tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post8219223140266082228..comments2024-01-27T08:49:12.307-05:00Comments on An "Old Math Dog" Learning New Tricks: CalculatorsLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11928419408011193721noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-78817806522698407142012-04-22T16:21:09.816-04:002012-04-22T16:21:09.816-04:00My experience has been that if students get to hig...My experience has been that if students get to higher algebra and still don't have fractions down, they've built up a block. Students who have mis-learned, misunderstood, or just been frustrated with the same topic over and over again just can't be retaught that idea in the same way they've seen it before. Every year teachers have tried to reteach it to these students and every year when the students can't get it, they feel like failures and lose all confidence in their ability to understand these numerical processes. When I try to directly reteach fractions I have no success. But these students have advanced to algebra 2 or beyond. They can think about math abstractly. So I've had a lot more success reteaching fractions or numerical operations through algebra. We discuss canceling and why it works in pre-alg or algebra 1 and then go back and look at how reducing of fractions worked. I've had a lot of success with this because then we're not trying to reteach the students something they're sure they can't learn and don't understand. We're teaching them something new which they're interested in learning, and they can then go back and realize they actually do understand that thing they thought they could never get, and better yet, it wasn't a frustrating process. When I teach this way, I haven't had too much trouble with calculators because it's not 5x6 I'm asking of them, it's how reducing works and how we can apply it to variables, then to numbers which has nothing to do with calculators. On a side note, I made a polynomial division worksheet that builds it up based on regular long division. I don't know if it's any good, but it's an example of what the first comment was referring to. here's the link: http://dontpanictheansweris42.blogspot.com/2012/02/polynomial-division.htmlLizzy-Senseihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16697599110257655917noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-4850240443579957222012-04-19T21:36:38.707-04:002012-04-19T21:36:38.707-04:00@Alex - it is David Cox's post I believe you&#...@Alex - it is David Cox's post I believe you're talking about: http://coxmath.blogspot.com/2012/04/comma.html. He posted it right after I had done rational expressions. I am definitely looking at that next year.<br /><br />@Leah - Thanks for sharing what you did last year. I'm still thinking about what I want to do about it. The more I think about it, the more I am leaning towards integrating the numeric reviews as I introduce the algebraic concepts, similar to what Anonymous mentioned above with long division and division of polynomials.<br />--LisaLisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11928419408011193721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-53404337968806977902012-04-19T20:53:50.129-04:002012-04-19T20:53:50.129-04:00This is my second year of teaching. Last year, I e...This is my second year of teaching. Last year, I encouraged students to use calculators for anything and everything they needed them for. Someone else pointed out to me that lack of numeric literacy may contribute to difficulties in Algebra so I resolved to make that more of a priority this year.<br /><br />This year, I spent the first couple of weeks of school on basic number skills - operations with integers, fractions, percents etc. To be honest, I'm not sure it helped - they still use their calculators for simple operations. Also, when we started talking about operations on rational expressions and I asked questions about how to perform operations on numerical fractions I was met with mostly blank stares. Maybe if done in a different way it would work betterLeah (elbee818)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-49326992741308128592012-04-19T08:42:27.662-04:002012-04-19T08:42:27.662-04:00I recently saw a post (which I can no longer find,...I recently saw a post (which I can no longer find, but I did look for it), where someone was talking about teaching kids to add fractions in a more algebraic sense. So when asking a question like 3/5 + 2/3 instead of getting the answer 19/15, they would try to give the answer in terms of the numbers 2, 3, and 5 only. So the answer would be (3*3 + 2*5)/(5*3) which helps them to build the algebraic skills necessary while still working with familiar numbers. This should probably be done when they first learn to do common denominators and such, but there's no reason not to do it later as well.Alexhttp://agktmte.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6414622914006646376.post-59892067215237442312012-04-19T06:00:19.789-04:002012-04-19T06:00:19.789-04:00Last time I had to teach division of polynomials I...Last time I had to teach division of polynomials I spent a lesson or two going over long division. I think the time was very well spent and enabled many students to make that leap. Would those same students have managed to master division of polynomials without the prep? I don't know. Would I do it the same way next time? Absolutely.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com