The best part of
the week
Teaching
fractions is a lot easier when a story is involved. In class this week we were
taught fractions through the use of the story called, “the Hershey’s Milk
Chocolate Fraction Book.” The book teaches the students the fractions from 1/12
to 13/12 and also a variety of other unit fractions (1 as the numerator). The
activity is an interactive story and got the whole class involved as many of us
were eager to eat the chocolate that was associated with the activity. This activity
made it clear to see the positive outcomes that can be found through the use of
children’s literature, provided a resource for future teaching and also gave us
a tasty snack.
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| Pallotta, Jerrry. "The Hershey's Milk Chocolate Fractions Book." 1999. Book cover. Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/book/hersheys-milk-chocolate-bar-fractions-book-0#cart/cleanup |
What I will take
away
Memorization of steps of
mathematical procedures are not important if students do not understand why
they are doing them. This sentence from the previous week is something that I
will bring into my future classrooms as a teacher. Countless formulas were taught
to me as a student throughout my education. I would memorize the formulas and
even the parts of the question from where to get the numbers to put in the
equation to get the correct answer but I never fully understood what I was
doing. By forcing students to memorize a
formula we are putting them at a disadvantage as we limit the ways that they
are able to learn. If the students are able to understand what is asked of
them, then they are more likely able to remember how to find the answer to
questions such as what is the slope of the line? By allowing students to create
their own way to arrive at the solution we are encouraging a growth mindset and
helping them understand math better.
Problem Solving
Assignment
The problem solving assignment
reinforced the notion that students should be allowed to find their own
solutions to the questions that are asked. When completing the answers to the
questions that I was given, I originally was only able to think of one way that
I knew how to find the answer. I was able to remember the substitution method
of algebra as that was the way I was taught to find the answer of what the
variable represents in the equation. Upon first looking at the problem I was
only able to solve the question in one way. It was not until a couple days
later that I was able to go back to and understand the problem from a different
perspective. By leaving the problem and answering the question in another
method I was able to better understand the question. By finding the answer
using a different method I was able to realize that there are multiple ways to
arrive at the answer and to use the way that you understand the most.
Hi Christian,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post this week, I really liked that you added pictures and links to the resource children's book in your post. I definitely agree with you about the memorization of formulas. This seems to be what most of us were taught and grew up with and I think after reflecting on it a lot of the teachers in our class will take this approach of teaching students to understand and question math. Did you find that for the problem solving assignment that you recalled material that we studied from those grades? Or did you use more logical thinking to approach the questions?
Hi Christian! Great blog post! I really enjoy they layout of your blog, its very nicely organized with easy to read subject headings.
ReplyDeleteI think that you bring up a great point. Memorization of mathematical procedures is not important unless students truly understand what they are doing. I think that is why it is so important that we have been introducing the idea of using manipulatives in our classroom. It will help our students fully understand what they are trying to accomplish and give them the chance to come up with alternative ways to think through what they are doing. Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
Kevin