Post # 8 All the Usual Suspects

All the usual suspects for a distance class.  There may be glitches and frustrations as we all learn how the pieces fit together.  If find something that is not quite right with the videos, please email me with the segment name and exact time.  We may need to tweak the editing.  And, yes, it is an enormous amount of information and that is one reason I have deliberately reserved assignments until people find their feet.  You have lots of time to view the videos and you should take it in.  One of the advantages of the distance classes is called "rewind."  The instructional language is so precise in many activities that you will need to pause the video to take notes, or process the research, or simply to practice the instructional language.  In the live class this is not possible.  There are advantages to each. You should, however, practice with the class, use the manipulatives and learn by doing.

I will be posting several blogs each week.  Some will be new.  Some will be the best of previous class blog postings, recognized by class participants as having been especially meaningful. Your class will add contributions, ideas for me to consider from your comments and questions.   You may and should post comments for me and for your classmates to see.  Do not despair if your comments are not posted right away. I have to preview and approve them.  This waits for email access and I check fairly frequently unless I am on the road presenting.  Read the blog postings in order.  React.  Print or note.  They represent content, instruction and musings about this methodology in practice.

Here is an example:  Picture two 5th graders, twins.  One struggles with numeracy.  The other does not.  Which one used the partial quotient method of division to state that twenty three divided by seven gave a result of eleven remainder two?  And, how did that student reason through the solution?  The answer is that the challenged student got it correct and the twin with no disabilities got is wrong.  Why?  She followed procedural as opposed to conceptual instruction.  The strings with wings allowed the numeracy challenged student to automatize the seven times table over the course of a week and a half... through usage and visual associations. The sibling who had learned only the procedure could not “see” the effects on quantity.  Her “estimation” was wrong.

And then there is the language.  It is always the language.  How many groups of seven can you make if you start with twenty three?   For many concepts, I believe it is more about the language than the math.  And off we go.