I have a new Fractions home page, with links to three pages on my site. In this post, I'll use it as an excuse to discuss some general ideas about teaching. Visual Representations In my Fraction Arithmetic page, I present a visual strategy for figuring out how to add, subtract, and multiply fractions. (There is… Continue reading Fractions
Tag: Teaching
Hoping to see you soon!
Here is a list of my upcoming appearances, ranging from 20 minutes to a full week. Perhaps you can attend one of them!NCTM National Meeting in San FranciscoA Hands-on Approach to Operations and Equivalent Expressions Thursday 14 April, 8:00-9:15am. 3022 Moscone WestThis is a hands-on Lab Gear workshop aimed at grades 6 to 8. The… Continue reading Hoping to see you soon!
More Calculus, Less Understanding?
Sooner is not necessarily better! If you're a long-time reader of this blog, you may remember my posts about hyper-acceleration. (I have combined those into one article on my Web site.)Today, a guest post on acceleration by Robin Pemantle, a mathematician at Penn, who addresses this topic from his point of view as a university… Continue reading More Calculus, Less Understanding?
Growth Mindset for Teachers?
Back in 2005, I spoke at the Asilomar meeting of the California Math Council. In that session (cheerfully titled "Nothing Works",) I presented a great many ideas about every aspect of the art of teaching math (slides | outline | article). Among those ideas:Make mathematical mistakes on purpose or otherwise, and model a positive response… Continue reading Growth Mindset for Teachers?
Animated Demonstrations
New on my Web site:→ Animated slides on the Lab Gear model for signed number arithmetic.Note that for each operation, the model is based on what students already know. For addition, you put down the first number, then the second number, and finally count. For subtraction, you put down the first number, take away the… Continue reading Animated Demonstrations
Hints! The topic that will not die
In a post about hints, last June, I wrote: "Any time we can ask kids to make something instead of consuming something, we should jump on it." My point was that merely asking students "what do you notice?" is not likely to yield the desired insight, because what students notice is constrained by what they… Continue reading Hints! The topic that will not die
Once again: heterogeneous classes
All classes are heterogeneous, some more than others. In other words, some of our students don't pick up new ideas as quickly as their peers. Can something be done about it?This is part of a multifaceted strategy to teach heterogeneous classes. Read about it in this article: Reaching the Full Range. The answer depends on… Continue reading Once again: heterogeneous classes
Northern California December Events
I suspect that some readers of this blog do not subscribe to my newsletter, so I will use this post and the next to let you know about some news in my math education life. If you did get the November issue of the newsletter, you might read on anyway, as I will be going… Continue reading Northern California December Events
Programming and Math Education
Some responses on Twitter made me realize I was probably not clear in yesterday's post where I argued that computer programming is a kind of literacy. Some people say that students should be exposed to computer science because that's where the jobs will be in the future. There may be some validity to that, but… Continue reading Programming and Math Education
Literacies
I've been known to argue that computer programming (a.k.a. "coding") is a new literacy. In this post, I'll try to clarify why, and discuss some implications. First, let's define our terms. On what grounds can school subjects be classified as a kind of literacy? I can think of two criteria. * The first criterion is… Continue reading Literacies
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