Monday morning I received an early morning phone call from my boss. **EDITOR’s note: early morning for Dagney on the day that she doesn’t go into work until noon is 8:00 a.m.** One of the math teachers had called in sick and she wondered whether I could come in early to take his morning classes. Not one to turn down the opportunity to teach math, I said, “OF COURSE,” threw on some clothes (not my best put together outfit ever, but hey) and headed off to work.
Now, this math teacher for whom I subbed is one of the most organized, conscientious teachers I know, and I know some pretty fine teachers, so when I arrived and there weren’t lesson plans for the week e-mailed in, I knew he must be truly sick.
No problem. Our program is full of on the ball students. I simply walked into the classroom and asked them what they were studying.
Ok, I didn’t really expect that to work. But it did! “We learned to multiply and divide fractions last week and he said something about adding and subtracting fractions this week.”
Are you kidding me?! I LOVE fractions!! **EDITOR’s note: this is more caps lock than Dagney has ever used in a blog post. We don’t know what’s going on, but, frankly, we’re a little embarrassed and would like to apologize on her behalf.**
What’s so great about fractions, you ask? Well, for starters, almost all illustrations of fractions involve food. You simply cannot teach fractions without involving pies, pizzas, cookies, and M&M’s. My students did mention that the pies I drew looked more like eggs, but I quickly reminded them of my lay/lie lesson from English class and the nightmarish chicken and egg involved in that fiasco, and they were pleased with the pies.
The best part of the lesson was a direct result of my not having time to adequately prepare. I understand the importance of using real life problems when they’re learning a new skill, but on the spot I couldn’t come up with anything beyond the pies. So, after introducing the lesson and working a couple of problems, I asked them, in groups of two, to come up with their own real life word problems.
The initial groans were inevitable. “Really Ms. Dagney? You want to make our lives miserable?” But after a little encouragement (do it or I’m taking back the badly drawn, fake pies), they complied. And then they started smiling. And then, a couple of minutes into the assignment, they started having fun.
Each group presented its word problem to the class to solve. The problems included hungry boys consuming a large quantity of hot dogs, a birthday party with a large cake, a quarter tank of gas, and a drive to the gas station. Really, these students could have written the math book themselves.
So now my students understand fractions a little better, and I have been enlightened to possible word problems that do not necessarily involve food. I don’t like them as well, but I guess they might work for some people.
I would have to say that 5/5 of the morning was fantastic.
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