EDEL 433-Melissa's Blog

I still can't get over how that little boy in the video understood negative numbers especially without being taught any formal strategies. We are taught to try an activate prior knowledge in our lessons so students have something to build on. Also, to learn as much about a students background and culture. In that video the boy was familiar with negative numbers because of the climate he lives in. He applied his prior knowledge of negative numbers regarding weather to a mathematical problem. The videos continue to impress me and teach me new things everyday. They have proved to me video after video to never underestimate the ability of a child.

The course is coming to an end and I am amazed at how sheltered my mathematical thinking was growing up. Maybe I should say restricted. I never even considered that there were so many ways a child could solve a problem. I have seen more efficient ways to solve problems by children in the videos, but I am so brainwashed that it is hard for me to do them any other way than the way I was taught... the teacher's way. Unfortunately, most of the schools have adopted a math program that uses the standard algorithm, but I am curious can kids apply their own strategy to the standard algorithm? I am not going to be able to word this properly. What I am trying to say is the standard way does not make too much sense and isn't the most logical way. Say a child prefers the 10's and 1's strategy is it easier to look at the U.S. algorithm, apply their own strategy to find the answer, and then complete it the standard way. Will they just stop inventing like Dr. Shih said? I know this is not making sense how I am writing it.

EDEL433-Melissa's blog

Today I worked with an ELL student on his accelerated math. His English isn't the greatest and what he can read most of the time he can not understand. One particular problem was a JCU. The problem was about goldfish and guppies.

So and so had 3 goldfish and some guppies. They had 7 fish altogether. How many guppies did they have?

We talked about problems similar to this one that would be difficult for an ELL. Sometimes ELL students are unaware of parts that belong to a whole. For example, with the problem about the student counted out the 3 fish. He didn't realize that a guppy was a type of fish so he had trouble solving the problem. Once I explained to him that guppies were fish also, he solved the problem with the direct model using paper clips as fish. He counted out 3, then he added paper clips until he arrived at 7 . After he went back and counted the number of fish he added to the original 3. It is so cool to see the students solve problems in real life. We watch them on video, but there's something about seeing it in person. I feel bad for ELL students. How many of them could actually solve word problems with little difficulty if they did not have a language barrier. The student I observed had no trouble at all once he knew that a guppy was a type of fish. These are things teachers sometimes aren't aware of. Certain accommodations should be considered when writing word problems, especially for ELLs.

EDEL-433 Melissa's blog

After Wednesday's class, I feel much better with the multiplication and division framework. I attempted to write up some strategies and it is really challenging. One of the problems I tried, I wrote two different counting strategies. I am not sure if both would be acceptable. The problem was for a JSU (8,10).

Below are the strategies I tried to write. I wasn't sure though with the counting strategy if the child would naturally abstract the first number like the problem says or if it is okay for them to start with the second number. In direct modeling the student does exactly what the problem says, but does counting have to be that way? Am I thinking too much like an adult trying to start with the 10 and then take away the 2 on my fingers?

Counting:
Child will abstract 8 in their head then count up on their fingers until they get to 10. They will go back and count how many fingers they are holding up(2) for their answer.

Not sure if this is one too.

Child will abstract the # 10 in their head then count backwards on their fingers (one count per finger) 8 times. They will add their fingers to make sure there are only 8. Then number their 8th finger ends on is the answer(2.)

EDEL 433-Melissa Kershner

I am feeling more comfortable with recognizing the different type of problems in the introduced framework. I do not feel comfortable writing them quite yet. I am finding it difficult to put my thoughts into words that are comprehensible to an outside source. I definitely need to practice and think a little more about it. The multiplication and division framework didn't seem too bad when we started, but then I got myself confused and turned around. Our table discussion was confusing me. I need to sit down with it and talk it through to myself in silence. I seem to grasp it better. I think I know that:

If the total is unknown it is known as grouping.
If the # of groups is unknown it is a measurement.
If the # per group is unknown it is a partitive.


T= (# of groups) x (# per group)

X is unknown:

X= (# of groups) x (# per group) Grouping

T=(X) x (# per group) Measurement (chunking)

T=(# of groups) x (X) Partitive (dealing)

I hope I have this right because I left the class confused.

EDEL433-Melissa's blog

I actually was able to see good words problems used in a literacy lesson. The lesson exercise used consisted of several word problems. The students were asked to fill in two answers: the answer to the word problem and making a vocabulary word plural with''ves'. For example, leaf to leaves, wolf to wolves, etc. Here are a couple sample problems.

Four ___________ are eating. One wolf walks away. How many are left?________.

You eat half of an apple. You eat one half more. How many __________ so you eat?_________.

All the problems were similiar to the above. They were mostly JRU, SRC, and JCU problems. I believe it was actually not a bad choice of word problems especially being that it was a dominant literacy lesson with some math integration. Each problem had a distinct action within which enabled the children to know exactly what to do.

EDEL-433 Melissa's Blog

Today, we discussed in class how teachers always want to rescue kids that are struggling with with word problems. We talked about how teachers should allow students the time to figure it out on their own, using their own strategy, but not to the point beyond frustration. In one of the videos Dr. Shih talked about a student took about 25 minutes to figure out a problem. In response to the video, most of the teachers stressed they didn't have that time to give to students. In my practicum, my mentor teacher actually has a learning center that consists of solving one word problem. The students have 15 minutes to do this being that this is the allotted time per station. She does not show them, tell, or expect them to do it her way. They are free to solve it however they want. The only thing I didn't see and wouldn't mind adding to this station is block manipulatives or other mathematical manipulatives for the students to use however they wish.