Today I had a student ask me for help on her math homework before class started. The problem was "Billy has seven seeds, the total amount of seeds in front of Billy are seventeen. How many seeds does Sally have?" No joke, that was the question on the homework. I asked the student "where should we begin, how should we solve it?" She told me we needed to draw tally marks to figure it out. She began by drawing seven lines, then below it the total of seventeen marks and then she added them to figure out the total. Yes, I helped her redo it, but the question was horrible!

I am excited to see the answer to our math grid. I remember hating word problems, but I could not pin-point any praticular problem (who can) and seeing this problem and the little girl struggle brought flashbacks.

Different Learning Styles in Math

Last week in EDEL 433, we learned different approaches students use to answer word problems. These approaches include, direct modeling, counting strategy, derived fact, and recall. An example of direct modeling is counting (1, 2, 3, 4..) out loud in order to get to their answer. The next step is the counting method where students start with the number in their head and count from there. For example 4+5=9 the child would start with 4 in their head and then use their fingers to continue (5, 6, 7, 8, 9). From there a student will use prior knowledge to answer the question and other questions. This method is called the "derived fact." An example of derived fact would be (if we use the same question as above) 4+6=10 we know this, so one less would be 4+5=9. We use what we know to answer what we don't know. The last method a child uses to answer math problems is recall. Knowledge with automatic understanding. The child just automatically knows that 4+5=9.

Ms. Baskins Remembers Fractions!

Today, during the math portion of class, we reviewed fractions. Ms. Baskins has not done fractions in three years (since math 122-123). I did not know if I would remember anything about fractions, but I did. So thank you to all my math teachers who have helped me up to this point!

Seriously, proud moment for me!

That is all.