ANOTHER new math curriculum?

Hello again!

The math curriculum, over the years, has been sadly neglectful in communicating to the teacher what exactly it is about. The little professional development available was usually done by having a "lead" math teacher who went to the meetings to learn about the curriculum and then return to school and SHARE what he or she learned with the staff. As the lead math teacher at our school, I can say that it was not very effective.

So, now we have another NEW curriculum. Are we better off? Does it explain how to teach the math concepts? It seems to be more descriptive than the 2005 curriculum in that it provides "key concepts" and, in some cases, gives examples. But that really depends on the strand. I find that the Data strand is more informative and helpful than, say, the Number strand. For example, when teaching division in Grade 2, using a number line is suggested as a "repeated subtraction" strategy. It works, of course, if you just have to complete a number sentence. But in problem form, it is a bit more confusing.

For example, "I have 12 cookies. I want to share them equally with 6 people. How many cookies does each person get?" On a number line, you would take 2 jumps of 6. So, each person would get 2 cookies, the number of jumps being the answer. It makes more sense if you say "I have 12 cookies. I want to give each person two cookies. How many people are there?" Then you would have 6 jumps of 2. Six people will get cookies.

I was intrigued by this, so I did a little research and decided to make a {FREEBIE} for our store dealing specifically with using a number line to solve multiplication and division problems.

I would love if you would try it and give some feedback. What do you think of this strategy? Would you bother teaching it or just use groups and fair shares? Rosemary :)

Math Freebie

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