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conulyIt starts off with adding fractions with the same denominator, reducing if needed. That's easy enough, and sure enough, the same task that drove Ana to tears just a few months ago, reducing, is now the easiest thing in the world for her. WHY IS SHE ALWAYS LIKE THIS??? That isn't a rhetorical question, I actually want to know what makes it so that things that were hard become easy with a break for her. Practice doesn't do it.
In school math they're doing division, but they don't seem to be doing the long division part yet. Ana had to divide 87 by 6, and she was actually expected to draw six plates with 87 cookies divided among them. To which I say "fuck it", and she must have agreed, because she did the division first and then drew the cookies. It's faster that way, but it's still stupid. Talk about busywork, drawing 87 cookies! They've been having little intro to division assignments like this since the second grade, or maybe even the first. If they don't understand the general concept by now, drawing 87 cookies and six plates certainly won't help! You want to help them understand the idea of division and remainders, give them 25 cookies or something. But 87? Craziness.
In school math they're doing division, but they don't seem to be doing the long division part yet. Ana had to divide 87 by 6, and she was actually expected to draw six plates with 87 cookies divided among them. To which I say "fuck it", and she must have agreed, because she did the division first and then drew the cookies. It's faster that way, but it's still stupid. Talk about busywork, drawing 87 cookies! They've been having little intro to division assignments like this since the second grade, or maybe even the first. If they don't understand the general concept by now, drawing 87 cookies and six plates certainly won't help! You want to help them understand the idea of division and remainders, give them 25 cookies or something. But 87? Craziness.
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Date: 2013-02-09 03:10 pm (UTC)I'm like this as well. Something that's very hard at first gets a lot easier if I'm allowed to give it some time. For me, certain things from pre-calculus that didn't make sense at first were suddenly perfectly comprehensible after the summer break, when I moved on to calculus. I suspect it has something to with letting my subconscious digest the info. There have been studies that show problem-solving is easier when you sleep on it (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121012074741.htm); maybe that's part of it.