Film and education; a symposium on the role of the film in the field of education ([1948])

APPLICATIONS OF THE FILM IN MATHEMATICS (by successive subtractions) to help answer questions for pupils who have these amounts of money to spend. After each group of pennies has been spent for seeds, pupils are encouraged to describe in their own words what they did. Their descriptions vary, but the teacher helps them to include one basic idea in each description; namely, the idea that a larger group of pennies was separated into smaller groups of three each — each group to buy one package of seeds. Semi-concrete stage: For this stage materials which can be manipulated are provided but they do not serve any socially significant purpose. Attention is focused upon the seperation of larger groups into equal smaller groups by the method of successive subtraction of a group of a designated size. Verbal description of the activities performed emphasizes subtracting one three, a second three, a third three, etc. The activity takes place at the front of the room with children participating one at a time. The teacher guides their thinking toward the generalization she wishes them to make. The teacher has a pocket chart at the front of the room and a supply of cardboard tickets of different colors. The teacher has placed in the pocket chart a row of 12 red tickets, evenly spaced, a row of 15 blue tickets, and a row of 24 white tickets. All the pupils count the red tickets. Jim is chosen to group the 12 red tickets into threes. He does so by systematically taking away or separating one three after the other from the given group. When Jim finishes, he or some other pupil describes the activity thus "I had a group of 12 red tickets. I made as many threes as I could. 12 tickets will make four 3's. In a similar way other groups of tickets are separated into equal groups and the activity described. Picture stage: For this stage the materials to be grouped are pictured. Since they cannot be moved, [123]