Isn’t this alternative to regrouping across zeroes so much easier?Īlternative Task Card Idea #2: Let’s make it a teaching tool. One of the things that makes me vomit bothers me about task cards is that they don’t help kids see alternatives to the tired and stale thinking that goes into memorizing and practicing an algorithm. But I’m out of ideas: what should I do?” Here’s where my 30+ years of work in the field of mathematics education has some value: I’m going to give you 3, count them, 3 alternatives to doing the “standard” task card while still focusing on the skill in question (which is really not about regrouping across zeroes, but what you do when there are lots of zeroes in the minuend.) Okay, so you’ve read this so far and thinking, “okay, this guy is starting to make sense: if I’m going to have my students practice a skill, the least it should be conscientious and interesting. Since you probably just downloaded them from some silly website, it’s not like you have any skin in the game. Except that in this case, you’re wasting the students’ time AND annoying them. Believe me, they’ll forget how to do it within a few days anyway, and as Mark Twain said about teaching a pig to sing, it wastes your time and annoys the pig. If you feel the need to make a set of task cards that deals with “regrouping across zeroes,” then what you should not be doing is giving them a dozen identical problems that practices the skill over and over again. If your students can’t calculate 400 – 398 without regrouping, then their problems with math are probably more serious than what can be accomplished with a task card. Truthfully, there are much better things you could do with 40 minutes of a school day than practicing this inane skill, but if you feel the need to satisfy whatever CCSS needs to be checked off that day, at least give problems that actually requires the skill to be used. Should your student really be “regrouping across zeroes” to answer this question? Do you really want your students to practice “regrouping across zeroes” using the problem shown below? What does “bad” math practice look like? What frustrates me about many of the “task cards” I see is their almost obsessive focus on routine problems and therefore, very low levels of mathematical thinking. Let’s be clear: just like there are “good” pirates (Jack Sparrow) and “bad” pirates (Somalis in polyester), the same is also true of practice. The only positive thing I can say about them is that they’re only slightly less evil than those workbooks that they sell in aisle 5 of the local drug store. However, I draw a deep line in the sand when it comes to those really basic “task cards” I see teachers using in their classrooms. As the old lady told the dislocated young man when he inquired as to the best way to get to Carnegie Hall, “practice, young man, practice!” Whether you are trying to master a jump shot or perfecting the tuning of your oboe, there is no substitute for practice. Despite what has been said and written about me, I have no problem with the idea of students honing their math skills with repeated practice.
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