 · December 2, 2004

There you have it. KIPP parents are not typical, because KIPP parents are 'unusually interested' in their children's education.

A typical poor person doesn't care.

Awful.



the parents

Looking back over a decade in the classroom, Feinberg and Levin cite the sorts of triumphs and failures familiar to any adventurer in the blackboard jungle. "There have been so many nights being up until midnight after waking up at 5 a.m. and voice mails from parents yelling at me like I'm a little worse than the devil," Feinberg says.

nope

There's not a lot of talk from either Feinberg or Levin about 'holding parents accountable.'

In fact, there's none.

These two guys are running a superb school for difficult students who are far behind their more affluent peers when they show up.

They hold themselves accountable, first and foremost.

Then the kids, then the parents.

Sounds like the parents are holding the school accountable, too.

That's the way it should work. As Ken pointed out when Christopher brought home the Contract to Improve My Grades, which I signed but then refused to hand in, a contract is signed by all parties, not just one.



preview of coming attractions

I've got to start writing down Christian's stories.

Christian is Jimmy's & Andrew's 'res hab' aide. He went to school in Yonkers, and has tales to tell. He has so many tales to tell that he wants to write a book, and I want him to write a book, and it's conceivable we'll write a book together. His mom lived in a cozy little row of townhouses built down below the enormous Projects there in Yonkers; Christian says they used to call their place Little House by the Projects.

Christian's mom spent a lot of time hassling school officials, let me tell you.

Before he moved to Yonkers, Christian was going to school in Mamaroneck. After they moved, he used the same book as a senior in high school he'd already used in 7th grade in Mamaroneck.

This is why we need KIPP.

And this is why Richard Rothstein doesn't know what he's talking about.

I wonder if Christopher would learn more at KIPP?

I wonder if Christopher could go to KIPP?

It's not that far away. We could get him there.






my contract to improve Christopher's grades
a Grade Contract that makes sense
the book
Grade Contract for married people
climb down
Smartest Tractor saves the day
KIPP Academy contract



-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Mar 2006

comments...

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ConstructivismAndRoteMemorization 04 Mar 2006 - 15:22 CatherineJohnson


I'm frequently struck by how much rote memorization is required — whether implicitly or explicitly — by constructivist curricula.

Here's an example:

The whole-word approach to spelling instruction has both advantages and disadvantages. The primary advantage to the whole-word approach is that it works very well for words that are considered irregular. Irregular words are words that cannot be spelled by applying general spelling conventions. Some examples of irregular words are: yacht, quiet, and friend. The disadvantage to the whole-word approach is that it relies on rote memorization for all words, instead of taking advantage of phonemic rules that can simplify the task of spelling. Relying solely on rote memorization for spelling could be compared to requiring students to memorize the answers to all multi-digit subtraction problems instead of teaching them the rule for borrowing (Dixon, 1993). To summarize, rote memorization is not the most efficient strategy for spelling instruction, unless the spelling words are irregular, meaning that they cannot be spelled by applying general spelling rules.

source:
Spelling Research (pdf file)
Flint Simonson, Lee Gunter, Nancy Marchand-Martella, Ph.D.
(research paper commissioned by SRA)

Although Megawords, the program I'm using with Christohper, does not use the term 'morphograph,' my sense is that it's a 'morphographic' spelling program. Here's more from SRA:

A morphograph is the smallest unit of identifiable meaning in written English. Morphographs include prefixes, suffixes, and bases or roots. Many words in the written English language can be created by following a small set of rules for combining morphographs. For example, the word recovered is made up of the prefix re, the base cover, and the suffix ed. Using the principles that govern the structure of words, the morphemic approach to spelling instruction teaches students the spellings for morphographs rather than whole words and the rules for combining morphographs to spell whole words correctly. For example, using a morphemic approach, students would be taught that when a base ends in the letter e (e.g., make) and is to be combined with the /ing/ suffix, the letter e is always dropped (make becomes making).

Louisa C. Moats on spelling and reading

According to Louisa C. Moats, the spelling of English language words isn't as irregular as most people believe:

The spelling of words in English is more regular and patternbased than commonly believed. According to Hanna, Hanna, Hodges, and Rudorf (1966), half of all English words can be spelled accurately on the basis of sound-symbol correspondences alone, meaning that the letters used to spell these words predictably represent their sound patterns (e.g., back, clay, baby). These patterns, though, are somewhat complex and must be learned (e.g., when to use “ck” as in back and when to use “k” as in book). Another 34 percent of English words would only have one error if they were spelled on the basis of sound-symbol correspondences alone. That means that the spelling of 84 percent of words is mostly predictable. Many more words could be spelled correctly if other information was taken into account, such as word meaning and word origin. The authors estimated that only four percent of English words were truly irregular. Thus, the spelling of almost any word can be explained if one or more of the following five principles of English spelling is taken into account:

1) Words’ language of origin and history of use can explain their spelling.

