Here was an actual conversation in my room today...
Me: What are the types of energy that we talked about yesterday?
Student 1: Light!
Me: Good one!
Student 2: Sound!
Me: YES!!
Student 3: Energy!
Student 4: Heat!
Me: Heat!
Student 3: ENERGY!
Me: Are you really answering with that, or are you just cheering on everybody else?
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Showing posts with label answers that make no sense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label answers that make no sense. Show all posts
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Not the answers I am looking for
Does anyone else experience this?
We're looking at a word problem, for instance one that goes like this: "Timmy has 18 marbles. He gives 5 to Fred and 6 to Becky. How many marbles does Timmy have left?"
I walk around the room to see how the kids are doing. I notice one of them has subtracted 6-5. I ask him, "Please tell me why you have subtracted 6 minus 5 here."
He replies, "So that I could get the right answer."
Undeterred (I've heard this one before, after all), I persist: "But how do you know you were supposed to subtract these numbers?"
He responds, "Because it says, 'Timmy has 18 marbles. He gives 5 to Fred and 6 to Becky. How many marbles does Timmy have left?'"
Ironically, I will get these exact same answers from a child in the next class who has ADDED all three numbers.
No matter how many times I try to tell the kids that reciting the word problem in its entirety does NOT explain how they got their answer -- kids still try it.
Unfortunately, sarcasm is often lost of them, so me trying to turn this around on them usually fails miserably.
"Mister Teacher, why haven't we gone to the computer lab lately?"
"Because we had fried chicken for lunch today."
"Mister Teacher, why can't we go outside for recess today?"
"Because the Pledge says, 'I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...'"
We're looking at a word problem, for instance one that goes like this: "Timmy has 18 marbles. He gives 5 to Fred and 6 to Becky. How many marbles does Timmy have left?"
I walk around the room to see how the kids are doing. I notice one of them has subtracted 6-5. I ask him, "Please tell me why you have subtracted 6 minus 5 here."
He replies, "So that I could get the right answer."
Undeterred (I've heard this one before, after all), I persist: "But how do you know you were supposed to subtract these numbers?"
He responds, "Because it says, 'Timmy has 18 marbles. He gives 5 to Fred and 6 to Becky. How many marbles does Timmy have left?'"
Ironically, I will get these exact same answers from a child in the next class who has ADDED all three numbers.
No matter how many times I try to tell the kids that reciting the word problem in its entirety does NOT explain how they got their answer -- kids still try it.
Unfortunately, sarcasm is often lost of them, so me trying to turn this around on them usually fails miserably.
"Mister Teacher, why haven't we gone to the computer lab lately?"
"Because we had fried chicken for lunch today."
"Mister Teacher, why can't we go outside for recess today?"
"Because the Pledge says, 'I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America...'"
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Blessed are the logical
I'm starting to believe that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were not very good at math. Yeah, THAT Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
I've been working on multiplication and division word problems with my students, and I've noticed a striking similarity between some of their answer choices and a famous story from the New Testament.
Just imagine if this was a math problem, posed to the young gospel writers:
Jesus has 5 loaves of bread. He wants to split the bread equally among 1000 people who are hungry. How many loaves of bread will each person receive?
Now, if MML&J tackled this problem the way many of MY students would, they would multiply 5 times 1000 and get 5000.
Each person will receive 5000 loaves of bread.
No wonder everyone ate to their fill and there was a multitude still left over!
In the case of the Gospel story, this is referred to as a miracle, and I happen to believe in its veracity. Not so much with my kids.
On the test I gave today, one question was, "Mrs. M. had 30 pieces of candy. She wants to give the same amount of candy to 10 students. How many pieces of candy will each student get?”
Every time I saw an answer of 300 (or even 30, from my just plain confused kids), I kept wanting to ask, "So you think this is a loaves and fishes situation?"
Oh well, at least I know what I'll be concentrating even harder on next week.
I've been working on multiplication and division word problems with my students, and I've noticed a striking similarity between some of their answer choices and a famous story from the New Testament.
Just imagine if this was a math problem, posed to the young gospel writers:
Jesus has 5 loaves of bread. He wants to split the bread equally among 1000 people who are hungry. How many loaves of bread will each person receive?
Now, if MML&J tackled this problem the way many of MY students would, they would multiply 5 times 1000 and get 5000.
Each person will receive 5000 loaves of bread.
No wonder everyone ate to their fill and there was a multitude still left over!
In the case of the Gospel story, this is referred to as a miracle, and I happen to believe in its veracity. Not so much with my kids.
On the test I gave today, one question was, "Mrs. M. had 30 pieces of candy. She wants to give the same amount of candy to 10 students. How many pieces of candy will each student get?”
Every time I saw an answer of 300 (or even 30, from my just plain confused kids), I kept wanting to ask, "So you think this is a loaves and fishes situation?"
Oh well, at least I know what I'll be concentrating even harder on next week.
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