Some Advantages and Disadvantages on The Math Book for Grade Four in term of Content and Activities

Content and Activities:

Nothing is perfect in this world even text books, as much as they have positive points there are negative points. The same problem happen for grade 4 math text books, it has positive points as well as negative points. This is what I will try to find on this text book, so I will start from its outside then I will go deeper into its inside. This book is composed of 2 parts having the same cover but holding different lessons, part 1 contains half of the chapters and part 2 contains the second half. This point is one of the negative and positive points at the same time in this book; starting from the positive point I see that designers had a very significant purpose behind dividing this book into two parts and I think it was designed like this to make it more easier for students to carry because of its very light size. While the negative point was the distribution of lessons between the two parts, for example the first part of division found in part one while the second part is in part two and this will cause a lot of confusion for students. Now we enter into two introductions, the first one is about the book authors and designers in general and the role of the teacher and the second introduction is about the structure of the lessons. But what is mostly noticed that teachers didn’t notice these introductions or even try to read them although they include important ideas for teachers. For example they mentioned in the introduction that this book can’t be used as the only resource for the transfer of knowledge for this reason teachers have to take a look on them. After we finish from the introductions we find ourselves entering a tall list of chapters numbered from 1 to 36. The first negative point we can clearly noticed is the wrong order of the lessons, for example chapter three is the hundreds while chapter 7 is the millions and these two lessons are related to each other directly, another example about decimals, chapter 22 is the first part of decimal numbers while chapter 26 is the second part of decimals and the same problem for other related lessons. This will lead students to lose their focus and lose the connection between the lessons which will lead them for a lot of confusion and this may decrease their opportunities for more understanding and achievement.

Mathematics is different than other subjects, it has different categories and each category is composed of different concepts that also include some sub concepts. It is very important for students to be able to identify these concepts and be alb to relate each concept to its category, and because this the first year grade 4 students taught math in English, so it is important to introduce them to those categories to learn the differences among them . But in this text book they didn’t categorize the lessons they put them all together randomly. On other hand the authors tended to simplify each concept by divide it into more than one lesson, for example the lesson of fractions is divided into three lessons; the first one is about fraction itself, the second one is about comparing fractions, and the third chapter is about the operations on fractions. This is one of the positive points that help the teacher to focus on each concept and give it the appropriate time and at the same time help students to understand and practice these concepts effectively especially because these concepts are from the basics that grade 4 students have to master.

Let us now enter to the content and activities; we find that the first two chapters are not found in the standards and at the same time they are not taught by schools. They place the lesson “construction of solids” as the first chapter whereas students didn’t introduced yet to the geometric shapes like square, rhombus, triangle, and rectangle, so it is not appropriate to teach students solids before these shapes and this is one of the negative points. In addition we find that the second chapter “the calculator” is removed from all schools, because it is not plausible to teach students how to use calculator and they are prevented from using it, also if schools teach this lesson, they will limit or stop students mathematical thinking and start relying totally on it. So, this is another point that weaknesses this text book.

The structure of each lesson in this book is very clear, simple, helpful, and effective for both teachers and students. Each lesson starts with a small introduction about the lesson, then they stated the objectives, after it we find an activity that prepare students for the lesson concept followed by a clear and detailed explanation ended by the results for the most important points in the lesson, then we find direct exercises for the concepts in order to practice them, also we have self evaluation that mostly is not solved by the teacher but it is left for students to evaluate themselves and the answers for it are found at the end of the book, and we continue to the problems which are mostly indirect questions and contain a real life situation which is very helpful for students to understand the relation between the concept and their real life, and finally there is a page called “just for fun” and most of the time it contains critical thinking problems. What I found also positively was the drawings used in each lesson which help students to understand the question and more able to pick up the givens and even if they didn’t help in solving the questions but they will make the lesson more interesting for students particularly because they are kids.

