Friday, October 06, 2006

Mathematizing Literature

Share your project questions, kudos, and concerns.

33 Comments:

Blogger Stacy said...

Hi everyone. Since I'm the first, shall we all explain a quick overview of our projects?

Mine is aimed at 2-4 graders, and is basically teaching a few different styles of poetry. The students will learn to count syllables and watch the length of each line. I'm working with a group of kids three different times. So far the leader and I have worked out teaching haiku for the first lesson.

What's everyone else's?

10/23/2006 5:32 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Well I am using a book called Anos Beans, which deals with the use of whole numbers. I will be working with a group of kids. The grade level will 2-4. We will see how it goes

10/23/2006 10:50 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Well, I’m reading the book “Sir Cumference” to a 7th grader and I’ still in the process of figuring out what activity to go along with the reading. The book is about a knight who designed the first round table for King Arthur. The knight tries many different shapes, but there is something wrong with each one. Then he figures out the circle and everything good. I’m thinking about having the student try and make his own ‘new’ shape that isn’t already used in the book and he will present it and tell why it will work. I don’t know – do you guys have any ideas for me of other things that might work? Any suggestions would be great thanks!

10/24/2006 10:53 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I'm reading "One Grain of Rice" to a group of 3rd graders. It's a book about exponential growth. That's a pretty crazy concept for the lil' ones - so I'm going to choose estimation as the theme.

My mentor teacher is letting me work with the kids during their recess (they get to volunteer, I'm not stealing it from them. hehe). I'll probably do two sit downs with the kids - once to go over the story and the second time to get into the math.

10/25/2006 12:04 AM  
Blogger ASL said...

Both books mentioned here also are great for relating math and culture. And poetry is great too as it has a lot of math patterning. As for the circle with 7th graders, you can bring in a bunch of circular objects (hubcap, jar top, bicyle wheel, frisbee, silver dollar, etc) and some string. Students work in pairs to measure and cut a piece of string that goes across the center of the object (diameter). They then use that as a measuring unit to determine how many times it goes around the outside of the circle(circumference). Then put all findings on a chart (average the findings). They should be able to come up with a fairly good estimate of the measure of Pi.

10/25/2006 7:38 AM  
Blogger Tay said...

I will be working with 5th graders and introducing percentages. I will be using a book called If the World Were a Village.
I will be attemping to work with these students the day after Halloween. Do sugar and learning new math concepts go well together?

10/25/2006 4:03 PM  
Blogger ASL said...

Usually not, however with careful planning it is possible. Be aware that students tend to have sugar highs right after lunch (since they usually bring a pile of candies to share in their lunch bags), experiencing sugar lows right before lunch and near the end of the school day. Children with ADHD tend to have more severe reactions to the sugars (higher highs and lower lows). In either case, expect short attention spans and the need for active learning. They won't sit still for long listening to a story or being asked to read a story. You might want to brainstorm with your group how to make this a very interactive activity.

10/25/2006 4:19 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

i almost completely forgot about the initial report.

am i the only one that's having trouble remembering to blog on this thing? Other than that I have very little to say...

10/30/2006 2:33 PM  
Blogger Tay said...

Initial report!? What, I thought we did this.

The Blog is a challange, but I prefer it to the journal.

10/30/2006 3:42 PM  
Blogger ASL said...

The SCCC library has a children's book section with numerous books for different age levels. These books were purchased specifically for the mathematizing literature project. If you are looking for an interesting book, you will want to check out the selection here first.

10/31/2006 12:45 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Yes, I also prefer this to the journal - but it is easy to forget. I'm really excited for my project, however I feel my planned activity probably needs a group of students so they can work in groups. But I will just have one student, oh well, I guess that's better than nothing!

10/31/2006 7:22 PM  
Blogger Stacy said...

Sorry for you two who forgot the initial report... It's supposed to be a finished copy of the first one we submitted, I gather. Oh and we are supposed to really narrow down our primary and supplementary choices, I believe. I know I have a ton the first time I submitted, but I got it down to a concise few this time.

11/01/2006 5:33 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

i got a good grade on my initial report. i'm in the stage of writing my lesson plan right now. i think the first half of my lesson will be next thur and the second half the following. then it'll all be done.

11/03/2006 10:11 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I am almost done as well, I am getting together with the kids I am doing it with this week.....

I agree that it is a bit difficult to remember to post twice a week...

I feel like we have such crazy schedules, but much better than the journal

11/05/2006 6:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I also think it is difficult to remember to blog about the project twice a week. I find myself looking for things to say... Stacy, I did a summer reading program last quarter where we focused on different types of haiku. I know that traditional haiku are about nature, but there's a slam poet by the name of Eric Ott that you might like to check out. The kids in my reading program really liked some of his seventeen syllable styles.

