16 ms·
Ugh! This sounds exactly like pseudo-context as described by Dan Meyer (http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002 http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002). There are so many aw
by cabacon 16y ago
Ugh! This sounds exactly like pseudo-context as described by Dan Meyer (http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002 http://blog.mrmeyer.com/?p=8002). There are so many awesome things to inspire someone in math, and slapping a popular movie character on rote drills seems like a misguided approach to motivating the challenge. I mean, on the one hand, good for you if you can find some trappings to make doing drills more fun. But while you're getting them to exercise skills, you're really missing out on the deep and fulfilling motivations that exist for math!
- patrickyeon 16y agoThat's what I thought of immediately as well, but I'm not sure it's even pseudo-context. Pseudo-context would be "if Hermione cast 5 spells yesterday, and two today, how many in total did she cast?" This is just math drills (another 'technique' that has its supporters and opponents) with a coat of shiny paint, hoping that the paint is pretty enough that a kid will pay attention to it in spite of the math.