2) Words’ meaning and part of speech can determine their spelling.

3) Speech sounds are spelled with single letters and/or combinations of up to four letters.

4) The spelling of a given sound can vary according to its position within a word.

5) The spellings of some sounds are governed by established conventions of letter sequences and patterns.

source:
How Spelling Supports Reading And Why it Is More Regular and Predictable Than You May Think (pdf file)
Louisa C. Moats
AMERICAN EDUCATOR
Winter 2005/2006

Left to their own devices, most students don't just happen to pick up on these 5 principles.

They have to be taught.



skills taught in Megawords

from the website:

• 6 types of syllables
• syllabication rules
• Prefixes
• Suffixes
• Schwa sound
• Vowel variations
• Consonant variations
• Unaccented vowels
• Writing
• Reading
• Spelling
• Affixes and roots
• r-controlled vowels
• Digraphs
• Accent patterns
• Assimilated prefixes
• Parts of speech

We're 3/4 of the way through the 3rd book,^* and I would agree with every item on this list except for 'writing' — partly because we haven't been doing the final page of each unit, where the student is supposed to write several original sentences.

We've spent a HUGE amount of time on the schwa sound.

Don't ask me what the schwa sound is.

It's some kind of namby-pamby, swallowed-up, semi-vowel sound that's not much of a sound at all.

The schwa sound is HELL on spelling.



update: morphemes versus rote memorization

This is a useful passage:

The morphemic approach to spelling instruction offers several advantages. First, morphographs are generally spelled the same across different words. For example, the morphograph port is spelled the same in the words porter, deport, and important. Second, when the spelling of a morphograph changes across words, it does so in predictable ways. The morphograph trace is spelled differently in the words traces and tracing, but the change is governed by the rule for dropping the final e. Third, the number of morphographs is far fewer than the number of words in the written English language, and the number of principles for combining morphographs is relatively small. Therefore, teaching students to spell morphographs and teaching the rules for combining morphographs will allow students to spell a far larger set of words accurately than by teaching individual words through rote memorization of a weekly spelling list.

in a nutshell

• morphographs are generally spelled the same across different words

• when the spelling of a morphograph changes across words, it does so in predictable ways

• the number of morphographs is far fewer than the number of words in the written English language

• the number of principles for combining morphographs is relatively small

• therefore, teaching students to spell morphographs and teaching the rules for combining morphographs will allow students to spell a far larger set of words accurately than by teaching individual words through rote memorization of a weekly spelling list

Nick's Mama likes this book

The ABC's and All Their Tricks by M. Bishop




I just looked at the pages Amazon has posted online; 'ABC's' looks looks terrific. Thanks for the tip!




does good spelling help produce good reading?

I suspect that the answer to this question will ultimately be yes, if only for the reason that an expert speller has automaticity with morphemes that he or she can (probably) read novel passages featuring novel, multisyllabic words without stumbling.

This passage is interesting:

Use of the morphemic approach to spelling instruction is supported by research studies that have compared the characteristics of intact groups of good and poor spellers (Bruck & Waters, 1990; Waters et al., 1988). The findings from these studies confirm that good spellers have a stronger grasp of the principles for combining morphographs than poor spellers. Bruck and Waters (1990) divided students into three groups, based on academic skills: (a) good (good readers; good spellers), (b) mixed (good readers; poor spellers), and (c) poor (poor readers; poor spellers). The most significant difference between students in the good, mixed, and poor groups was that good students showed better skills related to the use of morphographs.

Christopher is in category (b): good reader, poor speller.

I'd put money on it that if I could turn him into a good speller he'd be a better reader, too.



spelling and writing

It looks like we do have enough research to conclude that good spelling supports good writing (or, rather, that poor spelling causes poor writing):

Research also bears out a strong relationship between spelling and writing: Writers who must think too hard about how to spell use up valuable cognitive resources needed for higher level aspects of composition (Singer and Bashir, 2004). Even more than reading, writing is a mental juggling act that depends on automatic deployment of basic skills such as handwriting, spelling, grammar, and punctuation so that the writer can keep track of such concerns as topic, organization, word choice, and audience needs. Poor spellers may restrict what they write to words they can spell, with inevitable loss of verbal power, or they may lose track of their thoughts when they get stuck trying to spell a word.

Automaticity again.

Spelling is to writing what math facts are to doing math.

Obviously, that's not quite true; when you're writing you can throw any old spelling on the page, and correct later.

