Modules 4.3 Readings

I found all of the readings on Dyscalculia very interesting and I can’t wait to research more about it this summer.  As I was reading these articles I could not help but think of Samantha from My Thirteenth Winter and how some of these concepts in each of these articles may have helped her learn or at least her some tools to help her succeed. 

The article titled One Fish Two Fish is a great article about helping student’s estimation in class.  In this teacher’s classroom she had students who were English Language Learners and students with disabilities and she had them all work together on a certain math problem.  She brought in different types of goldfish for a random sample and had students take out 20 of one fish and mix the other type of goldfish in with them, seal the bag, and then shake all of the goldfish together.  Students then had to take out a handful and record the results. With the results they were able to see a random sample of how many fish may be in a small pond by pretending to take a random sample of the fish (some of the fish in the pond were already tagged previously, so they were comparing how tagged fish they got versus non tagged fish)   In using manipulatives and approaching in Math this way I cannot help but wonder if Samantha’s teachers would have been able to reach her and help her learn some of those basic concepts in this way.  It brings up the idea of my own students who are struggling in Math.  There are a couple of them in Math class that are having extreme difficulties like Samantha did.  Would an approach like this bring more light on the Math concepts those students are having such difficulty with?   I am interested to try something like this in my room for solving word problems because this may help my students that have difficulty with Math.

Although all four articles gave me great insight and many ideas on teaching Math to my students and ideas to help all students including those with learning disabilities I rather liked the article about teaching students math problem with graphic organizers.  My math program uses a couple of graphic organizers but they are extremely confusing and the students have a hard time with them.  I have also found that those graphic organizers do not help the students in their learning the math concepts like they should.  After reading this article I have found many better graphic organizers that I believe will greatly help my students in learning some of the math concepts.  I love how all of the organizers easily show and put the material in an easy way for students to see and understand.  I can’t wait to show all of the students these graphic organizers when we are working on problems where we would use them.  The two organizers that I believe would help my students the most are the group story, change story, and compare story organizers because that is what my students have the most difficulty with.

All of the articles were extremely informative for me to help all of my students including those with learning disabilities.  I cannot wait to utilize all of the new strategies in the classroom.

Module 4.2 Questions from IRIS website

1.       1. The components of high-quality math instruction are a standards-based curriculum and evidence-based instructional strategies.  A standards-based curriculum is the content and skills that are important for students to learn.  Evidence-based instructional strategies are those strategies proven through research to be effective for teaching student’s math skills and concepts. 

2.   .     2. The NCTM standards are number and operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, data analysis and probability whereas the process standards are problem solving, reasoning and proof, communication, connections, and representation.  The difference between the NCTM standards and process standards are the NCTM standards are those standards where knowledge is acquired and the process standards are those standards are those ways to learn and use that knowledge. 

3.       3. In the video the teacher is using the teaching strategies of explicit teaching and cooperative learning.  At the beginning of the video clip students are given instructions by the teacher of what to do and the expectations she has and then are sent on their way to work on the problem In this concept students are placed together in heterogeneous groups to work on the problem together to come up with a solution such as the one in the video.   The classroom practices that are being used are having students working together in a group to work with the concepts they have learned previously in class.  The concept about finding the area of a non-standard shape are built upon in this clip because they are now putting to practice what skills they have learned.  The students have to collaborate and work together to solve the problem.  As they are solving the problem they have to keep a log of what they have done so they are able to share it easily with other groups.  Another effective teaching practice is having the teacher talk to each group and has the group explain to the teacher what their thoughts and action plan are for solving the problem.

Module 4.1

The three videos I watched were How to Add Fractions with a common denominator part 1, Multiplying Using the Table or Box Method, and Order of Operations.  After reading Chapter 14 I have realized there are many accommodations in the chapter that are similar to the ones in the videos.  In each of the videos and in chapter 14 one learns strategies of how to help all students including those with learning disabilities.

The first video I watched Multiplying Using the Table or Box Method is a great accommodation and another great way to teach multiplying by 2 numbers or more digits to two or more digit numbers.  For many students multiplying by more than two digits is very difficult and confusing for students.  This method uses the expanded form method to multiply.  For instance to multiple 38 and 59 students would do in a box like.    Students would then place in the top left above the box 30 and then 8 above the right hand side of the box and then along the side you are doing the same you did on the top with the number 59.  You then multiply each number on top to the number on the side.  Think of this like a matrix.  The answers in each box starting with the top left and ending in the bottom right are as follows: 1500, 40, 270, and 72.  Now that you have all of those answers you are adding them together to get the answer to the multiplication problem. This is similar to the multiplication accommodations in chapter 14.  It is a more basic problem but the idea is still the same where students use addition to help solve the multiplication problem.  In this box method students are using expanded form and the basic multiplication facts to get an answer and in the book they are using repeated addition to help solve problems.  For students with disabilities the box method for harder math problems may be easier for them because they can break the down easier and use simpler multiplication facts which would allow them to use repeated addition such as page 474 explains.  For some of my students that are having trouble with multiplication the only way they can do the multiplication facts is by repeated addition.  The box method would help my students to do those harder problems and I will definitely be showing them this option when we get to this at the end of the year.

The second video I watched was How to Add Fractions with a Common Denominator.  I found this video interesting to watch because I do many things that similar to the video to teach common denominators.  In the video she mentioned and made it very clear that students never touch the denominators when adding like denominators and that was always the big thing I stress with my students.  This also stresses the skills of practicing common fractions and working with them.  If students are having trouble with fractions the video and chapter stresses pictures to show the relationships.  Chapter 14 explains also that the fractions that are the easiest to learn the halves, followed by the fourths and eighths.

The third video I watched was entitled Order of Operations.  This video stressed when given an expression there is a certain order that students need to get it done with.  In my classroom we are just beginning to use order of operations for some of our problems.  For instance we may have to multiply and then add or divide and subtract.  Although the order of operations we do in third grade is very basic it’s important for students to understand there is an order to which we need to our problem.  It is essential that student’s strategies such as those in chapter 14 to help them learn the basics of Math because once we start into this they begin to fall behind.  While most of the class is trying to remember which part of the problem we are to do first those students who are struggling are trying to just remember what 3 + 5 is.  What I liked about the video was it used small numbers to help relate the concepts and gave plenty of examples.  For students to understand Math it is all about the examples and doing the problems.    For most students the more they practice the better they get.  Another part of this video I really liked is that it explained PEMDAS (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction) as when you get to multiplication or division part you do either first, so whichever one comes first and then the same for the addition and subtraction.  I remember growing up how difficult that part was because we always saw and thought the “M” had to come before the “D” because of the way it was written and taught to us.  For students with learning disabilities that would be even more challenging because they are using this acronym and following it exactly.  If they knew and could visualize the “MD” and “AS” next to each other in the acronym such as the video suggests it will be easier for those students to succeed.