One of the problems was with the problems used inside each lesson, most of them were repetitive for the same idea but with some changes in the situations or the given. Although it is effective to use real life situations but at the same time they didn’t include critical thinking that encourage and enhance students to think critically. Also some of the problems didn’t fit with the objectives of the lesson and they are not appropriate for students’ knowledge, for example in the lesson “the millions” they include a problem contains multiplication whereas the objectives didn’t include any multiplication and students didn’t take the multiplication lesson yet, this will lead the teacher to delete this question and include extra work sheets that mainly focus on the objectives and include higher thinking problems that are more appropriate for students and lead for better outcomes. Another point I noticed in this text book is the mistakes found in some problems, for example in one of the activities they use the sign “-“instead of the sign “÷” which will lead students to get lost and confused between what the teacher is saying and what is written on the book. 

The Method I Used in my Study Case about Developing the Reading Skills for an Elementary Student

In my study, I worked with an elementary student for a whole month in an average of 1-2 hours daily. My student was a girl in grade one. It is her second year in grade one because her parents insisted to leave her in the same grade, knowing that she passed the first year of grade one, in a try to help her in improving her learning skills. She had a problem with English letters concerning spelling and memorizing them. Her problem was clearly demonstrated in case of reading words; because she was unable to spell the whole word she could just spell each letter separately without forming the word. Although she has a strong personality in her daily life, she was not showing it during class sessions and during homework time at home. When her teacher asks her a question, whether at school or at home, she doesn’t respond quickly although she knows the right answer, she doesn’t dare to say it because she would not be able to endure the feeling of shame in case of mistake. Especially for her, a girl who is learning the same subjects for the second time, falling in any mistake during the session will lead to disastrous results on her learning improvement.

My study is based on helping my sister to read and to compose words correctly and my final objective was making my students be able to read the whole story that I’ve got her “Puss in Boots”.

Day 1:

Step 1: pre-assessment

As a test for her spelling abilities, I asked my student to read the first page of the story. I found that she was unable to read most of the words, so I asked her to pronounce each letter alone and then to try to spell the whole word. She remembered most of the letters, but she forgot some especially the letters “t” and “w”.

Step 2:

I asked her to write the capital and the small alphabets in their right order. She wrote till letter “H” and then she stopped because she forgot what comes after, so I asked her to write the letters she knew no matter in which order. She wrote A B C D E F j H G J S I K L N M Q V she forgot to write the rest, but when we read them together, she remembered the letters X, O, Y, and Z. While reading the letters, I asked her to write the small letter corresponding to each capital one she wrote. She did, but she forgot the small Q and she tried hard to remember it. Finally she remembered it was “q”.

Step 3:

On a separate piece of paper, I wrote all the capital letters, and then I asked her to write the small ones. She faced a problem with the letters W and Y, because she forgot the small letters that correspond to them, but when I gave her some hints, she remembered them.

Step 4:

I asked her to write the capital and the small alphabets in their right order. She did correctly.

Day 2:

Step 1: Refreshing the memory

I prepared some activities on alphabets to her in an attempt to refresh her memory. The activities included an exercise where she had to match the capital letters to the small ones. She matched them all correctly and without being hesitant. Another exercise was also about capital and small letters where she had to write either the capital or the small letter that corresponds to the written ones. I left the first exercise in front of her so she could use it as a feedback that would help her in the next exercise. That method helped her to solve the exercise correctly and without being hesitant for the second time. The obtained results had encouraged me to take a second step in that day.

Step 2: Using a given feedback

On the same paper, I asked her to write both the capital and the small letter in the right order. I noticed that she used the given feedback in writing certain letters and at the end when I checked the paper; I found that she had written all the letters correctly and in the right order.

By those results, I achieved my objectives for the second day.

Day 3:

Step 1: Using the own memory

The exercises that I prepared to her were different that day. There were no hints to help her except listening to the “A B C” song at the beginning of the session. In the first exercise, she had to fill in the blanks with the convenient letter either the small or the capital letter according to what was written to her. In the absence of any hints or any help, the exercise was not easy to her and that’s why she took some time to solve it, but at the end she finished it correctly.

