School Visits in Singapore Day 1

We visited the Tao Nan School at its temporary site on Wed., hosted by Mrs. Fiona Soh.  I'd met her son at a UCLA party in Houston.  The school is 108 years old and the original building  http://tinyurl.com/m7tsc7j is being updated to meet the Ministry of Education's requirement that all schools run on a single schedule within a few years.  The old school is quite beautiful. The school's enrollment is nearly 2400 students, with grades 4-6 coming from 8-1 and grades 1-3 coming from 1:30-6:30.   We were greeted so warmly by Dr. Chin Kim Woon, who talked about the joys and challenges of being a principal in Singapore.


This building is used as rotating temporary housing as schools are being updated.  This is one section out of 4!!

We were privileged to see three lessons taught to two groups of students.  The first was a science lesson taught to sixth graders b Mrs, Fiona Soh, a master teacher.  As we entered the room with the teacher, the students stood up. The prefect said, "Bow."  The students bowed in unison and said, "Good morning Mrs. Soh."  After she introduced us, we got a bow and a choral welcome also.  It showed such respect!!
 The content of the lesson was interesting and engaging.  More important was how it was taught,  Mrs, Soh gave some very brief instructions on data that was to be collected.  Eliza Thomas and I were so impressed at how the students worked together on how they would organize their data  Each group had different ideas and charts, but all were very neat and clear.  All students had journals, pencil boxes, and white out!

The mood was very relaxed and light as the students got to work.  This class is the gifted class, so it is quite small by Singapore standards--only 18 students. but they were all on task and engaged.

Then the teachers moved to save instructional time and we saw a math lesson with the same students by Mrs Ngoh Poh Sze Wei. First, they were asked to explore the relationship between two angles within a circle on a computer.  Then, using only a piece of paper and a ruler, they were asked to find the exact center of a circle.

Students got right to work and would excitedly approach the teacher if they thought they had the answer.  Usually, her response was, "Are you sure?" or "Is that enough?"  Eliza and I had to cover our mouths when one boy said to another, "If she asks if it's enough, it isn't."

We were so impressed with how the students persevere and work together.  Students would share their answers with the group so others could learn from them.  It really exemplifies what we're trying to get to with the CCSS Practice Standards.      

The third lesson, taught by Mr. Clifton Lim,  was a fill the bucket lesson using a computer program, with gifted 4th graders.  I must admit we were happy to go the air conditioned computer lab!!  This lesson was very challenging to the students but they worked together and were gently guided by the teacher.  The lesson was not completed but they agreed to continue and discuss it again later in the week, after they'd had more time to explore the concept.   as we left the class, they bowed and said, "Thank you for teaching us."          
                                                                                   We ended the day with a discussion with one of the Vice Principals, Ms. Cheryl Chee about the challenges in the Singapore Schools.  She talked about how hard they are working to move away from summative  testing and its pressures and develop portfolios.  We also talked about teacher evaluation, professional development, and improvement plans.  It was a packed morning and we learned so much.  We are so thankful to the staff at Tao Nan School!

What is Number Sense?

We throw the term around but rarely define it.  I had two experiences this week that help bring the concept into sharper focus.

I was fortunate enough to work with second graders on Oahu, in a Hawai’ian language school.   I had beansticks and bundles and leftovers with me.  After the keiki (children) became familiar with beansticks, I posed this question to them; “Build the number that is 1 beanstick and 15 beans.” 

All children were able to figure out it equaled 25.   But some children built it with two beansticks and 5 loose beans and some did exactly what I’d asked.  Then we had to discuss if both answers were correct and equal.  It led to a lively discussion and some very strong opinions!

It was developmentally interesting to see the children struggle when we moved to bundles and leftovers.  Since they couldn’t see the 10s as clearly, building one bundle with 20 ones was much more problematic.  The children spent a great deal of time taking the bundles apart, counting 10s, and putting them back together.  Obviously, they didn't trust my bundling skills!!

