Videos ARE Helpful When Watched!

In a couple of the videos for this week in my math class I really came to understand how important other ways of learning or teaching are to kids (and unknowing adults!).  In the Multiplication and Expanded Form video I literally learned the simple way to do expanded form.  I do not remember ever being taught expanded form when I was in school.  On some of the other videos we have seen thus far in class I have noticed some of the kids doing this type of solving but I was confused by it.  In this video it is laid out very simply so everyone can understand.  I get why the cross multiplication works now!  And why the expanded form is a great tool for some of the more complicated problems.  And by complicated I mean multiplying at least two, two digit numbers together.  I was always of the mind, even until very recently, that the way I learned math in school was the best and easiest way.  But really, it may be simpler, but it teaches memorization and not necessarily reason.

Then there was the Scaffolding Algorithm for division video (linked at the bottom of this page).  Again, if I were to see a child or person in general, doing this type of problem I would have been pretty confused.  Doing our homework this week and seeing this video spelled it out for me.  This scaffolding method is very helpful for people to figure out some of the bigger division problems, and again, by bigger I mean over double digit problems!  You can get it close or fairly far from the correct answer on the first guess and still end up getting the problem right.  I think it would have been very helpful for me to learn as a kid.  To me it is a kind of estimation.

Just another reminder that all of the things I learned in school as a child 25+ years ago is not the end all be all of learning.  It is okay to expand our knowledge and therefore our teaching methods.  It is more to learn, but in the end it makes it easier for people to actually understand why certain solutions have worked rather than just memorizing problems and answers.
Scaffolding Algorithm for Division

 

I also found a webpage that describes scaffolding method pretty well.  Please check it out for more information.