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Role-Play in the Classroom with Delicious

Delicious (del.icio.us) is an online social bookmarking platform that stores and categorizes photos, videos, and articles that teachers can use to motivate and engage students. It is part of social media because teachers can see each other’s folders called “stacks” of information and share each other’s postings of links on the web. These links are usually of high quality because teachers have invested time in surfing the internet to make meaningful selections.Many teachers have used Delicious  to share great links with...

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Fun with Picture Grids: Teaching the Addition of Fractions

 An Introduction to Picture GridsWhy is it that mathematics often conjures up images of desperate students trying to solve seemingly impossible problems? The subject of mathematics often compels otherwise well-adjusted adults to grimace with the memory of futile hours spent poring over numbers that seem at once both meaningless and threatening. Fortunately, there is an alternative. Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. The impossible really is possible, and we can do more than tell our students to clap...

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Fun with Picture Grids: Teaching Multiplication of Fractions & Decimals

 Order a set at: http://www.hand2mind.com/catalog/product?deptId=&prodId=020272&q=picture+grids This is the third and fourth parts of the Fun with Picture Grids Series of Addition, Subtraction, Division, Multiplication & Decimals, and Square RootPart III: Teaching Multiplication with the Picture Grids ManipulativesA few weeks later Henry asks the class, “How do you feel about multiplication?” The students groan. Multiplication is even harder than addition and subtraction. They’re not ready to believe that these grids hold the magic that can ease the discomfort of multiplication. After all, students rarely...

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Fun with Picture Grids: Teaching the Subtraction of Fractions

   Order a set at: http://www.hand2mind.com/catalog/product?deptId=&prodId=020272&q=picture+grids Part II: Teaching Subtraction with the Picture Grids ManipulativesHenry continues using the Picture Grid materials to teach subtraction:1. “The grids can also be used to do subtraction,” Henry says. “Let’s take the problem of one-half minus one-fourth.” He hands out the halves grid, the fourths grid, the clear grid, and a bunch of colored pencils. He tells the students to solve the problem. One group takes the quarters grid and overlays it directly on top of...

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Fun with Picture Grids: Teaching Square Root

 Order a set at: http://www.hand2mind.com/catalog/product?deptId=&prodId=020272&q=picture+gridsPart VI: Teaching Square Root with the Picture Grid ManipulativesIn a previous article, Henry Goodman took you on a journey that proved it was not only possible to teach students mathematics, but possible to help them understand how mathematics works. Through the use of both rods and grids, Henry was able to help students visualize the mathematics problems that had previously remained a mystery.The good news is that Henry Goodman is back. The other news which...

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Fun with Picture Grids: Teaching the Division of Fractions

Order a set at: http://www.hand2mind.com/catalog/product?deptId=&prodId=020272&q=picture+gridsPart V: Teaching Division with the Picture Grid ManipulativesTo understand division is simply to understand the wording. Division means “sets.” If we look at whole numbers and we ask, “What is 10 divided by 5?” We are simply asking how many sets of 5 can be found in 10? We know that the answer is 2. If we place this in a reality-based scenario, we have 10 pieces of candy and want to divide it among 5...

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Creating Rubrics Through Negotiable Contracting and Assessment

 What would happen if students were invited to help decide how their work should be evaluated? Would they exploit the opportunity, designing standards so ridiculously low as to guarantee a glut of effortless good grades?Surprisingly, the answer is no. Experience in Mrs. Martha Polin's class at Robert Wagner Middle School in Manhattan shows that students who are given a role in the assessment process of a mural from a historical novel lesson can and do rise to the occasion....

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Flashcard Games for Reinforcing and Memorizing Content in the Classroom

 One of the most effective teaching strategy groups that is simple to implement involves inexpensive index cards. Whether students keep guided notes while they read text or keep a dictionary of new words in an index box, the following strategies offer ways to reinforce the content in an active manner.The basic principle of the index card strategy group is for students to write something down on an index card from their guided notes. Or, they can create a dictionary of new words...

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