My second experience was sitting in a workshop with Dr. Yeap Ban Har, our favorite expert from Singapore.   He talked about number sense as a complete understanding of number bonds.  Our children need to understand 25 is 20 + 5, but also 10 + 15.  Without this understanding, they won’t be prepared for regrouping.  As they get older, that understanding needs to generalize.  3/5 is 2/5 + 1/5.  If one dividing 351 by 3, it doesn’t help much to break the number into 300 + 50 + 1.  Number sense means the child understands that 300 + 30 + 21 is a much more logical way to decompose the number.  Ban Har will be joining us at our National Conference for Singapore Math on July 9-10. http://sde.com/nationals/2014/

Try posing some number sense questions to your students and then give them some time to struggle with the concepts.  Don’t jump in and help too soon!

Come See Me!

I have an exciting Spring planned.  Besides all my regular fun things, March 15 will be my first time presenting at ASCD in Los Angeles.  March 22-29 is my trip to Singapore!  I'm beyond excited.  I promise to post everyday about what I see and what I learn.  I already have two days scheduled in classrooms, thanks to Char Forsten.  Eliza Thomas, another fabulous SDE presenter will be joining me.

Shortly after my return,  I'll be presenting a session on Fraction Games at NCTM in New Orleans in April.  NCTM is always an exciting time to learn, shop, and see what's coming.  I know Kristin Hilty is also presenting there this year.

July is the National Conference on Singapore Math.  I'm so excited about this year's conference.  Dr. Yeap Ban Har is doing a full day on whole numbers this year.  Marcy Cook is presenting sessions on critical thinking and reasoning (all aligned to CCSS!), and Jasmine Kho is coming from Singapore to teach us about lesson planning and algebraic thinking.  For more information about the conference, visit the SDE website

http://sde.com/singapore-math2014/Presenters.asp 

Singapore Math and Flipped Learning

Theresa and Stacye approached me and asked how I felt about flipped learning.  I love the idea in principle but wasn't sure about how it would work with second graders.  Especially since they're also adopting Math in Focus this year.  It seems like a lot to tackle all at once.  But if they were game, so was I, and I agreed to help them on their journey.  Now, we're four months into the experiment and things seem to be going really well.  I've talked to parents, other teachers, the principal and everyone is enthusiastic.  I've even heard from other schools that they're using the videos in class for their students and to train teachers.

What really blew me away was when I went to do some model drawing in another second grade class, who are also part of the journey.  We'd drawn a model and were ready to subtract 179 from 603.  Buck raised his hand and asked if they should use compensation subtraction, open number line, or traditional algorithm.  Whoa!  Turns out an unexpected side benefit is children learn more vocabulary from watching the videos repeated times.  I asked Buck which method made more sense to him.  He said, "I like traditional, but compensation makes more sense because there's a zero."

Theresa and Stacye will be presenting a session on Flipped Learning at our National Conference on Singapore Math this summer.  Registration is now open.  http://sde.com/singapore-math2014/  I can't wait to see what they have to say.

Another Great Singapore Math Problem

Marilyn from NJ sent me this 4th grade problem.  First, I made a video using my smart recorder.  In my defense, I got in VERY late last night and woke up VERY early this morning, so thinking wasn't very high on my list.  This problem is a great platform for having students visualize the problem before they start to solve it.  Lots of ways to incorporate the CCS PRACTICE standards here!

Priscilla was making gift baskets. Each basket would contain three soaps and two bottles of lotion. Priscilla had 293 soaps and 167 bottles of lotion. How many gift baskets could Priscilla complete?

If I think about it, I realize I don't have to do all the division.  I can just estimate first.  I can make just under 30 baskets using the soaps and just over 80 baskets using the lotion.  Since I only want complete baskets, I need to figure out the exact number of baskets using lotion. Wish I'd thought of that before I did all this work.

This problem also highlights the issue of remainders in division.  Do I round up?  Do I discard?  Do I make it a fraction or decimal?  It makes this problem really interesting.  

All in all, a great problem.  Wish I'd thought about it before I solved it.   But isn't that what your students would do?  

A Great Problem for Mathspot.Net

I found this problem on Mathspot.net, a great blog by Lisa Englard and really liked it.  It was co-written by Lisa and first appeared in Teaching Children Mathematics, Math by the Month column, October 2013.  It is here with Lisa's permission.  

