Launching...

Thanks Susan,

I like the Parts/Wholes intro and, especially, the student response sheet and the way you introduce it.  My ABE  math class starts next week; I'll try it out (technology willing--I went in yesterday to find all the computers in my classroom disconnected and in disarray).

I love your approach in general; every time I read your posts I feel like you and I have the same kinds of students. And your work in developing and the generosity with which you share it are both tremendous.  I wonder if I can link to your lessons from my Hippocampus playlist of online resources for my ABE math section? I'll give it a try.

Hi Susan,

I promised I'd let you know how the Parts and Wholes presentation/activity went in my ABE class.

I had about 18 students in class that day (high compared to my "normal" attendance), about half new people and half returning from last year. Age range: 18 to 50s/60s, about half originally from other countries, though it is not an ESL class.

I gave out printed copies of the response sheet and brought up your presentation on parts and wholes.

One logistical problem was that as it was running, I couldn't figure out how to pause it. When I clicked, it just jumped to the next slide. Perhaps if I'd saved it to my own machine instead of accessing it through your link it would have been better...

This meant that we weren't able to pause as the slides progressed to give students a chance to write on their response sheets. Instead, everyone tried to fill them out after the slides finished.  We did watch it through about three times, but I would have been happier if we could have paused for questions 1. and 2. before proceeding to the "big idea" question. That one threw a lot of students and led to great discussion, taking us straight into a learning moment that I usually get to more in my English class, but I liked that we got to it in the course of exploring math material. Some people also came up with pretty good "equations" for question 4.  Some people didn't get it or thought they were just supposed to copy the insect example.

Most people wrote in their comments on 5. that they enjoyed the lesson, and/or that the presentation went too fast.

I used it to as a starting point for the semester both for returning students who are working on fractions and for new students with whom I then went into place value--and how large numbers can be decomposed into the digits that tell us how many ones, tens, hundreds, etc. make up the entire number. One content note is that I liked the soda can/case example better than some of the others because for fractions it seemed more applicable. I always find the concept of "equal" in "equal parts" is hard, but critical, for students to grasp.

What have been your experiences with rolling out your new resources? (Anyone else out there tried any of these?)

Again, thanks for sharing you work!