Informational Blog

BOOK ENTRY FORMAT FOR GENRE PROJECT

Information for students
Author: Jon Scieszka Title: Math Curse
Book Genre:Informational Publishing Info: Viking, 32 pp.

Summary: The book starts out as a teacher telling her students that anything can be seen as a math problem. After that, a student is cursed with seeing everything as a math problem. He cannot function without seeing math problems everywhere. He thinks his teacher has put a math curse on him that allows him to see everything he looks at or thinks about as a math problem. In the end, he realizes that he can solve any math problem and that it is no problem at all.

Personal rating: ****

Rationale: I love that children cannot read this without having to really think. It is written in such a fun and entertaining way that all children are sure to love it. The pictures are fun and colorful and will catch children’s attention.

Information for teachers
Reading level: 3.7 Interest level: 1st - 6th

Thematic Areas: fear, problem solving

Content Areas: school, science, math

Potential Problems or Difficulties: none

Possible use in classroom: Give each child a section of newspaper and ask them to cut out examples of uses of math. Allow about 5 minutes. Let them share their clippings in small groups and with the whole class. As each clipping is shared, call attention to the math involved and elaborate if appropriate. Tell students that we will be making a class book of how math is a part of our lives. Each child will create a page of the book. The pages should have open-ended situations involving people or things outside of school. After writing about the situations students should illustrate without giving away the answer. Students should be made aware that they will be asked to share, and should know the answers to the problems they pose. Challenge students to "stump" their classmates. (The teacher might want to create an example, however this can limit student creativity.) The next day, put students into groups of two. Trade pages and solve the problems. As time allows, let volunteers share their pages while partners show the solution. As an extension, categorize newspaper clippings into math topics and put on posters to display around the room. Explain to the students that they will write a short story problem that connects to their everyday life. The story should have multiple steps and/or operations. For example: “If I bake a dozen cookies and I want to share them with three other friends, how many cookies will we each get?” Emphasize creativeness and use their daily observations to create their stories. (Option—create a story problem together as a class, or prepare one ahead of time). The students may work alone or in pairs. Have students present their story problems. Challenge the audience to solve the problem.