Jared’s mom works for a company that publishes books. When he visits her office, he likes to watch the machine that binds the books. Mr. Green, who runs the machine, told Jared that the machine can bind 12,000 books in 1 hour and 20 minutes and that the machine runs steadily for 10 hours every day. He also found out from Mr. Lee in marketing that last month, the company printed fiction and non-fiction books in the ratio of 4:1, with 540,000 more fiction books printed than non-fiction. Jared’s mom asked him if he could use all the information he learned to figure out how many days it took last month to bind all the fiction and non-fiction books that were printed. Does he have enough information? If so, how many days did it take? If not, what other information does he need? 

There's a Sale! What Percent are you Saving?

I was sitting at the airport, one of my favorite places to find math problems. I'm also an accomplished eavesdropped.  An commercial played on TV, touting a huge savings of $10 off every $25 spent.  The woman behind me turned to her friend and asked, "What percent savings is that?"  I thought it would make an interesting question to ask our students, since they might have lots of different ways to show their number sense as they solve it.

Thinking Blocks is an App!!

It's actually four apps, and they are wonderful!  For all you model drawing enthusiasts, get on board and download these apps NOW!  They are free until Aug. 15.  I love how they make the make the models proportional.  I'm not sure what they'll cot after Aug. 15, but I'm pretty sure I'd pay it!

Two Step Problem Solving with Second Grade

I love working with kids...and when I can't do it in person, I do it by email and sometimes, even, skype!  Theresa Trevino is an amazing second grade teacher in Houston, TX.  I saw a version of this problem at NCTM this week and wondered how her second graders would handle it.  Next week, I'm hoping to skype in and talk to them about it!

The problem reads
A zoo has 7 camels and some giraffes in a big corral.  There are 15 animals in the corral.  Then they got 4 more giraffes.  How many giraffes are there now?

You can see more solutions and some video clips by visiting Theresa's blog!

 http://trevinos2ndgrade.blogspot.com/2013/04/long-distance-problem-solving-with.html?showComment=1366425667754#c8757176304674489062   

Word Problems with Fractions

Part of the common core standards asks our children to contextualize numbers.  When faced with a problem like this, do your students know if it's a multiplication or division problem?

Model drawing will help them visualize what to do with the numbers!  

Fractions are tricky!  Adding and subtracting is conceptually easy, but the procedure is tough.  Multiplication and division are the opposite!  It's easy to teach kids to invert and multiply, but why does that work?  If children understand WHY, they'll be much more successful in the short and the long run!  

Adding Fractions the Singapore Way!

I'm getting lots of fraction questions lately...must be close to testing time!  There are so many important teaching points here.  I think this addresses that we can only add like things together.  If they aren't alike, we have to find a common term.  That's true in first grade.  When we add circles and triangles, first we have to find the common term, shapes.  In fractions, if our denominators aren't alike, we have to find the common term before we can add them!

How does this address the common core standards?  What extension questions are you asking?  Can you step back and bit and teach them to persevere? 

Singapore Math and Equivalent Fractions

Roxanne, a fourth grade teacher from Toledo, sent me this problem.  There is often more than one way to draw a solution to a problem.  I always just look for a solution that the students have labelled, can explain, and makes sense to them.

I could have also drawn a unit bar, divided into fifths, than divided each section into three parts.  That would have achieved the same thing.  I love having multiple, visual approaches--and of course, it aligns to the practice standards of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Practices!

Singapore Math Method for Compensation Subtraction

After years of doing intervention work with subtraction across a zero, I was so excited when I learned about compensation subtraction.  It's also called constant difference.  It helped so many kids and it wasn't just a trick.  They understood why they were doing it!

When I taught larger numbers, I generally reverted to the traditional method, or used many steps.  After spending a really fun week in Cleveland, MS, Lon Hayes sent me an email describing this method of compensation subtraction with larger numbers.  Thanks so much Lon!!

Try this with your class and let me know how it goes!

