Number and Operations

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Recommended: Conclusion for differentiated instruction

Throughout my teaching career I will be required to teach children mathematical skills and concepts in order to help them progress to the next grade. In order to help them master the required standards, I must use different strategies, manipulative devices, models, and technology. Scholarly articles and studies will also be helpful in helping me develop ways to teach my students. In the following paper I will discuss how I would present five different mathematical concepts to my students.

My first concept is comparing relative size of decimals. Students can easily confuse decimal amounts because so many numbers are involved. Students originally learn that more digits equal a greater amount. For example, they might think that 0.2398476 is greater than 0.72 because it has more digits. In order to keep students from being confused and misunderstanding the true amounts, I would teach a strategy called leading digit (Cathcart, Pothier, Vance, & Bezuk, 2011, p. 278). Using the leading digit strategy takes unneeded numbers away making comparing the two fractions easier for the students. The student would keep the first non-zero number and drop the rest of the numbers or replace them with zero. In our example from above, 0.2398476 would become 0.2 and 0.72 would become 0.7. Students would be able to compare 0.2 and 0.7 much easier.

Students would use base-ten blocks to prove that 0.7 is greater than 0.2 (Cathcart et al., 2011, p. 271). By placing rods and one-cubes on the base-ten block to equal the problem we are doing, students could visually see which was bigger and which was smaller. For extra practice, students could work on the following website: http://www.ezschool.com/Games/CompareDecimals.html. This website provides a game w...

... middle of paper ...

...agogical content knowledge.” As long as I prepare, I know that I can teach effectively.

References:

(Cathcart, W.G., Pothier, Y.M., Vance, J.H. & Bezuk, S.B. (2011). Learning mathematics in elementary and middle schools. (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.

Myers, P. (May 2007). Why? Why? Why? Future teachers discover mathematical depth. Phi Delta Kappan, 88, 9. p.691(5). Retrieved February 11, 2012, from General OneFile via Gale:

http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/gtx/start.do?userGroupName=pens49866 &prodId=ITOF

Piccolo, D. (Feb 2008). Views of content and pedagogical knowledges for teaching mathematics. School Science and Mathematics, 108, 2. p.46(3). Retrieved February 11, 2012, from General OneFile via Gale:

http://find.galegroup.com.ezproxy.lib.uwf.edu/gtx/start.do?userGroupName=pens49866 &prodId=ITOF

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