Double Negatives and Musical Selections

Double Negatives

The English teacher hates when students write using double negatives because a double negative changes the meaning of what is said. Although the math teacher may not have a problem with double negatives, he or she knows that when you put them together you have a positive.

The rule states that minus a negative is adding. Other than memorizing a meaningless rule, this can be a tough concept to teach. However, if you are teaching minus a negative to seventh graders, you'll probably do better than when I taught this concept to gifted and talented fifth graders.

Let's think of minus a negative as taking away debt! Suppose a student borrowed a dollar from his friend's mom to get a goody at the bake sale. When the student went to pay the friend's mother back, she told him not to worry about it. So in a sense, the boy made a dollar.

$0 - (-$1) = $1

She took away the dollar debt, thus giving the boy a dollar.

Let's look at this another way, from the viewpoint of the English teacher. If I held a pencil in my hand and said, "I don't have nothing in my hand," would this be true?

Yes. I don't have nothing in my hand. I have something . . . a pencil!

The big question, however, is whether or not this argument works in an ethical debate. If I did a wrong and apologized for it, did I take away the wrong? Maybe or maybe not.

Good luck explaining this to your students. The older they are, the more likely they are to understand because once again, this is a Piaget sort of concept!

If you are interested in a resource for teaching middle school math, check this out!

Positive and Negative Integer Operations with Word Problems

Tune in next week for my last math post, multiplying integers. 

If you'd like to receive freebies along with my posts, sign up for my email list! Although my email posts are similar to my blog posts, people on the email list often receive free resources with my articles. You can, too, simply by signing up to have my emails delivered. Plus, by signing up, you get the free product pictured below. So what have you got to lose? Nothing!

Click HERE to receive a FREE teaching resource.

Monday Music Moves Me

Since I mentioned the ethics of taking away a wrong through an apology, I decided to post these songs about apologizing

First up is Linda and Paul McCartney with Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey. I actually had an Uncle Albert; but if anyone should apologize, I'd say it should be him. He was awful to my Dad . . . but that's another post. I'm glad Paul McCartney has fond memories of his Uncle Albert and is apologizing for his generation's treatment of the older generation.

Here's another great song. Elton John with 

Sorry Seems to be the Hardest Word.

What's even more important than the apology is what someone does to change. That's why I chose this next song, Man in the Mirror, by Michael Jackson.

Leap Into Learning Blog Hop

Thanks for hopping to Catch My Words. Some bloggy friends and I have joined together to share FREEBIES that you can use at anytime during the year no matter the season. Grab a total of NINE freebies by hopping to each blog until you end up back here. Or, if you want you can check out  just the blogs that feature an item in these grade levels. 

Blog hop for grades pk-2 

Blog hop for grades 3-5 (Contains my Resource)

My freebie has been featured in the TpT newsletter and advertised throughout Teachers Pay Teachers. It's an original story about Gateway Behaviors to Bullying.

Anti-Bullying Activities Gateway Behaviors

A couple of years ago, our school had an anti-bullying initiative where we were encouraged to teach about gateway to bullying behaviors. I searched all over the internet for a reading passage for my fifth grade class. Everything I found was either babyish or had someone attempting suicide. Since I found nothing in between, I wrote this story to highlight exactly what I wanted to say, and it's FREE!  

This seven page resource, was written to help curb the bullying epidemic in schools. The story follows Miriam and her best friend to see how their behaviors just might hurt feelings. The teacher is instructed to stop throughout the passage to discuss what has taken place. Just click HERE and join over 10,000 teachers who have downloaded this story. If you like it, I'd love to read your feedback!

Read what buyers have said:

• "Very few resources, if any, focus on those "smaller" bullying behaviors which often go overlooked, but definitely add up emotionally to a victim. I'm so glad this resource takes these behaviors into account. Great job!"

• "I am blown away. What an excellent resource that gets to the heart of SO MANY behaviors that so many of us do, having begun in our early years of school. I will be using this with my own children in our family discussions, but this would be excellent for classroom guidance class or even just character building time in an ordinary classroom setting. Thorough. Realistic. Fit to today's times and things real kids can relate to. I'm awfully curious to read other stories just like this."

