ACTIVATING ALPHAMATICAL ADVENTURE FOR ACTIVATING ALPHAMATICAL ADVENTURE FOR ADOLESCENTS: AN ACADEMIC ATTEMPT TO LINK ADOLESCENTS: AN ACADEMIC ATTEMPT TO LINK ARITHMETIC AND LANGUAGE AT MIDDLE SCHOOL ARITHMETIC AND LANGUAGE AT MIDDLE SCHOOL

LEVEL LEVEL

Dr. Lalit Kishore

RATIONALE

Undertaking an intervention cum action research to study and improve one’s own practice as a teacher through self reflection

developing and transacting a short supplementary course in alphamatics for cross-curricular linkage

Introduction

Report of QCA (1997,p:5) highlights the need for developing the language of mathematics and oracy along with a focus on concepts skills and numeracy. The report also raises the following question to be answered : " How are schools developing numeracy through and across the whole curriculum ? “

According to Eysenck (1996) , there is a very little scientific work on elucidating logic for the answers in the school mathematical exercises, there is a need to take up problems and see what kind of principles we can discover.

Objectives

(i) To identify a score of alphamatics activities as mini-course;

(ii) To covert the identified activities into worksheets and transact them; and

(iii) To study the reactions and comments of the students on the intervention.

The innovative features of the intervention Teacher-developed 24 graded activity sheets Three-phased systematic intervention (pre-

active, interactive, and post-active phases with an action plan);

Cross-curricular linkage of numbers and alphabet,

Mental stimulation and challenge to students as well as the teacher

The Quota sample

Grade seven students N=30; Age:12-14 years; Urban school of Jaipur

Procedure

Initial two-day introduction to the intervention and exposures to three different types of example

A four week implementation of the intervention with zero-hour session everyday with an activity sheet in laboratory situation

Collection of students’ reactions and comments

Analysis and report writing

Letter series and rule stating

Supply the appropriate next five set(s) of letter(s) by stating the rule to continue the letters series

e.g. AB, CD, EF, GH, ---- etc. Ans. IJ, KL, MN, OP, QRRule: The series is formed by to successive pairs of

letters in forward order of alphabet. EX. Now do the following activity of completing

the series and state the rule Z, X, V, T ---- EX. Create a set of similar series with a rule.

Some introductory alpha-numeric thinking Which letter does not belong in this series?

H D R Y LAns. Y does not belong the series…Rule: Every other

letter is the third letter following a vowel.

Which alpha-numeric is the odd one out? 9D 8F 3E 6C

Ans. 8f….rule: The word for the number 9 contains 4 letters (nine) so the fourth letter of the alphabet (D) is paired with it. This rule applies to the other pairs as well, except 8F.

Example activity - 1

In the following pyramid of letters made from the letters D, O and G (DOG); in how many ways to word ‘DOG’ can be read ?

DDDD OO DD

DD OO GG OO DD

Secret number code writing The following problem relates to secret writing. In the first column given

below, there are some words and in the second column, the same words are given in a secret writing with the number codes, i.e., each number stands for a particular letter. Find out the letter that corresponds to each number (translation). The words in the first column are not in the same order. In the last column named, translation, write the words in the same order as in the ‘secret writing’.

Words Secret Writing Translation PEST 3072

…………………. MAKE 6289

…………………. CASE 5042

…………………. HARE 1082

………………….

Another exercise

If the alphabets A to Z, in proper serial order, are given marks from 1 to 26 are in then how many marks will the words SUM, MINUS, ARITHMATIC, OPERATION, ADDITION and ALPHAMATICS will get.

The summary of students (N=30) reactions to the intervention

ReactionsFrequency

Chi-square valueObserved Expected

Favourable 12 10

7.8 *Neutral 5 10

Unfovourable 3 10

* Significant at 0.05 level of significance (DF=2)

Outcomes The intervention components

identified. The norms and procedure for

transaction established~ Stress on perceptual and logical

learning~ Sample activity sheets created~Significantly favourable reactions

References 1.Champanerkar, M. (2004). More maths puzzles for pleasure. Bangalore : Sadhana Publications.2.Vijayalaxmi, R. (2006). The charm of problem solving. Chennai : AMTI, :70-713.Kumar, S. (No year). Improve your IQ, New Delhi: Sudha Publications. 4.QCA(1997). Monitoring the school curriculum :Reporting to schools, London :Qualification and curriculum Authority , 5.Schmidt,W.H. et al.(1997) Many visions , Many aims : A cross national innovation of curriculum intention in school mathematics (Vol.II) Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic publisher6.Eysenck, H.J. (1996). Check your own IQ, London: Penguin Books