Anchor Charts

Take an objective look at your room.  What percent of the space is taken up with each content area?  What is taken up with store-bought materials that just becomes wallpaper?  Does math have equal representation? Your walls should reflect your teaching style.  Our walls need to be dynamic and part of our instruction   I strongly believe in anchor charts.

This is an anchor chart used in my old school district

 I wish I could remember where I got this one!!

Anchor charts don't have to be cute.  As a matter of fact, I believe they should be made with your students and should be in the children's natural language.  You may continue to edit them as you continue instruction in that area or spiral back to it, increasing the depth and complexity.  They need to be referenced during instruction so they don't just become wall paper.  Studies show that students look towards these anchor charts, even though they are removed or covered during testing, as a memory trigger.

 This came from a classroom in Holland, MI

Thanks, Jana Hazekamp for sharing these!

You can see lots more on my pinterest anchor chart page.  Pinterest.com/Ricky_Mikelman

Singapore Math Intensive Institute

I've just finished an amazing week at SDE's National Conference for Singapore Math.  I met teachers who are so devoted to finding ways to reach their children and teach them conceptually.  By Thursday, our brains were full, but we pushed on.  I was so sorry to miss the sessions on Friday, but my niece's wedding is Sat. and missing any part would have created major family drama.  I've heard Jana Hazekamp hit her lesson out of the park.  I haven't heard about Char Forsten's lesson yet, but I know Char well enough to know it was great.

The next big event is with Dr. Yeap Ban Har.  He'll be in Houston on Aug. 2-3, and the Chicago area on Aug. 6-7.  Ban Har is from Singapore and has served in a variety of roles there, including training their teachers and, currently working for Marshall Cavendish, the Singapore Math publisher.  I've had the pleasure of learning with him before.  If you have the chance to attend, grab it.  He teaches in depth and with intention.  You'll think about what you learn from him for months, if not years.  You will be changed and it will impact your teaching.

I know this is short notice....so if you can't make it, think about our National Conference in Las Vegas for 2013!  He'll be there for 2 days (and it's at the Venetian again!)

Number Bonds and Improper Fractions

Fractions are so challenging to our students.  We need to make sure we teach conceptually from the beginning and take our time.  This is a lesson I've taught many times with 4th graders who already know about number bonds.  It really helps them learn about how to turn improper fractions into mixed numbers.

Fifth Grade Model Drawing

This problem came to me from some friends.  It's got a "hidden question" that you have to answer before you can answer the stated question.  I also show the array model of multiplication here instead of the traditional algorithm.

Check out my Livebinder!

Live Binder is a great way to keep your bookmarks "in the cloud."  I love my Livebinder.  First, I installed the widget on toolbar so if I find a site I like, I just click on it and it adds it to my livebinder.

Check out my livebinders!

http://www.livebinders.com/edit?id=133702  Ricky Mikelman's Singapore Math Live Binder

http://www.livebinders.com/edit?id=195368 Math and Technology

Happy New Year!

Model Drawing at the Middle Grades Conference in Louisville, KY

Elapsed Time

I just spent a wonderful week in Salt Lake City, Phoenix, and Albuquerque.  The #1 question was, "How do I help my students with elapsed time?"  Here are some suggestions.  I look forward to your comments on other ways to teach this difficult concept in a way that makes sense to students.

First, student should understand how to use number bonds to add time or to break minutes into hours and minutes.  This is stressing the concept that the hour is a unit.

From there, they can move to model drawing.  

The biggest challenge for students is deciding how to divide up the unit. It helps the kids to label the beginning and ending times.  Reading one piece at a time and plugging it into the model really helps!

 Remember, not all the models will look the same.  Some may divide it into 15 minute chunks and some will see the whole hour.  As long as its labeled and they can explain it, I take it!

This is a two-step, part-whole problem.  Reading one piece at a time is the key to success!

This problem is a little harder.  First, you'll need to discuss the answer statement with your students.  I decided to leave a place for "will" or "will not" in mine.  You'll notice my unit bar didn't end proportional.  Oops!  That's why we do math in pencil.

How do you teach elapsed time?  I'd love to hear your suggestions.