11/06/2006 2:31 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

okay, so i find myself procrastinating on making a lesson plan for my project. i'm telling myself i'm going to write it tomorrow before class & i'm letting you all know about it so you can keep me honest. someone needs to ask to see it in class so i can show proof that i have it ready. after all, i'm giving the lesson on thursday, so i should probably get prepared!

11/07/2006 5:05 PM  
Blogger Tay said...

I think that I will teach sometime next week. I'm presenting the info to my teacher friend tomorrow so that he knows what kids to give me and what is going on. This is going to be great or it will bomb big time. Do we have to show evidence of learning or are we just getting ou there for the expierence?

11/08/2006 4:07 PM  
Blogger ASL said...

You need to assess what the student(s) know and are able to do. So yes it is for the experience, but I am trying to get you to demonstrate that you can assess/analysis student work.

11/09/2006 11:46 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

well, now i'm glad i didn't make my lesson plan already. i'll have to think of a method for assessment. i'm not going to get to give the lesson until the thursday after thanksgiving - the students have a busy next couple of weeks and i don't want to add to it. i should probably look for when the kit&kaboodle is due. :)

11/11/2006 11:06 AM  
Blogger Stacy said...

Thank you, Ryan. I'm going to check out Eric Ott right now :)

11/12/2006 2:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One difficulty that I'm facing in assessment is that there are just so many kids. At the tutoring center, it's hard to advertise something like this without advertising it to everybody, and it's hard to get any takers unless there's an incentive (like pizza). So the response that I got was overwhelming, with 12 kids. Fortunately, because of the incentive, some of the older kids are willing to come along and help the younger ones with the math, so that we'll have a hierarchy of instructor (me!), tutors (the older students) and finally the targeted 5-8th graders.

11/13/2006 11:36 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

i'm realizing that this lesson may have to be shorter than i had originally hoped. i have one day - 2 or 3 recesses to get the lesson done with the kids. i'm going to bring candy for the small group of students i work with to pay them back for missing all their recesses :)

11/16/2006 9:44 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I'm thinking this lesson is going to be a little more intricate than I had originally expected. There are so many directions I could go with circles (not literally!) because of the different levels of understanding students could possibly be at right now with their math curriculum.

11/22/2006 12:15 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

If anyone needs help on there project please let me know, I am finished with mine.
Riss

11/22/2006 9:38 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

i have no idea what to write about. i'm a little apprehensive about class though, since the weather forced it to be canceled. that's time lost for questions before the test.

11/30/2006 12:10 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Don't forget: Chap 10's test got combined with & moved to 6 Dec. w/ Chap. 11's test. But missing classtime is a drag. (In my case, I asked about what fractions they'd covered in class & what music. While the music teacher had left the school before the end of the quarter, she at least had had exposure to the concept of musical notation. From what my student told me & how she dealt w/ the fractions, I think I have a good idea at what level she is. I'll talk to her mother, though, to be sure.)

12/02/2006 8:25 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

You have done fine on most of your tests I am sure that you will be fine...I am pretty sure that Andrea will take that into account as well, the fact that we have had class cancleded so much lately

12/03/2006 7:59 PM  
Blogger Stacy said...

Yeah, I think Andrea will probably be very understanding too. Hopefully we'll have ample time to discuss things. If something isn't addressed fully, we can post it here?

12/03/2006 10:55 PM  
Blogger Stacy said...

Hi everyone, I'm sorry I missed class yesterday. Would anyone mind briefing me on the project reports? I've got my paper all filled out, but I wanted to check and see if there was anything else I needed to plan for. Thanks you guys.

12/05/2006 9:52 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Stacy,
I don't know if you got your questions answered last night, but just in case (last time I checked!) we are just giving a brief overview of what out project was and sharing worksheets if we want to. Guys, let me know if anything has been changed since Monday night for out projects. Good luck everyone on Monday!

12/07/2006 10:58 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I forgot to post this a while ago when I first did my project. It's a really cool site for mathematics check it out!
http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol2/circumference.html

12/07/2006 11:05 AM  
Blogger Stacy said...

Thanks Josie, we hadn't gone over it. I'll have a summary of my project ready, let me know if you guys needed me to do anything else.

12/07/2006 3:08 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

No problem Stacy. Now that I remember we were discussing whether or not we would break into groups and give mini-presintations to only a couple people (and then have them rotate to a different station) or if we were going to just do one group presentation.
Does anyone remember what we decided?

12/08/2006 12:03 PM  

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