You can't do that with a complicated calculation.

Still, the principle is the same.

The idea that you don't need automaticity because you can 'look it up' later doesn't work out so well in real life.



update: another recommendation

I can't remember who left this recommendation, but the book sounds great:

Spelling Power







spelling, reading, 4th grade slump, & multisyllabic words

learning to spell by memorization versus morphemes
spell check
bad spelling on job applications
sea sponges in legal documents



^*There are 8 books in all, starting in 4th grade and going through 11th. We started with Book 1 at the end of 5th grade and will be able to start the 7th grade book before this school year is over. The books are inexpensive compared to school textbooks: $9.85 apiece & $7.95 for the corresponding teacher's solution guide (which you definitely need no matter how well you spell.) I've come to think the Megawords books are terrific for teaching vocabulary as well as spelling. Each book also has timed reading tests for gauging and teaching fluency as well.


-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Mar 2006

comments...

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SpellCheck 04 Mar 2006 - 19:56 CatherineJohnson



...one study (Montgomery, Karlan, and Coutinho, 2001) reported that spell checkers usually catch just 30 to 80 percent of misspellings overall (partly because they miss errors like here vs. hear), and that spell checkers identified the target word from the misspellings of students with learning disabilities only 53 percent of the time.

source:
How Spelling Supports Reading And Why it Is More Regular and Predictable Than You May Think (pdf file)
Louisa C. Moats
AMERICAN EDUCATOR
Winter 2005/2006

spelling, reading, 4th grade slump, & multisyllabic words

learning to spell by memorization versus morphemes
spell check
bad spelling on job applications
sea sponges in legal documents



-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Mar 2006

comments...

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BadSpellingAndFirstImpressions 04 Mar 2006 - 20:01 CatherineJohnson

Those of us who can spell reasonably well take for granted the role that spelling plays in daily life. Filing alphabetically; looking up words in a phone book, dictionary, or thesaurus; recognizing the right choice from the possibilities presented by a spell checker; writing notes that others can read—and even playing parlor games—are all dependent on spelling. In a literate society, conventional spelling is expected and anything beyond a few small errors is equated with ignorance and incompetence. In fact, the National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges (2005) reported that 80 percent of the time an employment application is doomed if it is poorly written or poorly spelled.

source:
How Spelling Supports Reading And Why it Is More Regular and Predictable Than You May Think (pdf file)
Louisa C. Moats
AMERICAN EDUCATOR
Winter 2005/2006

The importance of spelling as a 'signal' of competence & intelligence dawns on parents only gradually, I think.

When I started working on Christopher's spelling at the end of 5th grade, it was obvious Ed thought I was getting carried away. Martine thought I was nuts, pure and simple; she was making a lot of 'Poor Christopher' noises.

Naturally I ignored them both and persisted.

Now that Christopher is 11 and still can't spell, everyone's singing a different song. The other night Martine and Christian (res-hab aide) were both ragging on Christopher about his spelling. The two of them are expert spellers; Martine, who is French, is an expert speller in two languages.

Martine was saying, 'Christopher, you have to read! If you read, you'll learn to spell!'

That's not true for most people, it seems, but it was true for her. Martine, like Carolyn & like me, is one of those almost-savant-type spellers who in fact do pick up excellent spelling without being directly taught.

That reminds me of a story.

Back around the time of 9/11, Andrew spelled out the words 'Interpol warning' in alphabet blocks on the bedroom floor. He'd seen it on the end of all his videotapes (where they warn you not to make illegal copies) and he thought it was relevant to our post 9-11 existence, which it was.

Christopher saw it and burst out laughing.

Ed said, 'Don't laugh, he spells better than you.'

Christopher said, 'Oh, yeah!' ('Oh yeah' meaning, 'I hadn't thought of that!' He sounded incredibly happy to have found something Andrew could beat him at.)

Anyway, now that Christopher is 11 & going to middle school & chasing girls & heading for a major growth spurt, all of a sudden his lousy spelling no longer looks cute, as it did when he was little.

It looks dumb.

Bad spelling isn't dumb, of course. Rationally speaking, there's no reason to assume that a poor speller is a less-intelligent person. There are plenty of brilliant people who can't spell.

But bad spelling 'reads' dumb. It's a simple social fact of life.

So now the whole household is united in the view that Christopher must learn to spell.

heh



spelling, reading, 4th grade slump, & multisyllabic words

learning to spell by memorization versus morphemes
spell check
bad spelling on job applications
sea sponges in legal documents



-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Mar 2006

comments...

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StandardThree 04 Mar 2006 - 21:56 CatherineJohnson



I've been searching the NY state standards site, trying to figure out exactly what it is Christopher is supposed to learn this year, and what that knowledge might look like on the state test.