Step 2: Fixing the information

In an attempt to fix in her mind what she had learned, I got her an exercise where she had to write all the alphabets in both forms, the capital and the small one and in the right order, but this time without having any feedback or any previous exercises. She started directly with the small letters and it was a good beginning, but she stopped after some time to remember certain letters like the letters “H and K”. Her work was not continuous, but she was writing them correctly. Then, she wrote each capital letter above its small one and that was not hard on her although she was hesitant in writing the letters.

Those exercises would fix the letters in her mind so she would not forget them again.

Day 4:

I got her an alphabet cartoon where the capital and the small alphabets are the actors. I decided to specify 15 minutes daily for watching the cartoon. While she was watching, I kept asking her about each letter and she was answering confidently and correctly. I noticed that she enjoyed watching the cartoon so when it was over, she was not excited to do any practice activities and she wanted to leave the session. I knew I had to attract her to the session, so I promised her that I would allow her to watch the cartoon the next day if she stayed in the session. Actually, that way was effective so she stayed.

In addition to the cartoon, I prepared to her some activities that were related to the cartoon, which I had watched before. In the first one, she had to draw the letters that she had watched in the first episode and then to write each letter below its drawing. I was sure that drawing the letters before writing them would be the best way to remind her by the alphabets that she had seen in the first episode and actually I was right. She drew the characters and then she wrote the letters correctly.

The second exercise was the ordinary one in each session. She had to write and read both the capital and the small alphabets in the right order. She began confidently and ended confidently but she was hesitant in the middle.

Day 5:

That day started with watching the second episode of the cartoon. Then I asked her to do the same exercise that she did the day before. She was enjoying doing that exercise because it was related to the cartoon that she loves and that is why she was solving it confidently and correctly. When she finished it, we moved to another room that was full of stuff (furniture, toys, food, drawings…). I prepared that room by myself and I placed papers above most of the items. On those papers I wrote the beginning letter of each item and I asked her to pronounce each letter. She was a little confused maybe because the letters were stated randomly and not in the right order so she was answering hesitantly but most of her answers were correct.

By those activities I aimed to test her memory and to raise her self-confidence by placing different letters in different order.

Day 6:

We sat directly in the prepared room of the day before. She watched the third episode and then she did its related exercise. I noticed that she was getting better in doing that exercise I knew it was because she discovered the aim behind watching the cartoon.

Before the session, I removed some papers from some items. During the session, I pronounced the names of those items and she had to tell which letter each item started with. I spelled “wall” she answered “w” so I asked her to write “w” on a piece of paper and she did correctly then we fixed that paper on the wall. I spelled “lamp” so she directly wrote the letter “L” on a paper and she fixed that paper on the desk lamp. I spelled further words and I was satisfied by the results I obtained.

Day 7:

After watching the fourth episode and doing its related exercise, we got outside the house where we started to sound out different items around the house. She was discovering the beginning letters of each item I sound out but when we saw a cat, she immediately said “cat” she knew it was “cat” but when I asked her about the first letter, she turned confused because she was uncertain about it so she said “K” she thought that “cat” starts with “k” and I was sure that she would fall in such a mistake. We moved to the garden where I had prepared a medium full of different items but most of them start either with the letter “C’ or the letter “K”. There were “cup”, “cake”, “cookies”, “circles”, and some other words. I wrote, I spelled them, and I tried to differentiate between the words that start with /si/ sound and the words that start with /k/ sound. The idea was not familiar to her but I was not able to discuss it more because the discussion is not for her level.

Her interaction with the new ideas was good according to her situation.

Days 8à15: Further training-Alphabets training

We spent that periods training; I was bringing the exercises and she was solving them. We were also playing games which require reading skills (appropriate for her age) most of them were computer games and she was enjoying them. I noticed that those games and songs improved her abilities and raised her level; she totally memorized the alphabets and recognized new words that are common in the daily life.

