<p>In your opinion, where is the line of demarcation between “more than half” and “almost all”? Is it 75%, 90%, where? Wouldn’t it depend on the size of the sample too? 9 out of 10 could be “almost all”, but is 9 million out of 10 million “almost all”? </p>
<p>How do I explain the nuances of this type of thing to a literal child with learning disabilities so she won’t fail her next math test?</p>
<p>I think that 51-90% would be “more than half.” 90% or higher would be “almost all.”</p>
<p>If your LD kid understands percentages, that’s how I’d break things down for her.</p>
<p>I am very literal and what I would consider to be more than half would be anything over 50%
almost all would be just short of 100%.
but I think you are saying both of the above possible answers were given .
:p</p>
<p>D had to make that determination about the quantity 65%, and chose “almost all” rather than “more than half.” That was the wrong choice, as we’d agree, but I was uncertain of how to teach her to make judgments like that in the future. I thought 90% seemed an appropriate benchmark for “almost all”, but as I stated in the original post, I might not accept 90% as “almost all” if the sample were large. If 9 out of a total of 10 people like chocolate, then almost everyone likes chocolate. But it 9 million people out of a total of 10 million people like chocolate, does “almost everyone” like chocolate?</p>
<p>I’m a math person and these are the kind of school questions that drive me nuts. It’s a subjective answer, IMO.</p>
<p>Teacher-made tests routinely contain poorly-contructed problems like this. Another rule of thumb for test-making that they violate is avoiding emotional content in questions. My LD child will get sidetracked by that stuff all the time even if she knows the answer to the question. For example, on the same test, the teacher included a question about what conclusion can be drawn from a graph of student math test scores. One of the choices was “It is very important to study for math tests.” Since D was just mainstreamed for math, believe me I’ve been stressing to her the need for studying math quite a bit. So of course she chose that option! ARGH!</p>
<p>I still remember this question from Junior English in HS. “What color is Macbeth?” I’m also a very literal person. My answer was “red” for all the bloodshed. Teacher response? “Well, that’s understandable, but I wanted “Black”.” Arggggg.</p>
<p>I think 90% is a fine thing to tell your daughter. Whether it’s a million or ten.</p>
<p>Dumb questions? “What’s the oldest US Colony?” mathson said “Roanoke”. Teacher said “I meant successful colony” and marked him wrong and wouldn’t change her decision. He never forgave her, it was a looooong year.</p>
<p>What a crappy question. I understand the need to eyeball and estimate but a friend of mine designs math curriculums and he’d freak over something like this.</p>
<p>0% = nada, zip, zilch</p>
<p><1% = practically none</p>
<p>1% to <10% = not much</p>
<p>10% to <25% = a fair bit</p>
<p>25% to <75% = some</p>
<p>75% to <90% = quite a bit</p>
<p>90% to <100% = a whole bunch</p>
<p>100% = the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle</p>
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<p>This sounds like Everyday Math. More than half is anything over 51 percent. Almost all is 90 percent.</p>
<p>^^MS’s post! LOL! very succinctly put!</p>
<p>This is a horrible question. IMO your D’s answer was correct, even if it wasn’t the answer the teacher was looking for. How old is your D? If it were my D, instead of trying to teach her an arbitrary amount, that will likely change based on who is asking, I’d have her write an appeal. I think in this case what she should be learning is to stand up for herself, even if it doesn’t work. Have her draw a pie chart showing 50% and 65% that shows that 65% is more than half. Or something.</p>
<p>I do intend to e-mail the teacher. I wouldn’t ordinarily for an elementary school test, but this kind of silly stuff could affect whether or not D is permitted to stay in mainstream math class or is made to return to Resource Room. </p>
<p>And here I thought that finally we’d have a teacher who could teach math, since the lady has an engineering degree! To the contary, the tests have been awful as have her worksheets.</p>