You really have to see it to believe it (intermediate means middle grades):










It's always worse than you think.





Mathematics Core Curriculum MST Standard 3 Revised 2005 (pdf file)
Standard 3 Mathematics (pdf file)
Standard 3 student work (pdf file)
State Assessment Elementary Intermediate
NY State learning standards A - Z
Latest News on ELA, Mathematics, and Grades 3-8 Testing
Mathematics Resource Guide with Core Curriculum
Core Subjects / Learning Standards
Math Science & Technology standards

Glencoe Pre-Algebra standardized test practice New York



-- CatherineJohnson - 04 Mar 2006

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JasonMcElwain 05 Mar 2006 - 14:49 CatherineJohnson



Does anyone know how many shots Jason McElwain missed?

My understanding is that he missed the first two shots, then hit everything after that — is that wrong?

Here's what I have:

The Trojans opened a large lead against the team from the nearby Spencerport. With four minutes left, McElwain took the court to deafening cheers.

The ball came to him almost right away. His 3-point shot sailed completely off course, and the coach wondered if he made the wrong move. McElwain then missed a layup. Yet his father, David, was unruffled.

"The thing about Jason is he isn't afraid of anything," he told the newspaper. "He doesn't care what people think about him. He is his own person."

On the next trip down the floor, McElwain got the ball again. This time he stroked a 3, all net.

He was just warming up.

"As soon as the first shot went in that's when I started to get going," he said.

On the next attempt, he got another 3-pointer. Then another, and another. In fact, he would have made one more 3, but his foot was on the line, so he had to settle for 2 points.

Greece Athena won 79-43, and pandemonium reigned. McElwain signed autographs, posed for pictures and was hoisted by his teammates.

source:
ESPN

and this —

And, in his first action of the year, McElwain missed his first two shots, but then sank six three-pointers and another shot (video), for a total of 20 points in three minutes.

source:
CBS News

and —

“It was like a big old bucket and I was just hitting them like they were free throws,” McElwain said. “I just felt relaxed.”

source:
MSNBC

Ed thinks (me, too) that 'J-Mac' probably went into some kind of perceptual processing glitch where the basket really did appear to him like a 'big old bucket.'

Visual processing takes up 1/3 to as much as 1/2 of our brains. It's HUGE.

And when it's affected by autism — which it is — who knows what happens, or what the possibilities are?

I should see if I can get Mel Kaplan to tell us what he thinks.






-- CatherineJohnson - 05 Mar 2006

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StickingPointsInMathPart2 06 Mar 2006 - 00:11 CarolynJohnston

I've created a new page, StickingPointsInMathAndAlgebra, to help warn parents of likely difficult patches in their child's education in advance of the topic's being covered. This will be a permanent page. Feedback from the first 'sticking points' topic has been included, but the page is still under construction. Please offer more of your input -- let me know what I left out!

-- CarolynJohnston - 06 Mar 2006

comments...

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GraphPaperForOurTeachers 06 Mar 2006 - 13:51 CatherineJohnson


I found a terrific cache of graph paper online this weekend at a site called Mathematics Help Central — perfect for homework or for taking notes in class.

Mathematics Central is a lot of fun:

Are you stumped on a math problem? Help is on the way! Mathematics is a challenging subject that mystifies many. Imagine the problem as a complicated puzzle that you must solve. All the pieces must fit in order for you to realize your success. This web site is devoted to helping you through your math worries! Take a look around! There's plenty of lecture notes, helpful links, personally developed graph paper, and a little section about why I love math. Enjoy!

She's posted her lecture notes.


From her 'About Me' section:

I have not always loved math. In fact, math does not come easily for me. I have to work hard for it! I suppose that's why I find it so challenging.

I am a college student enrolled full time at a southern university pursuing a major in mathematics. I am also a divorced mother of two beautiful little girls. In February 1998, (Friday the 13th of all days), my husband of five years and I were separated. At the time, my oldest daughter was almost four years old, and I was six months pregnant. I was hurt, devastated, and miserable. The divorce was painful. My self-confidence was nowhere to be found. I returned home to live with my parents because I was a stay-at-home mom who had devoted most of my time to loving my family, and simply didn't have a way to make it on my own.

My parents encouraged me to go to college. I was excited about the idea, yet a little intimidated also. It had been years since I graduated, and I just wasn't sure if I could do it by myself with two small children. My parents assured me that they would help me in whatever ways they could, even though both are disabled and are experiencing increasing health problems to date. With much thought, a little preparation, and a lot of guts, I enrolled for classes during the spring semester at our local community college.

