We like fractions!

Yesterday's tutoring involved an introduction to fractions in my 4th grade class. I think it's cool to see the intrinsic nature of understanding fractions. For students, doing math computations with fractions quickly becomes difficult. Even as adults, we shy away from fractions, decimals, percentages, and ratios, which all express the same ideas. It's hard to conceptually think of a quarter of a third or to add up 1/6 a teaspoon to 3/4 of a teaspoon and even more so to compute complex fraction equations. Personally, I can't verbally explain what happens when you divide a fraction by another. Completely out of my realm.

However, being able to divide something into fractions and the visual understanding of equal parts is something kids pick up quickly. Our class was dividing up 4x6 arrays into fractions, like a quarter, an eighth, thirds, and sixths. The arrays have 24 smaller units inside, but my students did very well with dividing up squares and rectangles into thirds then sixths. I pushed them further and asked what 1/3 or 1/6 of the whole represents in units, which they quickly got as well.

One of my students came up after we had finished and declared, "I like fractions!" which I thought was nice. I just hope she continues to like fractions when you start adding different denominator fractions...

Mr. Steven Strogatz's newest article is also about the existence of fractions and the ensuing chaos of irrational numbers.

More cartoons of fractions.

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Tutoring resources pt. I

Hello math tutors and supporters! This blog post contains resources and interesting things to think about when working on math with students:


Short and sweet article on tutoring tips to use with students

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TERC's library of free information about the Investigations math curriculum that the Boston Public Schools uses. Includes overviews of what grades cover in the year, sample sessions and even online teacher resources.

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I've also been reading through a San Diego tutor's blog with tips and advice on math tutoring, as well as other student related topics. I haven't read through the entire blog, but what I have read is pretty good advice that I will definitely use in the future.

Although many of his posts are about higher math (middle school, high school, and standardized tests), there are a few highlights from Mr. Casteneda's blog that talk about tutoring in general:

The importance of students knowning their multiplication tables.

Leading questions I use often to get students to explain their reasoning.

Comments on ADHD. Personally, I agree with Mr. Casteneda on ADHD. It came out of nowhere as a behavior problem for students and children and everyone started medicating and diagnosing children for it. Back in my day, ADHD didn't exist! Or more accurately, ADHD wasn't a 'condition' that had a list of symptoms. From the previous blog post: "I wish more parents would [take] the time to bust the "ADHD" label into pieces, and figure out what exactly is going on behind appearances in the particular case of their child." Although I don't know very much about ADHD or the medical procedures for diagnosing ADHD, I feel like ADHD is a label adults and children use to avoid figuring out and working to solve the root cause of attention deficits.

A blog post on encouraging postive thinking in students who don't feel like they're good at math.

And finally, a post on the unexpected skills tutors gain.

1st week

After emailing the Math Rules! volunteers, I've gotten a few responses on how the first few sessions/first week went. Most of the responses I've gotten were positive, things going as smoothly as first days go. Many of our volunteers will be starting this current week so I can put up more responses of 1st sessions next week.

One of our volunteers did have a question about keeping students focused in their session. Here are excerpts from my reply. Please keep in mind I'm not a professional tutor/educator and only offered advice based on my previous tutoring experiences.
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"Keeping kids focused is definitely a big part of the volunteer experience. I have found that a little bit of competition is healthy to keep them focused. And if competition is not quite what you're looking for, you can ask them to help each other out. For example, "Mary could you help Joe put his shapes together?" You could also try refocusing the entire group together, "Let's all look at Annie's tetromino."

The great thing about the math curriculum now is that it focuses on group work and building off other students' ideas to help them with their work. Make sure you ask open ended questions that build off of the previous one. I've learned that these questions are called spiraling questions that start off with very basic questions that make sure everyone is on the same page. Sometimes these basic questions may frustrate more advanced students, but math terminology is important to understanding math concepts.

I think that it takes some time for [the tutor] to understand how best to motivate your kids. It also depends on their personalities quite a bit. It's hard to prepare everyone for real-world volunteering during [Math Rules!] training. If focusing becomes a bigger problem throughout the year, I would ask your teachers for ideas and suggestions."

Math Rules! Blog

First week of volunteering! I met with one of our first new volunteers JD today at one of the schools. Our volunteers will be starting all of this week and next week, I'm trying to meet with most of the new volunteers so they know where to go and who to contact.

I'm going to start volunteering on Wednesdays, I'm both excited and nervous. Being the new kid in class is tough. What if the kids don't like me? What if the teacher doesn't like me? What should I wear? I hope I don't forget all my math! I'm also going to three different schools and four different teachers, a whole day of math tutoring. I'm looking forward to being out of the office for a while. It's a shame I'm going to miss the Math Rules! training at Boston Partners though.

As Math Rules! Coordinator at Boston Partners in Education, this is part of my AmeriCorps and Massachusetts Promise Fellowship year of service. The blog is meant to be a resource for the Math Rules! volunteers, as a forum to document the Math Rules! volunteer experience. I hope other volunteers will find it useful, but we'll see.







More updates to come!
-MN