After that period, she was done with the stage of alphabets and we could move to the stage of words, reading a whole word.

Days 16à22: Practicing on reading words

That week, I decided to start reading for her because an important way to improve their reading ability is to start reading for kids as early as possible. I brought stories appropriate for her age and those stories were full of drawings and characters that she loves. While reading, I allowed her to sit right next to me so she could see all the words on the pages as well as the pictures. By that way, she could get an idea of how I read and when I repeat the same books, she would recognize the story more.

During that week, I also prepared several exercises where she had to observe the picture of certain animals and items and below each item, its name is written but with a missed letter, mainly the first letter so she had to fill in those blanks. Because she already knows all the items, it was not hard to fill the blanks so she filled most of them correctly and confidently but with less confidence towards the words that start with “c and k” I helped her a little bit to fill them.

The third task I was giving to her during that week was playing games “word games”. Playing games that incorporate reading and spelling into them was an excellent way for her to learn. It did only encourage her, but brought the two of us closer.

Her boring was less after that week, she became engaged in the sessions more than before, and she became familiar with the activities and exercises I was giving them to her. That change in her altitude towards the session, led to a noticeable improvement in her abilities, reading skills, and her understanding.

Days 22à30: Advanced reading skills

In the last week, I was still reading for her the same stories of the previous week and after each reading, I was bringing her the same short-story I had read for her but with empty blanks. She had to fill those blanks since she knew the story by heart. She was answering my questions about the empty blanks and her answers were right but I was helping her to write the answers. I noticed that she has a strong memory that stores story events more than storing educational information.

Another task was trying to read one of the stories that I had read twice or even more in front of her. She was confused at the beginning, but after reading the first page hesitantly and correctly, she moved to the next page confidently. Her reading level was good according to a girl in her situation.

In the last day of the month, I brought the story “Puss in Boots” and I asked her to start reading it after we saw the pictures and after we tried to guess what the story is talking about. 

My Journey in Education

        I heard a Native American saying which totally applied to me in my journey in education and it was “Tell me and I'll forget. Show me, and I may not remember. Involve me, and I'll understand”. This is exactly what we need in education to make students more involved in learning to understand effectively.

     1994 was the first year in my long journey in education. 19 years went till now and the end is not known until I decide to end up it. Going specifically in my journey to the sciences classes that I passed by through it, I found myself entering the intermediate level that begun at 2002 when I reached grade 7. This grade was the beginning of my suffering with some of these subjects which were biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. In reality my memory is not refresh to remember exactly what happened inside the classes but there were some things that happened and affected me negatively or positively. By going generally into my intermediate level, I didn’t remember that it was effective as it should especially because it was the basis for me in physics and chemistry. These two subjects were very new for me and I faced a lot of problems in understanding them correctly. Although these two subjects need concrete materials and a lot of examples to be understood and to stick in our minds, but I didn’t remember any of these happened in any of my intermediate classes. This affected my achievement very negatively because all what I remembered from this level was the protest that my classmates did because we were not understanding chemistry; also I didn’t remember anything because nothing stuck on my mind. It was not a very good experience to me since I had a problem in understanding new information if I didn’t experience or at least observe them and this was not found in my school, for this reason nothing stuck in my mind till now and I felt shame when my sister asked my about anything in chemistry or biology and I forgot the answer. All this happened because of their unclear way in explaining or their methods in teaching which was mainly lecturing all the time.

