Deanna Garcia

MAT 107; MW 4:00

September 18, 2016

Journal 5

FromthearticleIlearnedthattherearetwodifficultiesstudentshavewiththestandard

divisionalgorithm.Thefirstinvolvesfindingthemaximumamountadivisorcangointoa

dividend.Withasmallernumberthiscanbeeasilydone,butstudentshavedifficultieswhenthe

dividendisalargenumber.Anotherdifficultystudentsfaceismakingahabitofmultiplyingthe

divisorbyasingledigitnumber.Ifthedividendisalargenumberasingledigitquotientwould

betoosmalltofindaneffectivesolutionwithinthealgorithm.

Thearticlehighlightedthedifferentstrategiesstudentsusetomakesenseofthestandard

algorithmofdivision.Inoneexamplethearticlehighlightedadivisionproblemthatask,how

couldyoudistribute231M&Msevenlyamong5containers?Forthisproblemstudents

wouldcreateabinchartandallocateM&Mstoeachbin.Theywouldcontinuetoallocate

M&Msintoeachbinuntiltheyareleftwitharemainderthatislessthan5,becausethere

are5binstodistributecandyto.Whilethisstrategyiseffective,thearticlenoteda

simplerstrategy(figure3)thatcanhelpstudentssuccessfullyanswerthedivision

problem.Inthearticlescomputationtherearemultiplequotientsthatareaddedattheend

togiveafinalanswer.
 Ausefulinformationdetailedinthearticleencompassedsolutionstrategiesthat

canbeusedtohelpstudentsunderstandthestandarddivisionalgorithm.Withinthegiven

strategystudentswereinstructedtodrawpicturestorepresentsolutions,whichis

depictedinfigure5.Theteachercreatedabridgetothestandarddivisionalgorithmby

introducingtheideaofaninventoryform.Shetaught

Tomoveinthisdirection,wecreateabridgebyintroducingtheideaofaninventory
formonwhichthestoreroommanagerkeepstrackofthenumberofcandiesinthe
storeroom(seeg.6).Now,weencouragethestudentstorecordtheunpackingand
distributingontheinventoryform,ratherthanthroughadditionaldrawings.Figure7
illustrateshowTomusedtheformtorecordhisthinking.Notethattheprocessof
keepingtrackontheformfunctionsasanexpandedversionofthestandardalgorithm.

Thereare1627lemoncandiesinthestoreroom.Mr.King,thestoreroommanager,needs
todividetheseevenlyforshipmenttothecompanys13retailshops.Howmanylemon
candieswilleachshopreceive?

Initially,weencouragestudentstodrawpicturestorepresenttheirsolutions.A
representativepictorialsolutionisshowningure5.Thestudentusedonebinto
representeachstore.Sheexplainedthatbecausetherewerenotenoughcasestoputone
caseineachbin,sheopeneduptheexistingcasetoget10boxes.Addinginthe6boxes
shehadalready,shenowhad16boxes.Shedistributedoneboxtoeachstore,endingup
with3boxes.Thensheopenedthese3boxes,getting30rolls.Addingthesetothe2rolls
shealreadyhad,thestudentnowhadatotalof32rolls.Shedistributed2rollstoeach
store,a