General Interest Archives - Page 7 of 8

General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Problem Solving

A Number Line Exploration

Here’s an idea that I was first introduced to about ten years ago by Nicholas Branca, a math educator who contributed profoundly to my thinking about math and teaching. I’ve tried presenting it as a math-in-three-acts investigation.

Marilyn BurnsAugust 13, 2015

General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning

A Mental Math Lesson, Part 2

In my June 2 post, I described how students solved 99 + 17. Actually I described only part of the lesson. Now, in response to a tweet, I explain how I also had students think about one of the important mathematical practices.

Marilyn BurnsAugust 11, 2015

General Interest Numerical Reasoning Problem Solving Videos

Goldilocks, the Three Bears, and Teaching Math

I began a back-to-school session for elementary teachers by asking everyone to write an opening sentence for Goldilocks and the Three Bears. The teachers were surprised by the request—the session was supposed to focus on teaching math. What was the connection?

Marilyn BurnsAugust 3, 2015

General Interest Technology

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 BurnsJuly 27, 2015

General Interest Problem Solving Videos

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 BurnsJune 29, 2015

Assessment General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Videos

A Mental Math Lesson

I asked a class of fourth graders to figure out the answer to 99 + 17 in their heads. In this post, I describe why I chose that problem, include a video of how the lesson unfolded, describe a teaching error I made in a subsequent lesson, and more.

Marilyn BurnsJune 2, 2015

General Interest Number and Operations Problem Solving Real-World Problems Word 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 BurnsMay 11, 2015

General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Problem Solving Real-World Problems Videos Word Problems

An Unusual Word Problem: “Dealing in Horses”

After I told Steven, the man seated next to me on an airplane, that I was a math teacher, he described the Dealing in Horses problem that he was given at a corporate management training session. The problem has been one of my teaching staples ever since.

Marilyn BurnsApril 28, 2015

General Interest Number and Operations Subtraction Videos

Yet Another Way to Subtract

When a workshop participant raised his hand to offer how he was taught to subtract when he was in elementary school, I was surprised by the process he described. He called it the “trouble-coming method” of subtraction. I hadn’t ever seen it before, and I’ve never seen it since.

Marilyn BurnsApril 14, 2015

General Interest Number and Operations Numerical Reasoning Subtraction Videos

Another Way to Subtract

Here’s another post about subtraction. I’ve long been a fan of having students invent and use their own methods for computing, as long as they can explain why their strategies make sense. Here’s what I learned from Jesús, a fifth grader.

Marilyn BurnsMarch 30, 2015

General Interest