Comments on: WCYDWT: Book Of Eli

By: Alex Eckert

Alex Eckert — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:47:38 +0000

Good point. I solicited questions through dialogue. I’ve often used, which I didn’t here, tell your neighbor one thing that comes to mind regarding this video clip. The kids have almost no fear in asking questions to one another.

Awesome idea on the Word Doc as well. I think for SpEd kids that would make a huge difference.

By: Peter

Peter — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 21:15:35 +0000

In my mind the greatest advantage of WCYDWT problems like this one is how well they engage students. Much of the problems I face with the students I teach (urban students behind grade level) is getting them to engage in math, think about it and talk about it. The very few WCYDWT lessons I have tried have done a far better job at promoting that then a standard story problem from a textbook. A small video clip of a recent movie with a very recognizable actor is something I certainly think will get the students engaged. The fact that this video lends itself to one particular question I think only adds to the strength of the video. Then the process of searching out the information needed to answer that question is a great way to build problem solving skills.

Also Dan, thanks again for hosting the WCYDWT sessions. I have enjoyed both that I have participated in. I look forward to more in the future.

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:53:50 +0000

I'll say again publicly that I have no problem just asking a particular question. The point of asking the students for questions (a move that came about later in the WCYDWT process) is two-fold: one, it gets them in the habit of asking questions and having those questions validated, if not through classroom investigation, through your enthusiasm for the creativity in those questions, and two, the student responses are invaluable for my curriculum development. Off your feedback, I might open up a Word document with the entire Bible pasted in and highlight the first three verses that Eli read, then scrolling down the entire document. I might re-edit that into the movie for the next year. It's likely the case that younger students are less familiar with the length of the Bible than its other aspects. Year by year, by pivoting off their responses, we can make the current of the problem seem more natural. I'm curious about one other thing, though: how did you solicit their questions? If it was through hand raising, you have all kinds of group biases working against you there. If you're having them write the question down on a scrap of paper and passing it forward, well that's a different deal.

By: Alex Eckert

Alex Eckert — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:37:20 +0000

Dan, I agree with you on the last point, that context can be defined by the fact that those participating immediately find the context (100% of the participants wondered how long…). But I guess that’s where I struggle. I had to (while holding their hands) walk my students to that question. Less than 10% of my students went there on their own. How do you adjust when going from an online discussion of your readers to the students? Especially the students you taught last year? (since I think the population I work with is roughly the same)

By: Dan Meyer

Dan Meyer — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 18:40:16 +0000

“Jim has forty Bibles more than Mark. Together than have 160 Bibles. How many Bibles do they each have?”

That’s the Bible as pseudocontext.

No one is suggesting that through this clip Christians will find their representation in math curriculum. This isn’t meant to be meaningful to Christians in the same way that the jingle dresses are meant to be meaningful to First Nations students. The Bible isn’t the point here. The point is that some guy is going to read aloud something very, very long. It’s helpful that it’s something with which we’re all at least glancingly familiar.

Another indicator that this is context, not pseudocontext, is that I played the video and 100% of the participants wondered how long it will take him to read the whole Bible.

Put the picture of the jingle dress in front of a group of students. What percentage of them will wonder how many jingles two girls each have if they have 545 jingles together and one girl has 185 more than the other?

That’s pseudocontext.

By: Sneha

Sneha — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 16:23:30 +0000

Something about the question based on this movie clip reeks of pseudo-context. There was this discussion on the number of cones on a dress and I quote from Gail’s comment ‘This is what textbooks publishers and teachers seem to think is an authentic way to address the struggles of First Nations students (and other ethnic groups) with mathematics. It is important that students be able to “see” themselves in the resources and in the classroom, but the assumption is that this picture, with the highly culturally-stripped question, is somehow worth a check mark in that column. There is great significance in the dance, the dress, and even what the jingles might be made of, yet none of that is mentioned. Instead, all that’s done with it is to make an excuse for doing some Western mathematics.’

Okay- so Christians are not exactly a minority group in the U.S. BUT- there is great significance in the situation, in the tone, in the content of what he is reading……….Instead all that is done with it is to make an excuse for timing a reading?
Anyone agree that this is not what you can do with it?

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 03:27:18 +0000

One more thing I forgot: there are a couple musical “interludes” scattered here and there throughout The Bible Experience audio bible. That might fatten up the run time, but not by much.

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 03:22:54 +0000

Oops….my mistake…89 hours.

Yes, for the entire bible Chris. It’s called The Bible Experience, published by Zondervan. Incidentally, Denzel reads part of it :)

By: Chris S.

Chris S. — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 01:34:47 +0000

80 hours for old and new testament?

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 00:47:47 +0000

I have an audio bible. It’s 80 hours long. Does that spoil all the fun?

Granted, it’s read at a “normal” rate (not painfully slow)…so maybe just compare the time of the three verses read to the same three verses in the audio bible to create a ratio.

Maybe that’s too simplistic?

This is a good one though…lots of questions. One of which may be “When is the transcriber’s hand going to fall off?”