Skip to main content

Decimal Operation Help!



We've been spending a bit of time on decimal operations. I have five math classes, and in four of the five, our work with decimal operations has gone pretty well. There are a few students who are still mixing up their rules - when to line the decimal point up and when not to. When to count the digits behind the decimal points and when not to. However, in the fifth math class, there are many students who are not "getting it," even though did work with decimal operations last year. Part of the not getting it, I believe, is due to the fact that they don't actually look at their answers and think about whether or not they make sense. For example, many students will take a problem like 18.9 - 8 and get 18.1 as the answer....and they don't notice that it doesn't make sense to take 8 from 18 and still have 18 left. We've had discussions, gone through so many examples, and they've practiced the operations individually (and did very well when adding and subtracting were the only operations we were practicing). But when we put adding, subtracting, and multiplying together, forget it! Everything flies out the window! (We haven't done division yet, but I find that this doesn't normally mess them up like adding/multiplying confusion does).
Click to download

Since I feel at somewhat of a loss, I made a new notes sheet for the to use as a reference. They already have a fold it up in their Fold It Ups books, but it seems that they don't use it (or don't understand it?) So, this new one is more "visual." It looks a bit busy to start with, but I'm hoping that the arrows and different shapes will help to trigger something in their memories when they try to remember certain rules (until their number sense gets a bit stronger).

We'll see if this helps!

Anyone have any special ways to help struggling students to keep these operations straight?









Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Memory Wheels - First Day, Last Day, and Any Day in Between!

This post has been moved to:  http://www.cognitivecardiowithmsmm.com/blog/memory-wheels-first-day-last-day-and-any-day-in-between

Differentiation and the Brain - Introduction

It's summer-time and time to get some reading done! Myself and my Tools for Teaching Teens collaborators are going to read and review Differentiation and the Brain, How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom , by David A. Sousa and Carol Ann Tomlinson.We will each be reviewing different chapters, and those blog posts will be linked together as we go. If you're interested in learning more about this book, check back and follow the links to the different chapters:) I'm going to give a quick review of the book introduction here, and then later today I'll be reviewing Chapter 1. According to the authors, differentiation is brain-friendly and brain-compatible! They describe the rise, fall, and rise of differentiation, starting with the one-room schoolhouses, where teachers taught all subjects to all students, of all ages, and HAD to differentiate - there was no other way! As the country's population grew, public schools grew, and students were separat

Love to Doodle (and a freedbie)

Exponents Color by Number For most of my school life as a student (and even as an adult, during PD), I have really liked doodling! During lectures, discussions...it would help me focus, but also give me something to make me look busy, so I wouldn't get called on in class! I always hated being called on and almost never participated voluntarily:) I liked to draw cubes, rectangles, squiggly lines, etc, and color in different parts of the doodles. Download this freebie:-) I really wanted to make some color by number activities. Since I am not good at creating actual pictures, I decided to make my color by numbers similar to my random drawing/doodling. My Exponent Color by Number is most similar to my past doodles, but I thought it was a little too random, so I started using actual shapes. The Integer Operations Color by Number (freebie), as well as most of my other color by numbers are more structured, but so much fun for me to make! Computerized doodling! Anyone else