Temple has a wonderful line about "finding the basic principle" I think I've mentioned before.
That was the only way she could get through college. Her working memory was so poor that in order to remember huge quantities of material for tests & papers she had to "find the basic principle": the one idea that tied everything together.
Then she could just remember the basic principle, and the basic principle would let her access the other stuff.
Finding the basic principle is what you do to write a good book; the basic principle is the book's argument. Temple and I, after a year of labor on our sequel to Animals in Translation, may finally have found our basic principle just this week.
Take it from me: the thesis statement comes after you've written 5 or 6 drafts of a paper, not before.
Anyway, in terms of my school..... maybe the basic principle is:
Persuade the school to give homework assignments all of the kids can do completely on their own with ZERO "assistance" from mom and dad?
That's gonna be a tough sell, seeing as how the Trailblazer questionnaire parents were recently asked to complete includes this question:
I am able to comfortably assist my son/daughter with math homework.
Clearly, in the school's view, parents comfortably assisting their kids with math homework is a plus.
The fact that I have been uncomfortably assisting my kid with math homework is a sign that he doesn't belong in the class.
[pause]
ok, so this won't work
The basic principles of reform math are:
ReplyDelete1. Guess & check
2. Draw a picture
3. Act it out
4. Brainstorm
5. Think
They surely aren't:
Closure Property of Addition
Sum (or difference) of 2 reals equals a real number
Additive Identity
a + 0 = a
Additive Inverse
a + (-a) = 0
Associative of Addition
(a + b) + c = a + (b + c)
Commutative of Addition
a + b = b + a
Definition of Subtraction
a - b = a + (-b)
Closure Property of Multiplication
Product (or quotient if denominator 0) of 2 reals equals a real number
Multiplicative Identity
a * 1 = a
Multiplicative Inverse
a * (1/a) = 1 (a 0)
(Multiplication times 0)
a * 0 = 0
Associative of Multiplication
(a * b) * c = a * (b * c)
Commutative of Multiplication
a * b = b * a
Distributive Law
a(b + c) = ab + ac
Definition of Division
a / b = a(1/b)
oh gosh
ReplyDeleteGREAT!
give homework assignments all of the kids can do completely on their own with ZERO "assistance" from mom and dad
ReplyDeleteThis will be totally useless in today's multi-ability classroom where you might have some students at 2nd grade level, some at 4th grade level, and some at 8th. Unless you create individualized homework assignments. That would mean that each teacher would create 150 lesson plans every night. Ugh.
Why can't they just admit that this system of lumping everyone together doesn't work?
That would mean that each teacher would create 150 lesson plans every night.
ReplyDeleteThey're supposed to be doing this.
"differentiated instruction"
My question isn't about different levels of students in the same class. That's not the problem with accelerated math, which is heavily tracked.
ReplyDeleteMy question has to do with how parents can induce the school to take responsibility for raising student schievement.