Math Must Read Mentor Texts

Teachingisagift is again linking up with Stacia and Amanda at Collaboration Cuties for Must Read Mentor Texts.  I love how writing these posts makes me think about my favourite books and then write about how I use them in my classroom!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO VISIT COLLABORATION CUTIES MUST READ MENTOR TEXTS.

Many years ago I came across the book "A Grain of Rice" by Helena Clare-Pittman.  I was intrigued by the story and I loved that it linked to mathematics.  

The book is a simple variation on the old grains on a chessboard example of exponential growth.  As a reward for concocting a potion which saved the life of the princess, humble farmer Pong Lo asks for the Emperor's daughter's hand in marriage.  The Emperor is willing to offer Pong Lo anything he wishes, except for the hand of his daughter, the princess.  

Pong Lo then surprises the Emperor by making a basic request. He asks for a single grain of rice doubled every day for 100 days. The Emperor is baffled, yet he complies.  He soon discovers that Pong Lo uses his math skills and ingenuity to make all his wishes come true.

From Helena Clare Pittman's website:

"The peasant, Pong Lo, falls in love with the princess, Chang Wu, presenting, of course, the problem of class, for starters. But this peasant is "more than a little" clever, gifted and determined. With the conviction of love in his heart he defies tradition and common sense, becoming indispensable to the workings of the emperor's palace, and dear to emperor's love of good food and to his daughter's heart. The story unfolds from there and rests on Pong Lo's wit, and knowledge of arithmetic progression. This book has been in print since 1986, used in school curriculums since 1994, and is a love story on a royal scale."

This story is a great introductory lesson to the patterning and algebra strand in the Ontario Curriculum for mathematics.  I also like to use it prior to this lesson I wrote about INTERACTIVE MATH NOTEBOOKS.  The mathematical focus for this lesson the exponential growth of the powers of 2.

Prior to reading the story, I ask the students to consider this question: "Would you rather have $0.10 each day for 10 days or would you rather receive a penny on the first day and double that amount everyday for 10 days?   I allow students to think about the question but not give me any responses at this point.

I then begin to read the story and stop on the page where Pong Lo asks for a grain of rice which will double every day for one hundred days.

I then revisit the question I posed about the money.   With a partner I ask the students to determine how much money they would receive, depending on which decision they made.  We debrief the strategies used, and the answers the students come up with.  I like to use this as a bit of a diagnostic assessment of strategies students use.

I then ask the students to determine how much rice Pong-Lo would have at the end of 100 days. Again they work with their partners.  I like to use the KWC (Know, Want to Know and Conditions) model to have students work on the problem in partners.  I have them go through each step included in the table you see below.

K:  What do I KNOW?  Based on the problem, I know that...

W:  What do I WANT to do, find, or figure out? I am trying to find or figure out...

C: CONDITIONS.  Are there are special conditions? (e.g. that Pong Lo requests a single of grain rice which doubles each day for 100 days)

Next I use the APEC sheet to have students work through the process to come up with a reasonable answer.  

There is no right or wrong way for the students to use the table, but they must fill out all sections.  I find that gifted students often are able to come up with the correct answer but they cannot show how they know they are correct, and they have trouble explaining their thinking and/or making connections.  Using APEC gets my students thinking about the entire problem solving process and how the concepts they have been learning about connect to other math concepts, to themselves and to the world around them.

CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO DOWNLOAD
YOUR OWN FREE COPY.

Prior to finishing the story but after the students are finished working on the problem they share their thinking, discuss the process and the answer.

I then finish reading the story to the students and we talk about what that much rice would look like. How would Pong Lo store it all?  What could he store it in?   Exploring a variety of measurement concepts are a natural extension to these questions.

Another extension I have used with my students is to have them create their own story related to the concept, powers of 2.  This can be used as an excellent cross curricular connection to language arts, visual arts and technology.

Head over to Collaboration Cuties now to read about more great Must Have Mentor texts!

Gifted Education 101

Let me preface this post by saying I am NOT an expert in gifted education by any means.  I do hold my three part specialist qualifications in Special Education (including the gifted elective) and I have been teaching in a gifted intensive support program for the past six (going on seven) years.  I am also the mother of a beautiful daughter who was identified as profoundly gifted by her paediatrician when she was only 16 months old.  She attends a gifted ISP class in another school in my district.  

I am learning about teaching gifted students the same way I have learned about teaching ALL students, by listening, by observing, by trying new things, by differentiating, by talking to parents, to other staff, to experts in the field, by reading about and researching best practices, and by remaining open minded to all the things I don't know.  

When I started this blog, it was my intention to blog about teaching gifted students.  And I have.  But it might not look like it to someone outside looking in.  What is it that you do that is different I am often asked?  Usually I want to say NOTHING...good teaching is good teaching...but that is too simplistic a response.  Why?  Because gifted students do have different needs, they have different strengths and they do need different programming. 

This series of posts will not about whether or not gifted programs are a good thing or a bad thing, they will not meant as debate about funding or resources.  These posts are going to be straight up about what I do in my school board, in my school working with my colleagues and in my classroom with my students.   

Well let's start off with what is a gifted child?  I am asked this all the time by other teachers and non-eductors alike.  I bet you have all seen this before:

Click on the image above to download your own copy.

As an educator of the gifted and as a parent of a gifted child, first off let me say that neither column encompasses the whole child.  Many bright children possess gifted characteristics and many gifted students possess the characteristics of bright children.  Some children are bright and gifted.  Other children have been identified as "gifted" but may not present as "bright".  Some gifted students have multiple diagnoses and can be gifted/learning disabled.  I have students in my class who run the whole gamut of the continuum.  

