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Helping Students Define Primary Source Documents

The primary source document has recently received more and more attention in national and state standards for all education levels.  And for the gifted student, the primary source document can stimulate and challenge a population of students who are sometimes bored by textbooks that regurgitate important sources in pedantic and watered-down language.  Still, incorporating the primary source document into the curriculum can prove to be challenging for teachers charged with this task.  For, you might ask, what “exactly” is a primary...

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Fraction Rings: Teaching Time, Decimals and Degrees

  (c) 1993 Fraction Rings designed by Andi Stix were produced by Cuisenaire Company of America. This set of math manipulative rings are to be used with Fraction Circles.  Order a set at: http://www.hand2mind.com/catalog/product?deptId=&prodId=020272&q=picture+grids           Andi Stix is an educational consultant & coach who specializes in differentiation, interactive learning, writing across the curriculum, classroom coaching, and gifted education. For further information on her specialties or social media, please email her on the Contact page.

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Imagery Walk

 The Imagery Walk is an exercise that allows students to visually bring content alive by utilizing their imaginations. It is based on meditative practices but allows for scenes in English Language Arts, historical periods in Social Studies, geometrical designs in mathematics, and procedures in science to be recreated. By implementing this strategy, students are more able to move the content from short-term to long-term memory, because they personally create and interact with the content area. Using a soft, gentle, soothing, and...

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Open-Ended Questions

 Research has shown time and time again that if we pose a close-ended question, our students will elicit a minimal amount of answers. However, we can draft the same question using the following question starters that provoke higher level thinking coupled with brainstorming.In the beginning, you will find that it is hard to draft an open-ended question. However, with time, it will become easier and easier until it becomes a habit. So, how do you break the habit? Use this simple...

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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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Pic-Jour Math: Pictorial Journal Writing in Mathematics to Understand Pi

 Come every fall, teachers of mathematics are confronted with oversized classes filled with students who vary in both their learning style and their way of communicating what they have learned. Teachers are challenged to recognize and exploit those differences or risk bored or confused students who lack any true mathematical understanding and may end up manipulating numerical symbols and equations by rote.Both experience and research in the past twenty years have demonstrated the clear effectiveness of using a multimodal, interactive approach...

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The Link Between Art and Mathematics

 There would seem to be an implausible relationship between art and mathematics.  After all, the two domains seem to depend on vastly different thinking patterns. We do not question the interrelationship between science and mathematics, and the scientific process is clearly contingent on mathematics.  How then did Ferguson (1977) manage to put together a historical review linking art and technology? Ferguson’s research indicates that inventors and art are more closely affiliated than either group would have us believe.Ferguson cites many examples...

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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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