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I think we need a math movie for YouTube, too. I don't have as much math expertise as everyone here, but I would be willing to produce and upload the movie.
I would need either a dialogue I could read and some words for slides, or better yet, actual mp3 or other audio files and some powerpoint or jpeg slides. Watch a bit of my sight word movie (2 posts down) to get an idea. (Trust me, if you don't have a script to read, you may end up sounding like an idiot. I have tried the no script plan, it's usually bad.)
What do you all think are the most important things parents need to know that we can say in the 10 minute limit?
Here are a few of my thoughts:
Everyday Math bad, Singapore and Saxon good. Calculators before you really need them for something like trig are bad, drill and kill on multiplication and addition facts is good, worksheets may work better for some kids than flashcards. Counting on fingers is bad. For the truly math challenged parent, Math-U-See or something else with DVDs to teach it may be the best option, and much cheaper than tutoring. Knowledge good, stupid projects bad.
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Everyday Math bad, Singapore and Saxon good. Calculators before you really need them for something like trig are bad, drill and kill on multiplication and addition facts is good, worksheets may work better for some kids than flashcards. Counting on fingers is bad. For the truly math challenged parent, Math-U-See or something else with DVDs to teach it may be the best option, and much cheaper than tutoring. Knowledge good, stupid projects bad.
Works for me!
I think it's time to rename 'drill and kill' to 'drill and skill'. That is the effect afterall.
I'd look at these before investing time in new movies: http://www.wheresthemath.com/blog/video/. They may not cover all the subjects you highlighted, but they're important and well-done.
'Drill and skill'
Great thought, Kim!!!
Speed drills do not "kill". My 5th graders loved speed drills. I never graded them, but put them on the walls in "clubs". There was a "4-minute Club" (Students had to complete drill in 4 minutes or less.) There was also a "3-minute club" and a "2-minute Club" Students loved seeing their own improvement. And they got so much more efficient in all of their work because of the accuracy they gained in the process.
Drill and skill, indeed.
>>What do you all think are the most important things parents need to know that we can say in the 10 minute limit?
Are you trying to warn parents of elementary students about reform math programs, or giving a guide to afterschooling for mathematical competency (as in 700+ on Math SAT w/o coaching)? If the latter, I recommend the parents start with Karl Bunday's FAQ. It's here, post #8 on an AOP Forum: http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?p=33140&highlight=#33140 and most likely on his website too.
On dril/kill..those that have mastered the skill tend to tune out; some will not tune in again when the show changes. I would like to see exit criteria on drill; I remember an entire boring year of times table drill in 4th. If I could have read when done I would have been happy, but I had to stare at the paper for the entire allotted time day after day even though I wrote my answers quickly and checked my work. Time is precious, no need to waste it on skills already mastered when there is so much else available to learn.
We did weekly timed drills in 4th grade, but they were sequenced: 100 single-operation problems (the standard matrix from 0-9), 5 minutes. Until you aced the thing, you didn't move up onto the next operation's sheet. Everyone in class did the drill sheets at the same time (though not on the same operations), no matter which topic we were each currently studying in our workbooks.
Once I passed the main four, I did fraction reduction sheets (these were from the Mad Minute folks, so not a full 100 problems, and I don't think I got the full 5 minutes either). So there was no stalling/drifting off effect -- once you passed, you got to do something different.
I remember it took me 4 tries to pass the addition one: I just didn't have the speed. Then once I passed the addition one it was an operation a week from then on. Having read comments here about writing speed I wonder if that was related.
-m, not Mark
I should also mention that we had been doing these math operations for several years by that point -- just that that was the level when those teachers thought it was appropriate to focus on immediate recall in addition to the accuracy they'd been demanding for years. YMMV. (It may have also actually been a 3rd-5th grade effort, since we had blended-age classes and movable room dividers too.)
-m again
To lgm:
Oh, my goodness! An entire year of multiplication drills in 4th grade?? That's terrible! No wonder you were bored. A teacher shouldn't use a drill more than 2-3 weeks at a time. There are so many things a teacher can drill students on.
As a 5th grade teacher, I give speed drills for a couple of weeks at a time, giving students a chance to improve their times. Then I send an email to parents of the 2-minute and 3-minute Clubs (bragging on them), and we maybe rest a week, instead doing quick drills on the overhead using another skill. Then we will start another speed drill for another 2-3 weeks.
We do speed drills on more than the 4 basic operations. We have speed drills on reducing fractions, on writing improper fractions as mixed numbers or vice versa, on changing percents to fractions and vice versa. And many others.
My very best students, who could most easily be bored, are the ones who love speed drills the most. It's because the goal is not just completing it -- the goal is getting better, faster, missing fewer, etc. It's personal. Anytime I can help the students make the goal personal, their attitude is much different. The desire is not to please me, but to please themselves. That's intrinsic!
And I let them move their speed drill from one club on one wall to a faster club. How they love getting to move their drill!!!
It works, folks!
Hi Kim --
drill and skill
I don't think I've heard that! Or if I did, it didn't stick with me.
I'm going to start using it.
First -- you need a coherent easy to understand "message" that the video supports. It's easy to get off on loose tangents, but I'd recommend writing down a message and build off of that.
Something like, "Parents Beware, Your children may not be getting the math education they need."
Don't assume viewers are already familiar with the math wars. Many still have no idea that the math curriculum used in their child's school is controversial.
We get a steady diet of "Everyday Math is wonderful and the kids are doing amazing things because of it"
Also, most parents here in my district could not tell you the name of the math program their children use.
Us Math Obsessive types tend to forget that 90% of all parents of school aged children have no idea that things aren't peachy in their nominally high performing school.
IOW, they think all that press about math is talking about the lousy innercity schools, not our splendid suburban schools.
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