Category

General Interest

General InterestMath and LiteratureNumerical ReasoningProblem Solving

One Children’s Book . . . Different Grade Levels

In a previous blog, I described a lesson I taught to second graders using the wonderful children’s book One Is a Snail, Ten Is a Crab. At John Muir Elementary School in San Francisco, I observed two other lessons using the same book, one in Kindergarten and the other in fourth grade. The lessons were a joy to observe, and I feel that my own teaching repertoire has now been enhanced.
Marilyn Burns
December 8, 2015
DataGeneral InterestNumber and OperationsReal-World ProblemsStatistics and Probability

Alphabetical Probability

Read how 7th graders collected and analyzed data about the frequency of letters. They chose sentences, recorded the frequency of letters, and put their data on a class chart. Then we compared the class results to the actual frequencies of letters. Engaging the students in collecting their own data gave them an authentic math experience, not rigged by me in any way.
Marilyn Burns
October 18, 2015
General InterestTechnology

Why I Tweet

I’ve been tweeting since September of 2014, and I’m hooked. I never would have predicted that I’d join Twitter, much less enjoy it and benefit from it professionally. In this post, I describe my initiation into Twitter and what I’ve learned.
Marilyn Burns
July 27, 2015
General InterestProblem SolvingVideos

The 1–10 Card Investigation

The 1-10 Card Investigation has a big payoff with students. It engages their interest, involves them with making sense of a problem and persevering to solve it, and gives them experience with evaluating their progress and changing course as necessary. Plus it has a playful aspect that too often is lost in math class.
Marilyn Burns
June 29, 2015
General InterestNumber and OperationsProblem SolvingReal-World ProblemsWord Problems

Where’s the Math?

Students’ ideas often amaze me, and Lydia’s is one of the most suprising examples. She used 7 x 3 = 21 to figure out that 8 x 4 = 32. She reasoned that since the factors in 7 x 3 were each 1 less than the factors in 8 x 4, she’d just increase each digit in the answer, changing 21 to 32. She was correct! Read about Lydia's discovery, what I did, and what I learned.
Marilyn Burns
May 11, 2015