Sunday, February 21, 2010
Properties
Last week I taught properties and I found my students severely lacking in prior knowledge. My students were turned off to how easy some of the properties were "Duh, Ms. H, 3 + 5 = 5 + 3.", however they had no idea, even when presented with options, what the property was called. I checked the SOL's and it turns out, they were taught the properties in earlier grades, but not to the extent that their current grade level demands. I found that 3 + 5 = 5 + 3 is taught in primary school, however memorizing that it is called the Commutative Property is not demanded for years after that. I was wondering if there is a certain rationale for that or if Commutative Property is just too big of a phrase for primary school.
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If I am correct, students are going to learn the names of all the properties in 3rd grade according to the new SOLs for next year.
ReplyDeleteActually, in third grade 3.20 says:
ReplyDeleteThe student will
a)investigate the identity and the commutative properties for addition and multiplication; and
b)identify examples of the identity and commutative properties for addition and multiplication.
3.20a is the old 3.25a. Naming the identity and commutative properties for addition and multiplication is new for third grade, but the students have been using the properties without naming them.
4.16b is new to fourth grade:
The student will
b)investigate and describe the associative property for addition and multiplication.
It's been moved from 7.3a.
The new 5.19 is:
The student will investigate and recognize the distributive property of multiplication over addition.
It was moved from 7.3b,
You get the idea. Instead of having the students learn all the names of the properties in 7th grade, the new SOLs distribute them over several grades. It should be better eventually, but it will take a while for the 7th graders to have had all the properties in earlier grades without doubling up.
I like the change. I was just fighting with my 2nd grader the other night when I tried to teach her some of this...:-). She said, "I'm not going to do that in 3rd grade....you teach middle school". Now, I can prove my point.
ReplyDelete