• I like that the story discusses hurtful behaviors commonly seen on the playground but not identified as "bullying". The questions were very thought-provoking. I think my kids (and I) gained a lot from this lesson!

I have a lot of thought provoking reading passage in my store that are from third grade up to high school. Feel free to browse my reading passages as a group or check out a few of my favorites!

Historical Fiction Passage about the Underground Railroad

Are you looking for a new and different historical fiction passage about the Underground Railroad? Take your students on a reading adventure about runaway slaves with this original story. Through this close reading passage, students will learn what it was like to be a runaway slave from around 1860s, America. Students will remain engaged with the story and intrigued with higher level, critical thinking questions. This product is perfect for Black History Month or year round!

Click HERE to save 30% with the Black History bundle.

This easy to use resource includes:

• Original first person narrative as told through voice of a male slave.
• Human faults or qualities of the characters.
• Close Read symbols to guide and ready students for discussion.
• Vocabulary questions to clarify meaning of text.
• Higher level questions to spark critical discussions in the classroom.
• Grammar correction opportunities from speech of fictional characters.
• Lines and plenty of room for student answers.
• Complete answer key for teacher

Or maybe you are interested in saving 30% off the price of individual resources with a bundle.

Reading Passages for Social Studies

Are you on the lookout for fun historical fiction reading passages because your social studies book is not grabbing your students' interest? Find this bundle complete with everything you need to engage and challenge you kids. Your students will love these easy to print and go stories with questions and activities that will teach history in an exciting way.

By purchasing this bundle, you are saving 30% off the price of individual resources.

This bundle include SIX reading passages:

Thanks for hopping by. Teachers are awesome!

   

 

Adding and Subtracting Positive and Negative Numbers and Stories

When kids are tasked with having to add and subtract negative numbers, the easiest way to teach this is to pull out a numberline. Although a line has arrows at the ends and never ends, notice how teachers always tell students to, "Get in a line!" I was a weird teacher because I told mine to get into a line segment or make two parallel line segments. Sometimes when we were waiting outside the bathroom, I asked the kids to make perpendicular lines, or I'd ask them to count off using prime numbers. That was always fun! But back to the old number line.

The number line above goes in both directions, as a middle school number line should, so when you go to solve a problem, you simply count in the direction of the number's sign. Ie., if there is not a negative sign in front of it, you will head right or in the positive direction. If the number is negative move to the left.

 -10 + 5 = -5

A number line makes teaching this concept so much easier than trying to teach without one.

But, what if kids are tasked with adding numbers such as:

- 4 + 8 =

To solve this problem, I tell kids to use the commutative property of addition.

-4 + 8 = 8 + -4 = 8 - 4

You can turn this problem into a first grade problem!

If you are interested in a resource for teaching middle school math, check this out!

Positive and Negative Integer Operations with Word Problems

Tune in next week for tips on how to teach minus a negative number.

Monday Music Moves Me

This week is all about songs that tell stories, so here is the ultimate classic in that department.

American Pie, by Don McLean

This musical number tells a farewell story to the 50s and 60s and how music died with the plane crash that killed Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper. The music is filled with hidden messages involving the Vietnam War and Jackie Kennedy, "the widowed bride" in some accounts, while others believe the song is referring to Buddy Holly's pregnant wife who miscarried. One could spend the year analyzing the story of American Pie, but I'd rather just listen to it.

Next up is Paul Simon with Me and Julio Down at the School Yard.

This is the story of a couple of kids in trouble for the unknown actions down at the school yard. Simon purposely kept the actions vague; but whatever it was, Mama and Papa didn't like it!

This last song is one I had to post because I believe history has gotten it all wrong with blaming poor Mrs. O'Leary and her cow for the Chicago Fire of 1871. I've written a different version of this story that you can purchase at my TpT Store.

The Chicago Fire Reading Passage