Lecture #4.

The lecture started with Dr. Yeap "reading our minds" again. But alas, as with all the other quizzes and mind teases, there was another number pattern to discover in the very first activity for today. I tried this "trick" with my sisters aged 16 and 11. My 16 year old sister got the trick immediately while the 11 year old one took a little bit more time. I had a hand of practicing "differentiation" on the spot and had the older sister to find out more possibilities of obtaining the solution while I allowed the younger sister to figure out more by us having more number combinations. It was fun and we had a good time.

We worked on word problems tonight. The 3 different kinds we touched on tonight:


1. Change Situation: (Where there is a change involved. There is an initial amount and an unknown amount after the change takes place.)


E.g.: There are 37 cupcakes. Jane gave away 19. How many cupcakes are left?


This can take place with discreet quantities (e.g.: marbles, stickers, etc) and can also take place with continuous quantities (quantities that cannot be seen one by one, e.g: water, rice, etc and have a unit of measure, e.g.: $, kg, m, etc)


2. Part-whole Situation: 


E.g.: There are 37 children in a class. 19 are boys. How many girls are there? 


For word problems like this, children should be exposed to a different variation (discreet/ continuous) of subtraction/ addition problems. Variation is important, not repetition (Zoltan Dienes). Sets of the unknown should also be reversed. 


3. Compare Situation:


E.g: I have $37. I have $19 more than you. How much do you have? 


For word problems like this one, never introduce the keyword strategy to children where "more" means to add because it is not the case all the time for every word problem with the word "more" in it. 


We also worked with fractions and how to introduce them to children. I took home the following tonight:

• Fractions -  first taught as a part of a whole.
• For the initial introduction of fractions, do not write actual fractions out. Children have just learnt number representation and quantity and to understand 1/4 as a quarter or 1/2 as half would confuse them. 
• Instead write them as 1 fourth, 3 fourths, etc.
• When introducing addition of fractions, write out 1 fifth + 3 fifths = ? instead of 1/5 + 3/5 = ?
  Reason being that any child that understands the concept of 1 apple + 3 apples would understand the above problem as there is no change in concept, only the noun is different.
• Saying "1 out of 5 plus 3 out of 5" is taught much later.  
• Fractions - eventually taught as a part of a set/ quantity. E.g.: 1/2 of 35 children, 1/4 of $100, etc.

Last but not least, something fundamental that we should never tell children is that equal parts look the same. Tonight's class proved over and over that being equal does not mean that they have to look identical, nonidentical parts can be equal still! Since we are on the topic of fractions, I realize we are more than halfway through this module too!