My father, and many others I had talked to, encouraged me to go into an engineering or computer related field with a concentration in mathematics. I had never had any trouble keeping my checkbook balanced--that is when I had money in it! My first class in college was Intermediate College Algebra. I was excited and ready to go. I thought to myself, "This should be pretty easy. Probably mostly review from high school."

Boy, was I wrong! When my professor began reviewing pre-requisite material, I began to panic! I didn't remember anything! (And my teacher was so tough!) I looked for help anywhere I could find it, and I even had to ask my 15 year old nephew for help with fractions and equations.

USA Today mentioned her in a story, too.



the graphs

There are 9 different forms, each in color or black and white.


Here's a terrific homework form for kids learning functions:

"Three graphs per page with plenty of room to work problems, also."


There's space for equations & calculations, and an already-made chart for the 'input' and 'output' numbers. I love it.

(He obviously took a screen shot before he'd finished; the actual sheet doesn't have the funky mis-matched lines on the graphs.)

Here's another:




"Eight graphs per page. This graph paper is best when you have a lot of graphs to make. The graphs are
small without numbers."



This one might be great for hand-outs —





"Large x-y Co-ordinate Graph Paper. This graph paper is a must for any student doing extensive
graphing. This graph is perfect for graphing class notes quickly. The x and y axis and the rectangular
co-ordinates are already drawn to speed up the homework and study process! The minimum and
maximum x and y values are blank so that you can scale the graph to fit your needs."



Graph paper for college geometry:




This one is an original!!! This graph paper was designed for College Geometry where proofs are
involved. You can fit two proofs to a page. The "Given" and "To Prove" are labeled beside the
Statements/Reasons tables, and there is room to draw your given geometric figure. This was a
HUGE time-saver for me. The headings and color scheme are the same as Form 5A. The paper is
probably suitable for for other types of mathematics proofs, but it was not designed for that purpose.



Graph Paper Printer Program

He's also got a 'Graph Paper Printer Program' available for download.

I tried to download it, but didn't know how to work it. Apparently you're supposed to 'paste' it into your word processing program?

I have no idea how one would do that, sad to say.






'graph paper' for word problems?

I'm thinking about creating some kind of how-to-solve-word-problems template for Christopher.

He has essentially zero idea how to tackle even a simple word problem, and the state test is on March 14 - 15.



polar coordinate graph paper (pdf file)


-- CatherineJohnson - 06 Mar 2006

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HowDoYouTeachChildrenToSolveWordProblems 06 Mar 2006 - 21:02 CatherineJohnson


I could use some advice.

The New York State test is coming up on March 14 - 15.

The kids aren't doing well on the sample tests they've taken. Only 2 out of 19 in Christopher's class got a 4 - 'exceeds state standards' - on the one they did last week. Two 4s in an 'accelerated' math class. [update: turns out that's 2 out of all 3 Phase 4 classes, which is close to 60 kids. Two of sixty children in the Irvington Middle School accelerated math class exceed state standard on a practice test.]

It's a joke.

Christopher got a 3 on the sample test, and of course I'm determined that he earn a 4 on the real one; don't ask me why. Same reason people climb Mount Everest, probably. [update 4-23-2006: no, that's not why. Christopher's 4's on NY state tests to date are at odds with the grades he receives in his classes at Irvington Middle School. Part of our new data warehousing initiative involves comparing grades in school to scores on state tests.]

Mount Everest aside, this is a golden opportunity for Christopher finally to learn something about solving word problems. I've mentioned several times that they've done essentially no word problems this year; I'm thinking they must not have done many in 5th grade, either, though I don't recall.

Saxon 6/5, I do recall, does not stress word problems. Or, rather, Saxon teaches word problems very, very carefully, slowly, and deliberately. Kids learn different genres of problems, such as 'problems with equal groups' and practice one-step versions of those problems to mastery. I don't think they do two-step problems until Saxon 7/6 or maybe even 8/7 (though I could be wrong).

This always used to bother me about Saxon. Singapore Math has two-part problems starting in 3rd grade or possibly even earlier. However, now that I'm almost done with Saxon 8/7 myself, I can see the point.

Back when I wrote my dissertation (on 1950s film comedy, no less) I talked about the 'narrational presence' in movies, by which I meant the implied director or author hovering over the proceedings. The narrational presence in a Saxon book is a kind and intelligent person who really, really wants you to learn math - and doesn't expect your parents to hire a tutor or send you to cram school to see to it that you do.

So Saxon builds word problem solving skills slowly, incrementally, and logically. After awhile you're doing two-step and three-step word problems, you're doing them easily, and you're doing them without your parents ever having spent $300 to attend a 30-hour weekend seminar on how to understand changes in math instruction.

