Almost done!

I keep forgetting about the blog. This semester was fast so there weren't too many times we had to blog but for some reason I couldn't keep up. I am feeling pretty good about the final. The addition and subtraction is good and so is the multiplication and division, I am not so sure about the addition and subtraction of double digits...gotta look over that again.
I can't believe this class is over and I have said this before but I am so glad I got into this class. I learned so much about student thinking and how to approach math.
Since I forgot sometimes to blog and sometimes I felt I had nothing to say so my blog was no good, I grade myself a 1.

6-21-10

First day of summer and this section of summer school is already coming to an end. I feel like I have learned so much in the past few weeks and it was funny to see what I wrote on the first day of class...not right at all.
So I think the manipulatives performance assessment went well today. Me and my partner both identified the word problem and were able to create a solution strategy and identify that as well. I was a bit stressed about that but it was good and I am relieved. I also feel pretty good about the quiz we did today and do not think I will need the other optional ones. The final also looks good. A little bit of everything, it seems like as long as we have come to class then we can handle it.
I saw that there is a discussion post for the assignment on the manipulatives, not exactly sure what that is called. I do not know what exactly that is about so I need to figure it out.

lovin class

I really am enjoying this class... I don't say that often. I never thought that I would enjoy this class, I was happy to take it over summer since it is short. But I like it. I am learning so much and I am really glad I am not in the class next door. I love watching the videos and seeing first graders do multiplication and division. I feel comfortable with addition and subtraction word problems and feel pretty confident creating the word problems. I also feel pretty good about the multilpication and division, I hope the next twists don't throw me off too much. I think I am well prepared for the manipulatives performance assessment. I can't believe there are only a few weeks left, and we are already getting the final next week.

...

I enjoyed the last class on Wednesday when we got to do center activities like children. My group may have taken the "like children" part a little too far...we ended up doing it wrong and getting into some beans that we weren't supposed to. But we got back on track and doing those center activities was fun. I had to leave class a little early so I didn't get to do all of the activities but my group did get to three of them. I think that I am ready for the quizzes tomorrow but I sure hope the banging and drilling is over with.

6-7-10

Oh no! I forgot to blog after last weeks class. Well I am happy to say that I am pretty comfortable with the addition and subtraction word problems now. The multiplication and division today didn't seem too bad since there are not as many classifications. I really like that we can look at them as dealing or chunking, that made it pretty simple.
It was really funny when we went into the other class today on our "field trip" and we were dissecting the two word problems. It seemed like they had no idea what we were talking about. I love that we are getting this information and learning it in this way. I kind of feel bad for the class next door because they are missing out on our awesome class. I am glad I was part of the "spill over" group.

Word problems

Ok so I think I am understanding the word problems now. I was very wrong on my first attempt at ordering those problems. I thought for sure the problems that start with "some" would be at the very end of the framework. After we got the row names it was a easier and I realized that these problems were higher up, but I was still wrong on the last row which is comparing. I knew that 3 was the hardest, I at least had that right. But the others I was wrong. It is so hard to think like a child and try to use the manipulatives like they would. Once I understood how a child would do it I understood why they were ordered the way they were. Doing this framework was really interesting and eye opening, I never thought to examine a word problem that in depth. I plan on holding on to this framework and and implementing it in the classroom. It will be easy for me to examine word problems, assess students by going through the framework, and write my own word problems. I already got a taste of writing my own using this framework. I used Spongebob and Patrick from the Nickelodeon show and they had jellyfish. By changing names and numbers in the problems you can easily get new ones. I am looking forward to more work in this class and more of trying to think like a child, I know this will help me to understand my students better.

Word Problems

Never did I think about word problems like I did today. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what order the word problems went in but when we did that in class today I was thrown off. I was wrong with my ordering but now I think my table is pretty close. With number five I was shocked that we had to think about students understanding that red and green gummy bears fall under the main category of gummy bears. We assume that students know these things but we can't do that. It was very helpful to look at the action verbs of the word problems. In number one we could clearly see that action of receiving but in number five there was no action to go off of and nothing to tell the student exactly what to do. After we got the clue that the rows were categorized by actions it was easier to order the problems and like I said before, I think my table got it figured out for the most part. I like this activity because it really opened my eyes to making and examining word problems, there is a lot more to it than I thought.