Re: query

[Rick Parkany <rparkany@borg.com>]

Quan interjected:
> Jerry:

> This is why ELL and American learners cannot pass the math sections, whose
> standards they have already mastered. There is more language to mathematics
> than meets the eye.
>

Rick reinforces by reminding us:L

That's why I teach mathematics *from the getGo* as a language, _per se_, at every
level (K-grave) as I mentioned previously, this list, no matter in WHAT language
it is accomplished, whether technical symbol sets and grammars or the more
natural language narratives explaining the inferences that make *answers*
correct--even for so simple a problem as 2 + 2 = 4, the learner should be able to
rephrase the answer, by justfying it (for example, by procaliming that since 1 +
1 = 2 and you add two twice, you get four, or by the use of manipulatives (not
the usual *rote* algorithm, and much harder levels of understanding to *test*
w/MC, fer sure!)--too few math teachers stress the discursive aspect of the
domain and treat it as a canonical taxology of facts and proceedures. And fewer
yet tests *test* for this aspect of discusrsively generating rationales for your
answers (aka good old fashioned *rhetoric* from the Trivium/Quadrivium
currivcula)...    ;-} rap.

QCao009@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 5/10/03 11:01:37 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> gbracey@erols.com writes:
>
> > "Each of the graphs in the preceding article shows a definite relation
> > between two  quantities such that when one is known the other can be found
> > either by experiment or by computation.  These quantities are usually
> > represented by certain symbols such as p,v,x,y, etc, and are called
> > variables.
> >
> > DEFINITION:  a variable is a symbol which may represent an indefinite
> > number of values throughout a particular discussion.
> >
> > For example, in the equation A =pi X R squared, A and R are variables and
> > represent the area and radius, respectively, of a circle.  When A is
> > expressed in terms of R, R is called the independent variable and A the
> > dependent variable or function of R.  In general, we may give the following
> > definition:
> >
> > If a variable y depends another variable x, so that whe a value of x is
> > known, y is determined, then y is called a function of x.
> >
>
> Jerry:
>
> This is why ELL and American learners cannot pass the math sections, whose
> standards they have already mastered. There is more language to mathematics
> than meets the eye.
>
> I would guesstimate this is written at a 9th grade reading level, but I have
> seen similar items on graduate level entrance exams.  And then test
> development companies bring in cultural expert reviewers, who start walking
> around like blind (wo)men touching an elephant to attest to cultural and
> gender relevancy, without understanding that there now exists a cultural gap
> between their generation and that of the students as well.  It is race, and
> it is not race!
>
> Quan
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Subscribe ARN-L:
> http://interversity.org/lists/arn-l/subscribe.html

--
"Dein Wachstum sei feste und lache vor Lust!
Deines Herzens Trefflichkeit
Hat dir selbst das Feld bereit',
Auf dem du bluehen musst." JS Bach: Bauern Kantata
Richard A. Parkany: SUNY@Albany
Prometheus Educational Services
http://www.borg.com/~rparkany/
Upper Hudson & Mohawk Valleys; New York State, USA