John Saxon must have had broad shoulders, because he sure carries the load.

Unfortunately that's not what we need here.

We need teach-to-crammery problem-solving strategies, and we need them today.

We need teach-to-crammery problelm-solving strategies today because the state test has an open-ended question section that's a killer. It's wall-to-wall story problems, none of which Christopher has ever seen or done. He got 20 out of 25 multiple choice questions right on the sample test. That's not great, but that it will improve easily with practice.

He got 13 out of 24 open questions right. Awful.

The smartest child in the class missed 5 of the open questions. This is a kid who, from where I sit, is unstoppable. And she's scoring 5 wrong out of 24.



'make a chart'

I spent this weekend teaching Christopher the fantastically helpful charts that are in Saxon, Dolciani, and Brown and Dolciani (Brown's book being a terrific basic algebra text, btw. In the past, inexpensive teacher's editions for Brown have been easy to find.)

How I wish I'd known about 'word problem charts' when I was a kid. They're incredible.

And how I wonder why Prentice Hall doesn't have them.

I'll post a couple of examples, but in the meantime, here's the simplest one:




I find this beautiful.

• It's simple, clean, and instructive. Every time Christopher fills out a Dolciani/Saxon/Brown-type chart he rehearses and 'sees' again the relationships among these numbers.

• Once a value has been entered in its correct place on the chart, the student doesn't have to hold it in memory. Nor does he have to re-read the problem to re-find whichever number he's forgotten while remembering whichever number he's (currently) remembering. When you're just learning to solve word problems, you're constantly forgetting one number while remembering some other number. People always say that the 'big problem' with word problems is they're hard to read, but I'm starting to think the big problem is they're impossible to remember. Which may amount to the same thing, of course.
  These charts take such an enormous burden off of working memory that I wonder whether Temple might have been able to learn algebra if someone had taught her to construct them.)

• Finally, the fraction bar is already there, implicitly and almost explicitly, in the lines of the chart. When I pointed this out to Christopher he said, 'Oh, yeah' in his happy 'I get it' voice.

more charts
















update

Here are the Prentice-Hall triangle charts.

Horrid.



your advice?

So here's my question.

Last night, watching Christopher read word problems, I could see that he had no clue.

He wasn't even pulling out the numbers, especially; his approach seemed completely haphazard. He seems just to guess positions and operations.

The minute I showed him the charts, he started knowing what he was after & being able to find it in the problem.

He needs a strategy.

At the moment, I'm telling him to circle each 'math fact' and underline the question. I also suggested using yellow highlighter to highlight the math facts and blue to highlight the question. He likes that idea, but I'm not sure it's practical for the state test, which is timed.

But I'm wondering whether I also ought to make up some kind of 'teaching template' he would have to fill in for each problem he does.

Something like this:


question: _________________

what I know: _______________

what I know _______________

what I know _______________

what I need to find out (if needed) _____________

what I need to find out (if needed) _____________


I thought of this because I saw somebody on a website somewhere do something similar. Now, of course, I have no idea what or where that website was.

Any suggestions?


I gather Mildred and Tim Johnson's book, How to Solve Word Problems in Algebra, is the best of the lot, but I probably don't have time to pick up a copy before next week.




how do you teach your child word problems?
mini problems (important)

teachtocrammery



-- CatherineJohnson - 06 Mar 2006

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SampleProblemsStateTestPrep 06 Mar 2006 - 22:46 CatherineJohnson

What do you think of these?

I actually like them (though that opinion is on probation until I hear from some of you).

I'm enjoying the test-prep Pause. The kids are doing nothing with Prentice-Hall, which I've come to loathe, and instead are trying to solve sensible or at least semi-sensible problems.

There's an opportunity here!

Here are some problems from Glencoe's open answer section:


Nadine had 4 friends visiting. She had 2/3 of a pie left to serve them, so she divided it into 4 slices. What fraction of the whole pie did each friend receive?

What is the value of n, if a = 5?    n = a x 4





Here's one I don't get:


Tito collected data about his school. One of the things his data showed was that 3 out of every 7 students in the school are boys.

Part A If 3 out of every 7 students are boys, write equivalent fractions that can be used to determine how many out of 84 are boys.

Part B Solve the equivalent fractions. Explain how you arrived at your answer.


That's the part I don't understand.

What should he explain here?

Should he say 'I cross-multiplied'?

Is that the explanation?

I have no idea.

There was one hilarious problem....

I found it.


There were 4576 people at Mrs. Sunshine's cafe. Each of them placed zero orders for Brussels sprouts.

a) How many Brussels sprouts were ordered?

b) Show your equation and explain how you arrived at your answer.