In the Toronto District Public School board students are "tested" for the gifted program in the third grade.  Students are usually nominated by their teachers, but they can also be nominated for screening by their parents/guardians.

I won't get into the specifics of the testing/screening.  This is formally conducted by trained psychologists. On the overall scoring a student needs to be in the 98th percentile in one area - either perceptual or reasoning.  Parent and teacher observations and checklists are taken into account and a IPRC (Individual Placement and Review Committee) meeting is called to decide what would be the best placement for the student.  

The IPRC will meet with the parents and:

• decide whether or not the student should be identified as exceptional
• identify the areas of the student’s exceptionality, according to the categories and definitions of exceptionalities provided by the Ministry of Education
• decide an appropriate placement for the student
• review the identification and placement at least once in each school year

Students traditionally start in the gifted progam in the fourth grade, although TDSB does have some gifted programs for primary students.

You can click HERE to read my earlier post about the Top 10 Myths About Gifted Learners.

In the upcoming instalments of this Gifted 101 series I will delve into how teachers in my school work to meet the identified needs of gifted students.  Stay tuned!

Figurative Language Bookmarks Manic Monday FREEBIE

Welcome to another Manic Monday!  I made these Figurative Language bookmarks awhile ago when I was trying out some new techniques using Powerpoint to make printables.  

As you have already noticed, I am also obsessed with all things chalkboard.  I forgot I had uploaded them until I came across them the other day.  They had been downloaded hundreds of times, without my needing a blog post!  

I decided they would make a great Manic Monday Freebie as many of my bloggy buddies south of the border are getting ready for Back to School.  Warm up your colour printers and laminators!

I find that while teaching reading, it is important to refer to the different types of figurative language frequently.  I have poster sets up on bulletin boards in my classroom, but I found giving my students different bookmarks during the year was also helpful.  

Print on cardstock, cut in half and laminate!  EASY!

Click on either image to download for FREE

Are you following this blog on Bloglovin?  Be sure to link up YOUR OWN BLOG at the Back to School with Bloglovin Blog Hop sponsored by Teachingisagift and A Teacher Without a Class.  Click on the IMAGE below to link up your blog and hop along to find other great new blogs to follow!

Looking for a great book to read aloud to your students for back to school?  Read my post about the THREE QUESTIONS by clicking on this beautiful picture by author John Muth.

Must Read Mentor Text Link Up The Three Questions

Hi, this is Sidney from Teachingisagift and this week I am again linking up with Stacia and Amanda from Collaboration Cuties for the Must Read Mentor Texts linky.  

“Remember then that there is only one important time, and that time is now. The most important one is always the one you are with. And the most important thing is to do good for the one who is standing at your side. This is why we are here.”
  -J.Muth, The Three Questions

"Literacy is essentially a matter of acquiring the “tools” needed to thoughtfully access, interpret and share ideas across various mediums of communication. Many activities offered under the guise of literacy instruction–for example, sort and predict, placemats, thinking bubbles and flip books—help students comprehend a specific text or image, but they do little to develop “tools” that students can use purposefully and independently. Our approach is to teach students how to make self-regulated use of a full range of literacy tools—criteria, strategies, vocabulary, habits of mind and background information." The Critical Thinking Consortium

Author John J.Muth uses Tolstoy's story as the jumping off point for this lushly illustrated account of a young boy’s search for an understanding of some of the most profound questions we ask ourselves as human beings.  Young Nikolai asks his friends to help him to find the answer to the three questions that he considers to be the most important ones for helping him to know the right way to act.
When is the best time to do things? Who is the most important one? What is the right thing to do?

I bought this book several years ago because I loved the message and I loved the art work. I also took Russian Literature in university and was intrigued that this was an interpretation of Tolstoy for children.  At my school we were engaged in a Teaching and Learning Critical Pathways initiative with the arts as the basis.  I was also working as partners with our school librarian on media literacy.  I wanted to come up with a way to combine the book, the TLCP and our partnering.  

Click on IMAGE to visit the Critical Thinking Website where you can download your own copy of
 the Teacher Guide to The Three Questions by John J. Muth

I found this Teacher's Guide to The Three Questions on the Critical Thinking Consortium's website.  I used some of the lessons in a modified way with my class.  To begin, I scanned the book and projected it on the library Smartboard.  As suggested in the teacher guide, we read through it and stopped and discussed several points along the way.  As a follow up my students did not make a pencil and paper story map (as suggested in the teacher guide), but rather did one on the computer while working with a partner.  

For the application portion of the reading the students responded to the question "What actions show what it is to be a good person?"  The students created word collages using Tagxedo.  They chose the words they felt best represented their response to the question and then chose a word shape to illustrate their learning.  I was really excited to introduce this online, creative resource to my class, as I really enjoy using it myself!  I created a Tagxedo apple for classroom website this year and the kids loved it.  

You can see for yourself why Tagxedo is so engaging.  It really appeals to the visual learner in all of us!  I also had fun teaching my students how to choose background papers and insert frames. I felt a little like I was teaching them what I do when I create teacher materials and freebies for TpT!

The final products were shared at a whole school event in June.  My class printed out their finished products to put up on the walls in the school gymnasium (I am really lucky we have a colour laser printer at school), and also displayed them as part of a slideshow.  I was really pleased with the integration of literacy, art, media literacy, and technology skills.  I would highly recommend using this text in a variety of contexts.  

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