I like to blame things on the weather because it doesn't make logical sense. I should probably do more research into weather and how it affects human behavior, but the flip flop weather change from yesterday's 65 degrees to today's snow flurries and wind chill are to blame for the odd student behaviors I saw today at tutoring.
In my 5th grade class today, we worked on an assessment work packet with multi-digit division and multiplication problems. The kids were supposed to do most if not all of the work by themselves. After a lot of stalling and seating changes, we finally got down to the work.
As usual, my two more self-motivated students breezed through the packet and only needed to review what factors were. Surprisingly, the other girl in my group wasn't being distracting and worked very hard on her packet. She managed to get ahead of me in our worksheets! Usually it takes a lot of pleading and bargaining to get her to focus enough to work, but she was a superstar today.
My other two students in the group usually have lots of attention issues. The newest addition to our group is very capable of doing work, but he really like distractions and being the distraction for other students in the group. I used a much more serious tone with him today in getting him to stop messing around and to do his work. My last student spent a lot of time goofing off in the beginning of the session and finished last today. It's so frustrating to know that all of these kids are very capable of doing their work, but when put together in a small group, they lose all focus.
On a more positive note: I got a welcome to class hug and teased during my time with the 5th graders.
The 3rd graders were working on patterns, counting color cubes, and deriving an easy way to count certain numbers of cubes. I was working with a few students, but one student in particular just didn't get it. I got pretty frustrated with her, but we slogged through and did our best. One moment she understood and the next she completely regressed and started guessing randomly. I'll work on being more patient next time.
My 3rd grade positive note: the 3rd grade teacher said that I was a big help during math because I could help some of the students while she was focusing on the other students in the class.
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P.S. I finally beat the computer on Ker-Splash! After a few dozen games, I finally won.
x = 7
y = 10
Calculation Nation: 61x + 17y + 15 = 612
Math Rules: 32x + 52y + 39 = 783
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Showing posts with label division. Show all posts
Showing posts with label division. Show all posts
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 19, 2010
Tricky students
Today's volunteer sessions went pretty much the same as usual. My 5th graders worked on division problems. It was asking two ways to divide and I was stumped to help them with their worksheets. The long division or the standard algorithm we got through very quickly. The second way to solve a division problem, we used partial sums to get back to the answer. If anyone has any other solutions for division problems please let me know!
The last part of working with the 5th graders was a pop quiz division question that the students were supposed to do by themselves. I asked the kids to spread out and work on the problems. Two of my students whipped through the problem and two had a very hard time focusing. Once I asked one of the slower students to move, he finished the problem by himself pretty quickly. I think he has trouble focusing when others are distracting him. My last student sat for a long time and didn't work on her problem. When I asked her what's up, she told me "I'm thinking" which is code for "I don't know what I'm doing." She then made up excuses that the other kids knew what they were doing, and that she forgot everything, but when I nudged her and sat down next to her, she got it done. I sometimes wonder if she needs extra attention to be able to work. I know she knows her math, but she doesn't think so and gets distracted, then she distracts the other students.
My 3rd grade students were working on line graphs of different cities and their monthly temperatures. Ms. Ph later commented that the line graphs were too complex to start with, and the workbook has much simpler graphs after this first one. The three students I was working with were a bit behind on their workbooks so I was trying to help them get through the last few pages. A student aid told me not to help one of the students and I got confused - I was there to help that specific student. The student aid later told me that some of the students are tricky and want you to give them the answer instead of making them work for their own answers.
I didn't want to let her know that I already know this trick, and since I started tutoring last year, I haven't given away answers. I've gotten tutor training that has trained me to stop doing the work for the students and leading them towards the right answer by asking follow up questions that get the students to reread the question, firmly understand what the question is asking, and then figuring out how to get the answer.
Please disregard this line graph, it's a joke.
Haha! I'm smarter than 3rd and 5th graders and won't fall for their tricks. I still have to reward/bribe my 5th graders because I owe them from a few weeks back...More updates next week, have a great weekend!
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The last part of working with the 5th graders was a pop quiz division question that the students were supposed to do by themselves. I asked the kids to spread out and work on the problems. Two of my students whipped through the problem and two had a very hard time focusing. Once I asked one of the slower students to move, he finished the problem by himself pretty quickly. I think he has trouble focusing when others are distracting him. My last student sat for a long time and didn't work on her problem. When I asked her what's up, she told me "I'm thinking" which is code for "I don't know what I'm doing." She then made up excuses that the other kids knew what they were doing, and that she forgot everything, but when I nudged her and sat down next to her, she got it done. I sometimes wonder if she needs extra attention to be able to work. I know she knows her math, but she doesn't think so and gets distracted, then she distracts the other students.
