Solving Word Problems: Learning ModuleReview by: Alan HofferThe Arithmetic Teacher, Vol. 27, No. 7 (March 1980), p. 56Published by: National Council of Teachers of MathematicsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41189627 .

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questions are ambiguous but overall the quality of the exercises is good.

Money. 6 full-color sound filmstrips with 6 cas- settes, teacher's guide, anda 16-page dupli- cating master book, 1978, $78.50. Clearvue, 6666 N. Oliphant Ave., Chicago, IL 60631.

These junior achievers have a club house that heeds some repairs: They must buy boards, paint, paint brushes, and curtains. In this set of six cassettes and filmstrips the children learn how to count money, convert from one denomi- nation to another, and find the total value of their savings. They add up the costs of the materials that they need and figure out how much more money is needed. Then they devise a clever plan to earn money by charging to walk their neighbors* dogs. They figure out how much they've earned and then buy the materials. Lo and behold, they've earned too much and the ex- cess money uncovers hidden desires for other things like bookshelves, a radio, a carpet, and even beanbag chairs. The little entrepreneurs de- cide to save their money to buy these things. In the sixth and final lesson they open up a savings account at a bank.

The lessons could be used with most young children. The cassettes are complete enough to be used with blind children and the filmstrips could be supplemented for use with deaf chil- dren. The filmstrips show a good representation of minorities; however, the cassettes contain some unncessary prononciations such as "Ho mush are dey?" for "How much are they?"

The duplicating masters provide nice compan- ion activities.

SVE Basic Skill Boosters:

Beginning Math Concepts Audio Les- sons. 12 cards (consisting of 24 lessons), 12 back-to-back cassettes, 1 teacher's guide, an- swer keys. 1978, $105. Addition and Subtraction Audio tessons. 12 cards (consisting of 24 les- sons) 12 back-to-báck cassettes, teacher's guide, answer keys. 1978, $125.

Multiplication Audio Lessons. 8 cards (consisting of 16 lessons), 8 back-to-back cas- settes, 1 teacher's guide, answer keys. 1978, $80. SVE-Societyfor Visual Education, Inc., 1345 Diversey Parkway, Chicago, IL 60614.

These cassettes provide a verbal introduction to arithmetic concepts and operations. Their pri- mary value would be for use at a study center where students who need review could listen to the lessons.

Solving Word Problems: Learning Mod- ule. Four color/ sound filmstrips with work sheets and guide; Mad Math Bingo; 56 problem sheets, with teacher information; Brain-Buster Poster; teacher's cassette. 1978, $135. SVE-So- cietyfor Visual Education, 1345 Diversey Park- way, Chicago, IL 60614.

If you want to bring more problem-solving activ- ities into your classes, this kit - for grades 5 through 9 - should be very helpful. If you have been incorporating problem solving into your classes for some time, you likely are doing every- thing in this kit, even many of the problems.

The four color/sound film strips are a nice blend between photographs and animation. The photographs are excellent, the animation is ac- ceptable. The four lessons introduce problem solving techniques that can be followed by other activities in the kit.

In the cassette, "For Teachers Only," the con- sultant on the project very nicely describes vari- ous aspects of problem solving and presents an argument for using filmstrips as follows: "Why filmstrips? What am I supposed to do with these? Well I don't know about you, but up to about 10 years ago I was the only audio visual aid in the classroom. I was the sound. I was the action. I don't know about you, but today I'm no com- petition for that outside world called T.V., films, and the rest. And so you need a filmstrip. And you need the filmstrip to set the stage for the very things you've been saying over and over but now will come across with color, sound, words". This argument may not be very logical but the filmstrips could be useful if you want to use the projector and have one available.

The Mad Math Bingo game is probably the best part of the kit. Here the filmstrips are really useful. As in Bingo, the players have a game card (supplied in the kit with answers to questions in the squares of the card). A problem is given in each frame on the filmstrips. The game is won by someone filling five squares in a row on her or his card. The topics of the four filmstrips are mu- sic, sports, life, and market. The problems are in- tended to be creative, funny stories. They are in- deed. They are so impractical that they will likely be appealing to middle school students. For example, "Tonight Miriam has a date with Foster. She has 2 hours to get ready. If she brushes her teeth 10 times every hour, how many times will she have brushed?"

There is also a binder that contains a collec- tion of problems (with answers for teachers to use. These are divided into Logic Problems, Cal- culator Problems, Geometric Problems, and Games and Puzzles. Some of the problems are traditional textbook types and the others are cre- ative, but all are appropriate for the middle school grades.

The poster contains several puzzles or "Brain Busters." It could be placed on a bulletin board.

Overall the kit contains several good features of problem solving for you to incorporate into your classes.

TIME. Series of six filmstrips with six cassettes: The Mystery of the Clock, The Minute Hand, What Day Is It?, The Case of the Missing Month, Jack Frost Gets Lost, and Time and Time Again. The kit also contains 16 dupli- cating masters and a teacher's guide. 1978, $78.50. Clearvue, 6666 N. Oliphant Ave., Chi- cago, IL 60631.

Detective Time (that is his real name) helps the children solve six mysteries that concern time. Along the way the children learn about several aspects of time. For example, they learn that thé word "time" is used in various ways. (For some time now, teachers have found time to, time after time, teach children about time; and even took time to tell time when somebody would, about time, ask, "What time?") They learn about dif-

ferent types of clocks, how to read a clock, and about the seasons and calendars.

The mysteries are very gentle and non- frightening, quite unlike the Saturday morning television violence. The first mystery involves the town clock whose numbers are missing. De- tective Time and the young sleuths find that the numbers were not stolen; rather, some do-gooder (I won't divulge who) took the numbers down to clean them.

Another mystery deals with Jack Frost who is missing. Once again, "the world famous time de- tective" cracks the case while the children learn some things about the seasons.

The booklet of duplicating masters contains some nice introductory activities that are geared to each of the six lessons. You might like to make up some additional activities to extend the lessons by involving more arithmetic and geo- metric concepts.

THINKLINKS: Adding and Subtracting (book 2); Learning to Multiply and Divide (bode 3). 7977, case, tiles, and one book, $11.95. Tycro, 1802 Greenbriar Drive, Kalamazoo, MI 49008.

These are fun. The kit consists of a plastic box in which there are twelve tiles, each with a design oh one side and a number ön the other side. There are three little workbooks, one for chil- dren of age four and older; one for age five and older; and one for age seven and older. The whole kit is about the size of a thin book.

The activities are nicely sequenced. In each case there is a card in the kit to go along with a work page in the book. The student is to put the tiles on the right places on the card by solving each of the arithmetic drill questions. Then the box is closed and flipped. When the box is re- opened, the colors on the opposite sides of the tiles appear and form a pattern that should, if all the questions have been answered correctly, match the answer pattern on the corresponding page of the book. Thus, the students receive im- mediate reward for correct answers.

As a bonus, the kit helps to solve the paper shortage. No duplicating is needed and the tiles will likely last as long as the teacher. D

rkzxt month InTha Rrithmatk Teacher

Look for - • a report of some of the findings of

the most recent assessment of mathematics in the National Assessment of Educational Progress,

• some suggestions for using geo- boards in the primary grades,

as well as the usual departments.

56 Arithmetic Teacher

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