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"Math problems of the week: 6th grade Connected Math vs. Singapore Math"
My Special Number1. The first assignment in Connected Mathematics Prime Time: Factors and Multiples
My Special NumberMany people have a number they find interesting. Choose a whole number between 10 and 100 that you especially like.
In your journal
*record your number
*explain why you chose that number
*list three or four mathematical things about your number
*list three or four connections you can make between your number and your world
I hold in my hands: Journal Writing in the Mathematics Classroom (Primary): A resource for teachers by teachers, written by professors from Singapore's National Institute of Education. It begins with 26 pages of instruction on what journal writing is and is not, how to conduct it, how to assess it and student samples. Then there is a collection of sample prompts. Below are a few for your perusal:
Topic: Whole Numbers
Level: Primary 1-6
Add the first twenty numbers 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ... + 20 in two different ways. Explain your working.
Topic: Measurement
Level: Primary 4-6
Your best friend was absent from class when your teacher taught about area and perimeter. Write a letter to him explaining the difference between area and perimeter. Use diagrams as illustrations.
Topic: Whole Numbers
Level: Primary 4-6
How do you prevent getting your understanding of the term "factors" and "multiples" mixed up?
Topic: Whole Numbers
Level: Primary 2-6
2, 8, 4, 16, 20
Which number in the above does not belong to the group? Why?
Topic: Fractions
Level: Primary 4-6
Fandi said, "Multiplying always makes bigger. Dividing always makes smaller."
Hassan said he disagreed, "Only sometimes."
Hassan said he disagreed, "Only sometimes."
Is Hassan correct? Explain your thinking.
10 comments:
How do I get my hands on that book? :D
Thanks for the specific example, CassyT.
Cheryl vT (a parent with kids at the Singapore American School, which uses Everyday Math for K-5)
Any hope for a link on the Journal Writing book?
Dawn-
I haven't found the book in the U.S.
Here's the isbn: 981-05-4711-0 and it has a copyright date of 2006.
Cheryl-
Isn't it ironic? Surrounded by the top curriculum, the SAS chooses EM.
I talked to my agent about her kids last week, who had been attending a private progressive-ed school in Manhattan. She finally pulled them out and has enrolled them in public schools. One of her main complaints was the constant requirement that kids write about their answers. One of her kids said he couldn't explain his answer, because, "My brain tells me the answer."
Thanks CassyT!
Re: EM at SAS
As Barry Garelick likes to say, "Water, water everywhere, yet not a drop to drink."
The fourth entry is potentially problematic, if you are creative enough... (it depends on what "rule" you are violating). 8 could be out because it prevents the group from being strictly increasing, although I suspect that they meant 20, because it is not a power of 2.
The fifth one is awfully familiar. I like it because the concept is fairly epiphanous for children when they discover it.
* explicitly discover it
They may have known it before, but just never thought of it in that way.
radical-
The fourth entry expects students to defend an answer. A student's answer will show a teacher which "rules" the student knows. A third grader might assert that the answer is "2" as all of the other numbers are multiples of 4.
The new U.S. kindergarten program begins with students using "exactly the same or exactly the same but..." to defend their answer. This may stem out of the "Teach Less, Learn More" Singapore syllabus of 2004.
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