We both sat around laughing about that one.

What's that saying about 'walking back the cat'?

OK, there are zero orders of Brussels sprouts so that makes....zero orders of Brussels sprouts....so my equation is.....ZERO.....and my explanation is NOBODY ORDERED THE FREAKING BRUSSELS SPROUTS SO THAT'S HOW I KNEW THE ANSWER WAS ZERO.

-- CatherineJohnson - 06 Mar 2006

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PrenticeHallTriangles 06 Mar 2006 - 23:01 CatherineJohnson


Another thing you have to see to believe:





The book then proceeds to show four more percent problems solved via Percent Triangles followed by a bunch of Class exercises & Written exercises, all to be solved by constructing Percent Triangles.

Prentice-Hall Mathematics Explorations & Applications is just a wretched, wretched book.

I may have to set my copy on fire at the end of the year.

Saxon to the rescue

In Lesson 77, Saxon teaches kids to write variables with subscripts. He also has the kids practice a direct one-to-one translation of the words 'of' and 'is.' Of means 'times'; is means 'equals.'

Simple, clean, and it works.

What number is twenty-five percent of 80?
W_N = .25 x 80

Fifteen percent of what number is 45?
.15 x W_N = 45?

Seventy-five is what decimal part of 20?
75 = W_D x 20

What fraction of 56 is 42?
W_F x 56 = 42

This system allows Saxon to teach percent, decimal, and fraction problems close together, without students getting lost mid-stream. (At least, I assume this system works....it worked with Christopher today, so he's my 'n of 1.')


using charts in Saxon, Dolciani, & in Brown & Dolciani




update: Old Grouch on the triangle

Triangle Diagram

It looks like it's a crutch for setting up the problem mechanically, without understanding what you're doing.

You're told to set things up this way:

               small-number
             -----------------
            percent | large-number 

The math that's hiding here is that if you replace the "|" with a multiplication sign, you have a fraction with the value of 1. Which means (in old-fashioned math): "If the unknown term is in the denominator, multiply both sides of the equation by the unknown, then solve; or, if the unknown is the numerator, multiply both sides by the denominator, then solve." But they're probably just telling students something like "pull out whatever is unknown, put it on the other side of the equal sign, then calculate what's left," e.g.,:

                  small-number
       percent =  ------------
                  large-number
-or-
       small-number
       ------------ = large-number
         percent 
-or- 
     small-number = percent * large-number

This works, but it fuzzes what you're doing. And because you don't understand, you'll make this error when you try to solve for small-number:

 W-R-O-N-G                         1
          small-number = ---------------------- 
                         percent * large-number

The presence of percents-expressed-as-percents as opposed to percents-expressed-as-a-decimal just adds to the confusion. (Imagine the fun with percents-expressed-as-a-fraction!)

And of course the small-number large-number placement in the setup fails when the percentage is >100.

-- CatherineJohnson - 06 Mar 2006

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PiWeekComingRightUp 06 Mar 2006 - 23:37 CatherineJohnson



For five bucks I can purchase a pi t-shirt for Christopher.

-- CatherineJohnson - 06 Mar 2006

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StickingPointsInMathPart3 07 Mar 2006 - 05:24 CarolynJohnston

My thanks are due to everyone who submitted suggestions for the permanent reference on sticking points in math! Please keep them coming. My thanks are especially due to Matt for reminding me of the horrific 'distributive law for powers' error (in algebra). Brrrrr..... I'd forgotten that one.

-- CarolynJohnston - 07 Mar 2006

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SeaSpongeWorthy 07 Mar 2006 - 14:00 CatherineJohnson


Ken left a link to this story about spell check:

Then there's always the other types of spell-check related problems, like this classic:

Spell-checking on his computer is never going to be the same for Santa Cruz solo practitioner Arthur Dudley.

In an opening brief to San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal, a search-and-replace command by Dudley inexplicably inserted the words "sea sponge" instead of the legal term "sua sponte," which is Latin for "on its own motion."

"Spell check did not have sua sponte in it," said Dudley, who, not noticing the error, shipped the brief to court.

That left the justices reading -- and probably laughing at -- such classic statements as: "An appropriate instruction limiting the judge's criminal liability in such a prosecution must be given sea sponge explaining that certain acts or omissions by themselves are not sufficient to support a conviction."

And: "It is well settled that a trial court must instruct sea sponge on any defense, including a mistake of fact defense."

