Stop, Drop & Count: The Members Speak

Source

What is Stop, Drop & Count: For anyone reading this blog who doesn't know what this is, once a week we take 10 minutes in between the fourth and fifth period for ALL students in the school to answer a few short mathematics questions. Students remain in whatever class they were in during the fourth period. We use the same questions for all in the GET phase, and the same for all in the FET phase (so the same questions for Math and Math Literacy students). The questions are always to test basic skills (like fractions, decimals, ratios, order of operations) and the students are NOT supposed to use a calculator. The following day during the maths period, solutions are handed out.

Feedback from Students: I asked my Grade 10 and Grade 11 classes to write down what they think of stop, drop & count. I asked them to be honest and said they didn't have to include their names. Some comments were positive, but a lot of students said they don't think it's helped them at all. I've included 10 comments from Grad 10 and 10 from Grade 11 below.

Main Take-Home Message: Most students have missed the whole point of this weekly exercise. They don't seem to understand that we are trying to improve their basic/foundation mathematics skills.

Grade 10 Feedback

1) Stop, drop and count for me is very challenging. It does help my mental arithmetic to practise maths without a calculator. It is fun to do but it has not helped me in my maths classes. I think it should carry on, but it must be based on what we are doing in our maths classes.

2) I think stop, drop and count is helpful but at the same time it is boring. Well, I think if we used calculators it would be fun! Maths is fun, and it can be fun by using a calculator.

3) I think it’s really helped me because it tests how well I can work without a calculator. It’s not exactly fun but it is a good way to stretch my thinking muscles. These 10 minutes really just help me practise a bit in the day. I think it should carry on because it’s helping us out a lot.

4) I have nothing against stop, drop and count but it really doesn’t make any difference whether we have it or not. It isn’t time consuming but I don’t see any benefit if we all get the same sums when we should get what we are dealing with in that particular section. In that way it would help us improve our marks. It’s like we’re doing it “just because”.

5) No, it makes no difference. It doesn’t help. I feel it’s a waste of time. We could be doing something better in those 10 minutes, because sometimes those questions are even ridiculous. They are of no value. I think we should stop it because we find it as a time of chilling. We are just wasting 10 minutes of our day. I don’t hate it but it’s not of any help. AT ALL.

6) It does help me doing maths without a calculator. But I think it’s a waste of time because this time could be used for lessons. Suggestion: We can have the last 10 minutes of the maths lesson to do stop, drop and count. Maybe it might help, or on a Friday we can have a basic short maths test.

7) I personally think stop, drop and count is fun but the way it’s being done is not serious so we as members end up sleeping or talking in the time allocated for stop, drop and count. I would advise that there is an actual marking for stop, drop and count so we could get feedback for sums we didn’t understand.

8) Honestly, it has not helped me at all, but I do appreciate the Do Nows in the classroom. So I think it’s a waste of time.

9) Hate it. It would help if we did some of the things that we do in our classes. The questions we get for stop, drop and count are not necessary.

10) It does give me extra time to practise and has given me a technique of working faster and becoming sharp when solving any maths problems. My only problem is that it is taken lightly. Some students don’t finish or even try to attempt a problem. So I was hoping that the system might change so that everyone can participate in this activity. Please don’t cancel them :-)

Grade 11 Feedback

1) I hardly ever finish it, but when I do I quite enjoy some of the questions. For example the __ + __ + __ x __ = 9 and the other one where the four numbers always have to give you 24. It has helped my mental arithmetic and I enjoy it. It should not stop but I’d like the questions to be less word problems and more mathematical. But I appreciate that they are challenging and exercise our brains :-)

2) Personally I think the stop, drop and count we do would be suitable for Grade 8. I would think that for Grade 11 mathematics it would be less word problems/times tables/addition and subtraction, and more solving for x. I think it should carry on but with a different strategy.

3) Well, it does help, but not as much as it should because it’s not taken seriously by the members. Practising maths without a calculator is a waste of time because we always use them in exams so it makes no difference.

4) It is a good programme that makes me think hard when solving problems. However, I think that the questions are more of maths literacy questions than pure maths questions, which isn’t beneficial for the FET phase, but is beneficial for the GET phase.

5) It is quite challenging and there isn’t enough time to finish them! I think it’s an awesome idea. Personally, I love maths and think it’s fun! This is a great challenge though it’s taking a long time to develop my mental arithmetic. I think we should carry on because I’m sure it’ll have a greater effect later on :-)

6) I think stop, drop and count is really nice and challenging, but we are given too many questions and we end up not finishing. I wouldn’t say that it has helped us at all because most people cheat (use calculators) and the majority of the people don’t even attempt it. It isn’t a waste of time, but I also wouldn’t mind if we stopped doing it.

7) It’s a good idea because it keeps us thinking as we are too reliant on calculators, even for simple mental sums. It is anything but a waste of time. I reckon we carry on with it.

8) I personally have not completed one since the first three because I know that in matric I can use a calculator. So I don’t really see its purpose in my edification.

9) I don’t like stop, drop and count. Maybe it’s because I am used to using a calculator, but it hasn’t helped me at all. I think we should stop it as the only thing some people do is get the paper, don’t do it in class, and wait for the next day to get the answers. Always.

10) It has been very helpful because it has helped me to practise maths without a calculator and improved my critical thinking knowledge. It has been fun yet challenging which was a good thing for me, and I would like to carry on with it in the future, even for the future members to come because I definitely know that they would benefit from it just as I have.