news to me

from Michael Maloney's Teach Your Children Well, published in 1998:

Various states and provinces are now requiring more practice as part of the outcomes for reforming their schools. New York State, for example, now demands that students in elementary schools practice their reading by completing twenty-five books per year. They are expected to write 1000 words of prose per month and do an assigned amount of math.

We moved here 14 years ago, here being New York state. Never heard tell of a 1000-word-a-month writing requirement. As to books, I remember C. reading 1 or at most 2 books a year in middle school. The kids were assigned The Outsiders -- reading level 5.1 -- in 7th grade. C. had read it two years earlier.

These days middle school kids are all supposed to read 25 books a year.

Christmas to New Year's sale on Edisongauss math app!

I asked Allan to write something I could post about his new math app, and here it is:

Greetings Catherine,

Please let your readers know our Blackboard Math Android app will be on sale for 50%-off from Christmas to New Year's. Our goal is to make a big splash on downloads and get the word out to folks that might have a child, grandchild, niece or nephew getting a new tablet this Christmas and wanting to put something more worthwhile on it than the usual fare of games and movies.

So far, it's received a nice reception that's made us feel pretty proud, which is important because at this point it's still more a labor of love than an income replacement--though if we continue to get the positive response we've gotten over the two weeks since it went live, the income replacement might come sooner than later.

I have two stories that I think show it is hitting the mark with people. The first story is from last week when I sent a note to the email list for the parents of my son's 3rd grade class. I said if they were looking for something to keep their children's math skills honed over the long Christmas break to check out the app I'd just finished and was feeling somewhat proud of. The next day, it so happened I was volunteering in my son's classroom for a Christmas cookie baking the kids were doing. (I only get a chance to volunteer once or twice a year, so this was very coincidental.) After the teacher finished formally introducing me and the two other parent-helpers to a class of 26 8 & 9 y.o.'s, a boy that I randomly happened to be standing behind turns around and in a loud stage-whisper says, "I love your program." I joked with my wife that now I know why so many people put up with the lousy pay to be teachers. The other cool story is from one of the other partners at the company. His wife was visiting with a friend with two kids that went from elementary to middle school this year and were having a tough time with the transition on account of their multiplication and division skills. His wife pulled out her phone and walked through the app. The other woman lights up with enthusiasm and says that she has a kindle at home and is going to load it on there that evening for her kids. Without any provocation she adds, "This is exactly what I need."

As a rough introduction to the app, I'll say it doesn't do anything parents couldn't do themselves with pencil and paper. However, because it is on an electronic gizmo, kids seem to engage with it more readily than pencil and paper. Also, for those whose households are anything like ours, its biggest benefit might be that you don't have to run around trying to find a clean piece of paper before anyone can do any math practice. Not having to come up with a bunch of numbers for problems is nice too, as is automatic grading. It has a few more benefits, but this might be getting long so I'll leave the rest for our web page. The web page also has direct links to the app markets to download it.

Blackboard Math 

kids need spiraled practice, not spiraled instruction

Hainish left a link to a terrific post by a math teacher:

11th grade here = 9th grade here. In fact, Algebra 2 was such a rehash of the district's Algebra 1 course that some teachers called it "Algebra T-o-o." And really, the same point could be made about math curriculum as a whole in the U.S., since most content for any given year is a review of content from previous years. (The Common Core State Standards may help change this, but I'll believe it when I see it.)

This approach, where we touch on lots of topics each year--rather than go deep with fewer topics--and then revisit them in subsequent years is often called spiraling. But what it is for many students is stifling. And this is as true for kids who've yet to master a skill as it is for those who nailed it right away. I first noticed this when I taught 9th grade Algebra classes where every student was performing at least two years below grade level.

"Meet them where they are," fellow math teachers advised me. Makes sense, I thought, since I couldn't imagine teaching Algebra to kids who didn't know basic arithmetic. But what I soon learned is that perception matters more to students than performance. For many kids, having seen something is akin to having learned something. "Man, we already know this," students said, as I presented lesson after lesson on fractions, decimals, and percents.

Other students, meanwhile, knew they didn't understand the material, but had given up hope of ever understanding it. The implication was therefore the same for all students: encore presentations on previous years' topics were pointless. And though I was able to engage a few students when I found new ways to present old topics, one group of students was always slighted: those who really did "already know this."

[snip]

The problem, of course, goes back to the disconnect between kids seeing something and actually learning--and retaining--it. But if it didn't sink in for them the first, second, or third time a teacher presented it, why should we present it again?

We shouldn't. At some point the focus needs to be on students practicing math rather than teachers presenting it.

[snip]

[W]e should provide students spiraled practice, not spiraled instruction. When I did this in 10th grade Geometry classes, students said they learned more Algebra than they had learned in their 9th grade Algebra course. And, as a result, they were ready for more advanced math--starting with Algebra T-w-o.
Spiraled Instruction, Stifled Learning
By David Ginsburg on March 5, 2012 8:35 PM

Wow!

spaced repetition

Because I remained in the third form [grade] three times as long as anyone else, I had three times as much of sentence analysis, learned it thoroughly, and thus got into my bones the structure of the English sentence. The essential structure of the ordinary English sentence is a noble thing.

Winston Churchill
quoted in Sentence Composing for College

spaced repetition
spaced repetition and the chorus effect