© Pearson Education, Inc./Dale Seymour
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FDP Showdown

A game for two to four on fractions, decimals, and percent.

The significance of FDP Showdown is twofold: First, it reviews nearly all of what’s done with fractions, decimals, and percent. Second, it diagnoses deficiencies in what’s done by subskill. The manner in which it diagnoses is explained under FDP Showdown Cards and FDP Showdown Scorecard. A unique feature of the game is that it doubles as a teaching aid. Examples of much of what’s done in working with fractions, decimals, and percent are given on the gameboard for the game.

FDP Showdown Cards (Operations: pp. 150-154)

Nearly 150 solved problems on fractions, decimals, and percent. The key for the problems is on page 157.

The operations cards for FDP Showdown are problem cards, four problems to a card—one for each operation—and are used to diagnose deficiencies in working with fractions, decimals, and percent by subskill, each of which is addressed four times on the cards. To this end, the FDP Showdown Scorecard (p. 158), together with Table 4 (042), provides a profile of what a student knows and doesn’t know about working with fractions, decimals, and percent. By focusing remediation on what the student doesn’t know, instruction is streamlined for efficiency.

*FDP Showdown is modeled after the diagnostic/prescriptive program used at that in just 2 weeks typically resulted in about 1 year of arithmetic growth as measured by standardized exams.

FDP Showdown Scorecard (p. 158)

A record keeping instrument for the problems on the operations cards for FDP Showdown.

The purpose of the FDP Showdown Scorecard is to assist with the diagnosis of deficiencies in working with fractions, decimals, and percents as explained under FDP Showdown Cards. To this end, have students use the same scorecard every time they play FDP Showdown and have them work each problem on the operations cards for FDP Showdown once only. The goal is to have them fill in the parts of the scorecard that pertain to the subskills of what is done with fractions, decimals, and percent that they should know already or are learning. A strategy for accomplishing this is to have them play the game for two or three class periods that they might fill in most of what they are to fill in and then to have them work from only the FDP Showdown Cards for an additional class period that they might fill in the rest of what they are to fill in.

040-041, 043 xxx

Math Games & Activities, Vol. 2

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