The sneaky "sea sponge" popped up at least five times.

spelling, reading, 4th grade slump, & multisyllabic words

learning to spell by memorization versus morphemes
spell check
bad spelling on job applications
sea sponges in legal documents



-- CatherineJohnson - 07 Mar 2006

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MegawordsMissionAccomplished 07 Mar 2006 - 15:30 CatherineJohnson


I was going through old posts on spelling, and I found this one, which I wrote on May 1, 2005:

Christopher and I finally finished Megawords 1 today.

Megawords 1 is the 4th grade book, and I've been saying for months now that my goal in life is to finish the 4th grade book before Christopher gets out of 5th grade.

My new goal is to finish the 5th grade book (Megawords 2, in case you were wondering) before Christopher gets into 6th grade.

I would like to be doing the 6th grade book in the 6th grade.

I don't feel that's asking too much.

wow

That makes me feel good.

We're midway through 6th grade and we've got 22 pages left to do in Megawords 3 (22 out of 67 total) plus 2 tests.

We'll manage to start the 7th grade book before this school year ends. (That's my new goal: finish the 7th grade book before 7th grade.)

cool



speaking of goals

One thing I like about the state tests — this probably puts me in a tiny minority — is the pressure they put on Christopher.

His competitive nature kicks in, and even though he'd like to blow me off, and tries to blow me off, he can't quite bring himself to do it.

This gives me a one-week Golden Opportunity to get ratio & proportion problems pretty solidly drilled into him.



Which reminds me....I need a vocabulary for the stages of learning & mastery.

Christopher is what we used to call a 'quick study.' He memorizes quickly, and remembers well.

My sense is that's what's getting him through his math class. He doesn't have anywhere near the conceptual understanding he needs, and I'm guessing he doesn't have the same 'pattern recognition' skills the A students in the class must have.




sidebar

There are a number of kids in Christopher's math class who are doing great. They're getting straight As, and they seem to be getting straight As without a lot of effort. One of those kids has had ZERO help from his parents this year. Straight As. (And he doesn't even like math! His mom told me so.)

I'm pretty sure there are several other kids who aren't getting much help from their parents, either (though there are plenty who are).

How are these kids doing it?

I'm INTENSELY curious about this.

possibilities:

• they've started with a better base than Christopher, who continues to have his 'lost year' of math (4th grade, when his teacher was poor & he failed at least a third of the coursework)

• the straight-A kids innately understand math better.....or 'see it' quicker.....or something. The only problem with this hypothesis is that it's not clear that these are 'gifted' kids. I know at least two of them aren't; their mom has told me explicitly that they absolutely aren't gifted. 'They work hard,' she said. Probably one or two of the easy-A kids do have special talents in math, but not all of them do. (Also: WHAT IS GIFTEDNESS IN MATH?? I'd love to know.)

• better attention — Christopher has said consistently, throughout the year, that Ms. Kahl's explanations are clear. I have no reason not to trust him on this, and now that he's going in for extra help he comes home having understood what Ms. Kahl told him one-on-one (I think). He's also told Ed that his class is rowdy and ill-behaved, and that it's hard to pay attention. I take all of this with a grain of salt; i.e. I wouldn't use this report to assume that Ms. Kahl has trouble keeping order. If I walked into her class I might very well perceive the atmosphere to be sufficiently calm and focused. However, I do think this report is true for Christopher. I think he's probably distracted by the other kids in class — and I assume the straight-A kids probably aren't.
  
  Plus we have the whole weird visual processing issue, which I don't understand at all (Christopher had vision therapy for awhile & wore prism lenses, which made a huge improvement in his soccer playing), so it's possible he's having trouble taking in what the teacher says, what she writes on the board, AND blocking out distractions at the same time. As I understand it, if your brain has to use a lot of energy compensating for deficits you don't have as much energy left over to filter and suppress distractions...something has to be sacrificed.

• better pattern recognition?? I don't necessarily know what I mean by this. I'm thinking about my own experience learning to read and spell. I 'taught myself to read' and I just naturally knew how to spell. How did this happen? I assume I picked up on patterns. I learned to read through being read-to by my mom. She says that one day, when she was reading MADELINE to me for the umpteenth time (I think it was Madeleine), I told her I could read. She said I couldn't, so I read the page to her correctly. She assumed I'd just memorized the words by heart, so she started turning pages and pointing to individual words. I could read them all correctly, taken out of sequence. I think this must have happened the summer after Kindergarten. (We weren't taught to read in Kindergarten; reading was taught in 1st grade.) I went into 1st grade able to read every book we were going to use that year.
  
  I'm assuming the straight-A kids must be doing the same thing with math. They're picking up on patterns. I also assume Christopher isn't picking up on these patterns; he has to have the patterns pointed out and explicitly taught.

That's all I've come up with so far.

I'm fascinated by this, because I know quite a few of these kids, and there's