CAT Tracks for August 5, 2014
ARE YOU SMARTER THAN A 4TH GRADER?

This is a test...

Calm down, enough with the math anxiety!

Take a deep breath or three, it's you against the machine with no witnesses. You have nothing to lose...or gain.


Hey, I'm just trying to be all reformy here...

...step down from my stage, stand off to the side and offer a little guidance.

Hell, go grab your significant other and your 2.5 kids...

...you know, form your own little learning group.

Work with me here!


Okay...

...stop reading and go get a #2 pencil and a piece of paper (a cup of coffee if you need it), and return.













Don't be difficult, go get the pencil and paper before proceeding...













Thank you!


Now...

...after you read the introductory paragraphs and get to the 4th-grade problem...

STOP!

...solve it (and NO CHEATING, no sneaking a peek ahead!)

Calculators?

Puuuuulease!


After you have your answer...

...finish reading the article to see if you met or exceeded PARCC's high expectation that you can do 4th-grade math!

:-)

From Education Week

A Closer Look at a Math Performance Task From PARCC

CAT Tracks Editor's Note:

As an old retired math teacher, I readily admit that my former skills are waning...

BIG TIME!

Just recently, I flunked a pop quiz in 'The Calculus': "Can you integrate x-squared?"

When I timidly ventured an answer of "2x", I was informed that "NO! That's the 'derivative'"

Whatever!

I mean...

...who sends an ex-social studies teacher a calculus question when said teacher was stripped of his math classes back in the early 1980s?! I mean, we're talkin' over 30 damn years ago!


Anyway...

Surely the "rubric" would give me partial credit (or at least the tester would give me credit for not drooling on the keyboard. :-)


But...

Good news for far-from-modern man (aka an old fart)...

...I got the 4th-Grade PARCC math question right!!!

And, hell, I knocked the rubric out of the park...

..."applying perimeter correctly", thereby finding the correct "area", and finally multiplying by 9 to get the answer of 936 deer.

And, yes, I even used numbers, symbols, and words in solving the problem.

So there!

I am bursting with pride on this fine Saturday morning!

;-)