Return-Path: <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id iAJ00k117706; Thu, 18 Nov 2004 19:00:46 -0500 (EST) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 19:00:46 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.2.20041118153904.00a4b710@pop.ix.netcom.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Michele Craig (shellcraig@ix.netcom.com)" <shellcraig@ix.netcom.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1171] Re: Long division --HELP!!!! X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Status: O Content-Length: 1649 Lines: 33 >Lynne wrote, > >Long division is a perfect example of this. How many people really >understand why long division works -- we all just know how to do it. Some >of us did have the "aha!" when we got good at it, but most just know what to >do and know that the right answer magically appears at the end of the >procedure. But for students with logical-sequential processing >difficulties, just learning the steps without a sense of where they're >leading is very hard. So it helps to stop pretending that the steps make >sense -- and really, most people are indeed pretending -- just learn the >routine. At the same time, these students have a very great need to keep >track of where they're going, so you do want to keep linking back to the >reason you're engaging in all these contortions in the first place, and also >to track progress through the procedure. This is what I was realizing when I was trying to show the procedure to these students. When we write the problem 200 divided by 5 in long division form, why isn't the first factor (0ver the top line) 40 instead of 4 (and then in the next step an 0)? This is really counterintuitive and doesn't show the place value. It looks like you are subtracting a 20 rather than a 200. What I realized is that I too am a tactile learner when it comes to math and that I don't really understand how division works in the abstract. I can divide real things into equal parts and I can use long division to divide things, but I can't really explain how the long division really represents concrete operations, because it doesn't seem to have an easy concrete demonstration. Michele
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