Tuesday, April 3, 2007

What's the probability of a student not getting "Probability"?

Teaching probability can be fun. Especially the informal interviews that you should conduct nearing the end of a unit.

My students need to learn about the key words "sometimes, always, never" when talking about probability.

Example:

1. In the summer I sometimes go swimming.
2. In the summer I never wear my snowsuit.
3. In the summer I always have an ice cold beer on my patio every night.*

So the interview consisted of giving phrases and the students having to say sometimes, never or always. It also had me asking questions to them regarding things that they would sometimes, always and never do in some seasons.

A few snippets if you will:

"Ok, I'm going to read some sentences to you and for each one you need to tell me always, sometimes, or never."

"Always!"

"I haven't read any of them yet."

"Oh."

----------------------------------------------------

"What is something that you never do in the winter?"

"Never."

"No ... what's something that you NEVER do in the winter?"

"Always?"

"Ok .... what is an ACTIVITY that you would NEVER do in the winter?"

"Never."

"No ... an ACTIVITY! What's an ACTIVITY ... something that you DO .... what is an ACTIVITY that you would NEVER do in the WINTER?"

"Sometimes."

Oh ... dear God. Gotta love the 6 year olds. Seriously .... GOTTA love them.

I think I need that beer now as it is not something that I reserve only for the summers.

*Ok, I didn't use this one with them.

10 comments:

East Coast Teacher said...

That sounds exactly like a science lesson I taught today.

Yup, I love my six-year-olds. The seven and eight-year-olds, too!

Anonymous said...

I was laughing quite loudly and thinking, gosh this reminds me of my students.

...then I stopped abruptly when I read 'gotta love the 6 year olds' because I teach Grades 3 & 4. Gah!

rookie teacher said...

Miss B - They are fun!

Chasing Daylight* - LOL ... age is nothing but a number!!

Unknown said...

Reminds me of a totally bogus article? something? I read a couple of years ago in which a student teacher claimed to have taught eight-year-olds binary math in a one-hour math session. Maybe at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters...

rookie teacher said...

Yeah ... I'd like to see that!!!!

IMC Guy said...

Sounds like something I deal with at home with my first grader on occasion. When I switched from the classroom to the library, I figured I could handle any grade level for at least 30 minutes. I was wrong - there are too many days with the kindergarten students drive me up a wall. I especially love hearing my name 100 times during the half hour class.

rookie teacher said...

The thing I hate more than hearing my name 50 million times in a day is when little fingers start poking me to get my attention!!!

Mister Teacher said...

Kind of like Who's On First?

the anonymous teacher said...

That just made my day!! Too funny.

rookie teacher said...

Thanks!!