This is a little embarrassing but let me say I will not
be appearing on any game show testing my knowledge against any fourth or fifth graders. Let’s just say I am happy to have access to my
cell phone at times during the Homework Help visits at the Village Public
Library.
While most of the time I have helped first and second
graders with spelling homework consisting of repeatedly writing the words (once with
pen, then pencil, then marker) but there has been a few occasions that make me doubt
my own knowledge.
On a recent visit I was tag teamed with two young men
in the same class with math homework. Normally we help one child at a time but
these two wanted to work together and with so many waiting it seemed like a
good idea. One student was loud and
funny and I would bet is the class clown as I heard a series of jokes in between problems.
The other was quiet and quite the future mathematician. I was amazed when he multiplied twenty-seven
by fifth-six in his head correctly but then reminded of his need for help when he guessed
at seven times four.
This homework
consisted on problems involving order of operations. At times, I freely admit I doubted myself
especially when these two students came up with different answers.
The quiet
student kept saying "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”. Was it a private joke? Nervous chant? The loud student kept speaking in Spanish and
singing “PEMDAS” in different voices. After
hearing this repeatedly for about 10 minutes, I finally decided to google pemdas
and see what all the giggles were about hoping I could bring his attention back around.
Well much to my relief this is a technique
teachers use to help students remember the order of operations.
It stands for
"Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication and Division, and Addition and
Subtraction".
Now I am older than most students (and some
professors) and it has been some 30 plus years since I was taught about order of
operations. To be honest I don’t even
remember learning about this but I sure Aunt Sally was not involved.
I have to admit I was just glad to have the refresher and to know the students were not just playing around but honestly attempting
to think through the problems.
Thank you Aunt Sally.
Very interesting! I agree - even only being out of high school for less than a year, I already look at my younger sister's homework in confusion. I am in complicated math courses, but simple algebra can stump me. Do you see this trend in any other subjects?
ReplyDeleteMost of the students I have worked with need help with spelling and basic elementary math so fortunately no trends (although this one threw me). I find most are nervous and just need someone to help them work through the problems but have the basic knowledge. Funny what details we take for granted as we get older
DeleteI'm so glad you had the opportunity to learn this valuable mnemonic device that got me through grades 4-12! I was wondering, you said one student seemed a bit more studious while the other was outgoing. Did you notice the studious one helping the other one or the extrovert bringing his friend out of his shell?
ReplyDeleteI actually separated them on purpose (by sitting between them) since they were friends. The issue was keeping them both on task and on the same problem. Believe it or not the comedian was completing the problems faster and so his jokes allowed the quiet one time to catch up. I find that more often than not I am amazed at how hard these older students work.
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