Assignments

Tips for Simplifying Fractions

I created a tip sheet for the son of my classmate Cyndi.  The student was learning how to divide fractions, and he appeared to get stuck on simplifying his answers.   The photo below shows his progress on a class worksheet.

My goal for the lesson was to provide basic steps on simplifying his answers from improper fractions to mixed numbers.  Here is my tip-sheet. . . .

I also put some of the worksheet problems onto a new page so he had more room to work. . . .

As you can tell, the main teaching strategies I used are task analysis, modeling, and visual reminders for each step.  It’s been a long time since I did this kind of math!

Here is one of several videos I watched to create the lesson.

Responses to articles and videos:

How to Talk to Your Child So He’ll Really Listen, by Valerie Frankel

I found this article from Parenting magazine while looking for guides on how to communicate effectively with people having diverse learning needs (Click here to read a PDF of the article).

Here are the key points I took away from the article:

• use commands rather than questions;
• keep orders simple, direct, and unambiguous;
• don’t apologize or qualify your requests;
• say it once, and then after that give warnings;
• after the second warning, give consequences for not complying (like time-outs).

Rethinking Challenging Kids—Where There’s a Skill, There’s a Way, by J. Stuart Ablon 

Dr. Ablon is an American child psychologist who works with challenging kids and their families.    The core of his message is that behaviors are due to a lack of skill.

You can watch the video here . . .

Here are four additional things I found helpful in the video:

1. The speaker identifies the core skills that kids with behaviors lack: problem solving, flexibility, and frustration tolerance. This makes my job much easier….no huge list to wade through, just three skills.
2. He encourages adults to adopt a positive attitude to behavior problems: they’re “opportunities lying in wait.”
3. He identifies the three steps to his process: identify the child’s concern, have the adult share their concern, invite the child to brainstorm solutions. When I heard that, I was like, “sweet! This guy is really generous with sharing his findings.  He doesn’t make me go and buy his book to find out.”
4. He places his message of collaboration within the wider reality of the world’s broken ‘adult’ power structures: it’s “rare” to see “adults coming to mutually satisfactory solutions to problems.” More often it’s ‘might makes right.’  Great insight for adults who raise or work with children.

‘ETHIC’ Model by Elaine Congress (1999, cited in Miller, 2007)

One of my group assignments was to choose an ethical decision-making model and apply it to a situation.  Take a look at a summary of the model in my class text:

Here are four reasons why I like the ETHIC model:

• It has a manageable number of steps
• The acronym is easy to remember
• The process begins with thinking about values, and then considers the more cerebral code of ethics
• The model underscores my commitment to the most vulnerable

Exploration of Two Assistive Technologies for the Classroom

Here is a consideration of the advantages and disadvantages of two classroom tech helps: Immersive Reader for Office 365 Word and Book Creator.

Immersive Reader

This tool allows instructors to make adjustments so text is easier to read.  For example, you can change the screen color or use ‘line focus,’ which narrows the reader’s focus by highlighting one or more lines.  Also, ‘text spacing’ and ‘column width’ can be adapted to suit the needs of the individual.  Immersive reader also has a text to speech function.

A disadvantage of the tool is that you must be in Word to use it, so not helpful when surfing the net.  Another weakness I discovered is that there’s only two options for text spacing, ‘wide’ and ‘normal.’  I think Microsoft could have developed IR a bit more (be more creative with it) to make it more appealing to use.

Book Creator

The app allows learners to showcase creativity by making their own interactive e-book (click here for website).  Within the book’s pages, students can embed videos, photos, sounds, and drawings.  The app is usable in every subject, not just English, but also math, science, even physical education.

A strength of the app is the many ways to customize a book to fit the individual learner.  There is text to speech; it can be accessed using mouse, touch, keyboard, stylus (depending on the device).  It is also very fun and engaging, and users can easily publish their own books with it.

As for weakness: the myriad of options might be confusing and distracting to some learners.  Also, not every kid is wild about mashing multimedia together, so it will not appeal to everyone.

References

Frankel, V. (2003). How to talk to your child so he’ll really listen. Parenting, 17(1), 92.

Miller, P. (2007). Ethical decision making in social work and counselling. Toronto, Ontario: Thomson/Nelson.

Ablon, J. S. (2014, October 24). Rethinking challenging kids: Where there’s a skill there’s a way [Video]. TED Conferences.           https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuoPZkFcLVs

Math Plus Motion, LLC. (2020). Mixed Numbers [Video].         https://mathantics.com/lesson/intro-to-mixed-numbers

Tools for Schools, Inc. (2019). Book Creator. https://bookcreator.com/