My 3rd grade students were working on line graphs of different cities and their monthly temperatures. Ms. Ph later commented that the line graphs were too complex to start with, and the workbook has much simpler graphs after this first one. The three students I was working with were a bit behind on their workbooks so I was trying to help them get through the last few pages. A student aid told me not to help one of the students and I got confused - I was there to help that specific student. The student aid later told me that some of the students are tricky and want you to give them the answer instead of making them work for their own answers.
I didn't want to let her know that I already know this trick, and since I started tutoring last year, I haven't given away answers. I've gotten tutor training that has trained me to stop doing the work for the students and leading them towards the right answer by asking follow up questions that get the students to reread the question, firmly understand what the question is asking, and then figuring out how to get the answer.
Please disregard this line graph, it's a joke.
Haha! I'm smarter than 3rd and 5th graders and won't fall for their tricks. I still have to reward/bribe my 5th graders because I owe them from a few weeks back...More updates next week, have a great weekend!
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Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Catching up
Hi there, I've been working on the logistics of the blog. I'm trying to get it cleaned up and ready to be put up for people to actually comment and give input.
Last Wednesday I went to two of my schools and worked with small groups again. I got a first hand experience of frustration and another experience of groups not working well together.
At my first school, small groups were reviewing for a quiz by doing Jeopardy-style team work problems on regular polygons. At first it was hard to insert myself into a group and assume that the kids knew what they were doing, but I found myself giving small hints that would prompt them along. Some of the groups responded well to my hints and I even challenged a group's answer. Asking them to clarify the question helped them see if their answer was right or wrong. The question was similar to: "Draw a quadrilateral that has four right angles." Asking the group "What's a right angle?" and "What has to happen with the lines for an angle to be a right angle?" are leading questions I asked them.
One group didn't work as well together as a group because none of the students were listening to each other. I tried to get them to listen to each other, but as the game progressed this group got more and more frustrated they weren't getting the right answers. It was certainly tough to convince them they just needed to keep trying and to work more as a team to get points. I tried positive reinforcement "You guys got this, you were close last time, just keep trying" but when it was time for me to leave, the group was still struggling.
Like I've said before, some competition is healthy for students to have something to work towards, but often, I wonder if competition is detrimental to learning.
At my second school, I was working with my small group of kids. We started off well, I asked them how things were going or if they had a good story to share. We jumped into unit reviews of multiplication and division. Some of the questions asked to show work for two approaches to the same problem. For example: "Solve two ways: 35 x 27"
Not being raised on different approaches to multiplication or division (long form was all I was taught) I had to rely on the students to help each other. Some of the students started with a box method that I suggested to the others, and I walked through long form multiplication and division for the kids. I would also like to argue that estimation is a valid solution for division.
One of my kids got really frustrated with a second solution for a division problem and shut down. I felt really bad that I couldn't get him to refocus on his work. I suggested he skip the problem and continue on to the next problem, but it took a quick word from his teacher to snap him out of it.
If anyone's reading this later on: suggestions?
Last Wednesday I went to two of my schools and worked with small groups again. I got a first hand experience of frustration and another experience of groups not working well together.
At my first school, small groups were reviewing for a quiz by doing Jeopardy-style team work problems on regular polygons. At first it was hard to insert myself into a group and assume that the kids knew what they were doing, but I found myself giving small hints that would prompt them along. Some of the groups responded well to my hints and I even challenged a group's answer. Asking them to clarify the question helped them see if their answer was right or wrong. The question was similar to: "Draw a quadrilateral that has four right angles." Asking the group "What's a right angle?" and "What has to happen with the lines for an angle to be a right angle?" are leading questions I asked them.
One group didn't work as well together as a group because none of the students were listening to each other. I tried to get them to listen to each other, but as the game progressed this group got more and more frustrated they weren't getting the right answers. It was certainly tough to convince them they just needed to keep trying and to work more as a team to get points. I tried positive reinforcement "You guys got this, you were close last time, just keep trying" but when it was time for me to leave, the group was still struggling.
Like I've said before, some competition is healthy for students to have something to work towards, but often, I wonder if competition is detrimental to learning.
At my second school, I was working with my small group of kids. We started off well, I asked them how things were going or if they had a good story to share. We jumped into unit reviews of multiplication and division. Some of the questions asked to show work for two approaches to the same problem. For example: "Solve two ways: 35 x 27"
Not being raised on different approaches to multiplication or division (long form was all I was taught) I had to rely on the students to help each other. Some of the students started with a box method that I suggested to the others, and I walked through long form multiplication and division for the kids. I would also like to argue that estimation is a valid solution for division.
One of my kids got really frustrated with a second solution for a division problem and shut down. I felt really bad that I couldn't get him to refocus on his work. I suggested he skip the problem and continue on to the next problem, but it took a quick word from his teacher to snap him out of it.
If anyone's reading this later on: suggestions?
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