    After passing the intermediate classes successfully, I entered my secondary level which was totally different in terms of the school, friends, and teachers. I would like to start with math which is my major, till now I still remember the teacher who taught me and how it’s way in explaining made me like the subject, understand it, and decide to choose it as my major. This teacher taught me for three years continuously, although in the first year he didn’t try to build any relationship with us and he was irritable but his way in teaching and assessing was very effective. He used to explain everything very clearly by giving a lot of examples and by trying to make every one participate in his period. Another thing was that after each lesson or two lessons we had a small exam to evaluate our understanding. His performance or methods were always developing even his relationship with us changed by time and became more smoothly; for these reasons year after year mathematics became my favorite subject especially because he taught me three years continuously. On other hand there was the biology and the same thing according to the teacher since he taught me for three years continuously too. This teacher was somehow different than the math teacher; his way in teaching and in dealing with us didn’t change all over the three years. He was either lecturing or writing and we were just copying. Although I was understanding biology but I never took a high grade even when I felt that I did perfect, and what also affected me that all these three years we did only one experiment at the class which was on blood types, but really till now I remember every single step we did, that lesson was very effective to me. But because this subject is full of interpreting, explaining, or in other word it is full of experiments and we didn’t observe any real one I ended up with thoughts that I understand this subject fully while the reality was the opposite, and what happened to me at the official exams was really very shocked and made me hate biology and made me change what I was planning for in my college education. That day I finished my exam with a very happy heart and face because I thought that I did very well in my exam but what was shocking that I failed in the biology exam, I felt very disappointed and I was planning to enter nursing but after what happened I hated biology and I change all my future plan. I don’t think that the problem was just in me but also was in the teacher’s ways and the teaching strategies he used which was only rote learning.

     Now, I will move to another subject that I really suffered from in my secondary level which was chemistry or maybe I was suffering from the chemistry teacher mainly. He taught me in the first and third secondary and he affected me very negatively because instead of liking chemistry I hate it. This teacher had no teaching methods, no classroom management, and no content knowledge, I were suffering at his classes because I didn’t understand this subject, he easily got lost in any question we asked him about and also w never go to the lab to observe things which made the subject very dry and meaningless. His way was always unclear and when he started to explain on the board we found him confused or carrying his copy book just copying from it, these things weakness our trust on him. Always when I entered his class I felt angry because everyone was talking, a lot of chaos found really his classes was as a beehive. These factors affected my understanding and my achievement for this subject. But what happened that at my second secondary class a different teacher taught me, he was totally different from the previous teacher. That year was different for me I started to like chemistry, understand it, and participate at its classes. This teacher had very effective teaching strategy and he explained the ideas very clearly, also he tried to take us to the lab several times to observe some experiments like titration. Although we were just observed but it affected my understanding positively because until now I still remember the instruments and some steps the teacher did, that year was the only year in my secondary education that I liked this subject and I understood it.

    The last subject was physics which till now I hate it and I found a lot of difficulties understanding it may be because the same teacher who taught me in the school also taught me the physics courses at the university. To be honest and fair this teacher has a very nice personality and deal with us very politely with a lot of respect but the problem was that he didn’t has an effective way to transform the big quantity of information he had. This caused me a lot of problems to understand this subject and apply it to my life especially because we didn’t experience any information, they were just something abstract to me and unfortunately the same teacher also taught me most of the physics courses at the university.

     After putting a lot of effort and studying I finished my secondary education successfully. I registered mathematics based on my experience with sciences, so I found myself more comfortable and willing to enter this domain because I found myself in it. My experience at the university was different than school because at the university the relationships was too much less among students and between students and the teacher. At the university we entered the class finding the teacher only lecturing his subject with some participation. Some courses had solving exercises sessions per week while a lot of other courses didn’t had and we had to satisfy with what was taken at the class at the beginning it was hard for me but with time I got used and I changed my way of studying to keep succeeding.

    Now I finished my BS in math and I decided to complete my teaching diploma instead of making masters in math because I felt that it will help me more in my domain later on. But my journey will not stop after I finished my diploma unless I decide to stop it here.

     Finally, there is a saying which I like for John Ruskin said:  The true end of education is not only to make the young learned, but to make them love learning; not only to make them industrious, but to make them love industry; not only to make them virtuous, but to make them love virtue; not only to make them just, but to make them hunger and thirst after justice. After I read this quote I stop for a minute and I start thinking: Is my journey has a really true end? And I found that the answer is unfortunately no. My real job as a future teacher exists here because it will be to try my best to teach my students in a way that will contribute in making their end true.