This post is adapted from my book Let’s Play Math: How Families Can Learn Math Together—and Enjoy It.
Do you ever take your kids’ math tests? It helps me remember what it is like to be a student. I push myself to work quickly, trying to finish in about 1/3 the allotted time, to mimic the pressure students feel. And whenever I do this, I find myself prone to the same stupid mistakes that students make.
Even teachers are human.
In this case, it was a multi-step word problem, a barrage of information to stumble through. In the middle of it all sat this statement:
“…and there were 3/4 as many dragons as gryphons…”
My eyes saw the words, but my mind heard it this way:
“…and 3/4 of them were dragons…”
What do you think — did I get the answer right? Of course not! Every little word in a math problem is important, and misreading even the smallest word can lead a student astray. My mental glitch encompassed several words, and my final tally of mythological creatures was correspondingly screwy.
But here is the more important question: Can you explain the difference between these two statements?
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 