From: Sheila.King@f315.n103.z1.fidonet.org (Sheila King)
Newsgroups: k12.ed.math
Subject: THANKS FOR MATHMAGIC PROB
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 92 11:04:00 PST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:103/315 - Castle of the Four , Diamond Bar CA

-> Thanks for the super problem for MathMagic.

Your welcome. I was inspired. (Actually, it came to me in physics class,
and was a modification of one of my homework problems.) Mostly I feel
like I will never think of anything to contribute (don't have too much
faith in my own creativity).

-> and have been given a four-week timeline with which to prepare our
-> 7th graders with us starting on day 1 with adding/subtracting of
-> decimals,
-> multiplying/subtracting of fractions with like and unlike
-> denominators.
....
-> but when I am handed an intense year-round curriculum to teach in
-> four weeks, I have to get through the panic before I can write.  Any
-> suggestions or more
-> extensive information I can give to clarify so that I can get some of
-> those great advice letters you give?

Gee, you guys are already having "standardized testing" four weeks after
school starts? Well, all I can suggest at this time, is that you take it
one day at a time. Haven't your seventh graders seen most of this
material before?? (By the 7th grade, I sure would hope so!) We you
planning on covering this material with them at some time during the
year anyway? I would just rearrange my curriculumn then, and start with
those chapters. What happened to all those resources you were gathering
during the summer? Did you get any good activity books that have
activities for these types of topics?

I am not sure how well you feel your students understand decimals and
fractions. I am going to assume that they have some reasonable facility
with these operations, and just need some review. I would NOT do ditto
worksheets with them for the next four weeks (of course, I know that you
weren't planning to do that). Well, schedule your time. Do you want to
spend two weeks on decimals and two on fractions? Or maybe, one and a
half on decimals and 2 and a half on fractions. Decide. Do you think
physical models will help? (If the students undestand concretely what
they are doing, I would imagine it would go better. If they understand
that in the number 0.256 the two represents the number of tenths, and
the 5 is the hundredths, etc.. and therefore it is necessary to line the
decimals up for adding and subtracting--this is just like getting common
denominators in adding fractions. As a matter of fact, the reason you
don't have to line up the decimals for mult. and div. is similar to why
you don't have to get common denominators to mult. fractions....)

I would probably spend a couple days on drill, then have the students
work together in small groups and work on some more involved problems
that involved decimals and fractions. What about having them write to
the sixth grade class (or a younger brother or sister, or next years
seventh graders...) HOW to add fractions or HOW to add decimals? They
have to write a little paragraph where they explain the process. Or, how
about having contests in class. Divide the class into teams of four or
five or six (let the rows compete against each other?) and have a
contest to see which row can perform the calculations fastest? (Or with
the highest degree of accuracy, or....)

Well, I don't teach that grade level, and I don't really teach fractions
much (although I will be reviewing them with my alg. 2 class the first
day...just to brush the cobwebs off). Let me know how it goes.

-> Also, one last thing, I have wanted to apologize for any duplicate
-> messages I've written within the same echo.  I'm learning and didn't
-> realize the consequences.

Don't sweat it. It's just a guideline to try to cut down on unnecessary
stuff that just increases the phone costs for all of us participating in
K12 net.

-> Hope updates are o.k.   Are they?

Of course.

Sheila
coming to you from Diamond Bar, CA (in Los Angeles County)
                                                       

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