Monday, February 7, 2011

The Positives and the Negatives

The good news from today is that your kids (that I have for Math, that is) seem to have a really nice grasp on integers. Integers, in case you had forgotten, are whole numbers (although fractions and decimals are often called integers too, for some reason) or the opposite of whole numbers. In other words, positive and negative numbers.

I tried explaining it to them using a number line, and they seemed to get that really well. I realize that this is much more than just a one-lesson idea to learn, but it's something that they have a jump start on already. They're going to get it. I was so happy today while we were doing it...I have to admit that I was nervous before we started, but that now I'm feeling very confident that they will eventually have it--and most likely soon.

We also took a look at our writing and responding to journal topics and prompts, like they will have to do with the ISTEP test. I showed them some responses that have been graded from the past, and the grades they received on them (we were given these to share with the kids last week). We looked at what did the best and what did the worst, and what they could do to make sure they do well on this test.

1 comment:

Mona said...

People say there is no way of showing your work on a subtraction problem but now there is