E1) Can you give some more examples of the spiral development of the mathematics curriculum?
E2) A Class 3 child was asked to add 1/4 + 1/5. She wrote 2/9. Why do you feel this happened? How would you help her to sort out the error?
One way of helping the learner would be through word problems that are set in a context that the child relates to. For example, if you are trying to teach a preschooler the meaning of "two", a good way would be to give her problems such as "give me two pencils". By dealing with such problems the child practises and gradually internalises the meaning of "two". Similarly, while doing word problems such as "You had five pencils, I gave you twelve more, how many pencils will you have altogether?", the child constructs the notion of addition.
'Unfortunately, word problems or story problems are usually taught at the end of Class I. This is probably because many of us wrongly believe that word problems are a means of practising the algorithm. The adult logic decides that formal symbols should be dealt with first. Do you agree?