귀트영 20101215 뉴스 스크립트

Singapore Math for US Teachers

One group of elementary school math teachers in the U.S. recently gathered in Baker, Louisiana to learn more about Singapore Math, a curriculum they have begun to teach.
It is a curriculum modeled on the way math is taught in Singapore.
"It helped Singapore math students skyrocket to number one by the 1990s and that's where they've stayed ever since," says Scott Baldridge, an expert on this approach.
He has designed a training program for elementary school math teachers who want to use it.
Baldridge says Singapore used to import all of its mathematics textbooks from other nations.
But in 1980, Singaporian teachers started to develop their own math curriculum.
Baldridge explains that they prioritized the concepts they wanted their students to learn.
"They don't try to tackle 50 topics in a year," he says.
"They just try to tackle 14 topics, and do those 14 topics really well."
Each of those topics - from adding and subtracting to fractions and decimals - is approached in three different stages.
"In the first stage, measurements are involved. Kids go around measuring doorways or windows or they count actual cash." says Baldridge.
"The second stage is pictorial. Teachers convert the cash into pictures of coins. In the final stage, they use the pictorial representations to explain the mathematics, for example, to add 313 plus 516. They have a step-by-step procedure they follow."

[ 원문 : http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Singapore-Math-Adds-Up-for-US-Teachers-100338189.html ]

Words and sentence on air
* prioritize : 우선순위를 매기다.
* tackle : 넘어뜨리다. 해결하다. 다루다.
   tackle the problem : 문제를 해결하다.
* fraction : 분수
* decimal : (1.25 등과 같은) 소수
   Dewey Decimal System : (도서 분류)십진법
* pictorial : 그림과 관련된
   pictorial book : 그림책

* curriculum : 교과과정
* skyrocket : 급등하다.
* from ~ to ~ : 다양하게
* convert ~ into ~ : 바꾸다.=change ~ into ~
   convert : 측정과 관련
   exchange : 돈과 관련