All the Same, It’s Totally Different

This week, I had one of my math classes (with students who are a bit lower functioning) doing a worksheet that involved directions like “Go right 3,” and, “Go up 4.” As usual, when they asked what to do, I asked them to read what it said.

Here’s the thing. In ASL, there are three different signs for “right.” There’s “right vs. left,” “right vs. wrong,” and “you have the right to remain silent.” Kids that are strong readers will figure out from context which it means, but five out of six kids signed, “Go right-as-in-not-wrong.” (When I pointed out the second instruction said “Go up,” they figured it out and felt silly.)

So, Thing #1 to think about as a writer (particularly writing for kids): Words have multiple meanings. Make sure the specific use is clear.

I hate to mention highway signs and driving again, but seriously, I spend a LOT of time in my car. And although it’s been a mild winter, it’s winter nonetheless, and that brings out the ice signs.

Have you ever noticed there’s no standard for those signs? Especially if you drive in different states, there’s a whole variety out there. Lots of ways to say essentially the same thing, but I’ll assert that some are better than others.

ICY ROAD/BRIDGE

This one is the simplest, but perhaps my least favorite. More than 50% of the time, it’s a lie. Too often, I pass these signs and think, “Yeah, it could be icy … if it weren’t bone-dry and 40 degrees!”

ICY CONDITIONS MAY EXIST

More accurate, but my snarky self thinks, “Yeah, I can tell you for sure they exist in Antarctica. Are you talking about here?” There’s just something overly complicated about it, making it sound like the politically correct version of the sign.

BRIDGE ICES BEFORE ROAD

Oh, look, a physics lesson in a road sign! This one isn’t too bad on the surface, but hey—maybe the road is icy, too, in which case this sign is kind of pointless.

ROAD/BRIDGE MAY BE ICY

Ah, this is the one I like. It says what it needs to say simply. It doesn’t over- or understate things. I wish they would use this one everywhere they need such signs.

Thing #2 to think about as a writer: There are many ways to say the same thing. Sometimes the “pretty” way is best for what we need to accomplish. But sometimes it’s more important that it’s functional and accurate. Don’t be afraid of clarity.

What are some of the “same but different” conundrums you’ve run into? (Don’t get me started on the different ASL signs for “run” …)

Dressed to the Nines

We have a wonderful base-10 number system. It makes a lot of things easy, and would make things even easier if the U.S. would get with it and switch to the metric system. Think about the poor Romans. Have you seen those years noted at the end of movies made in the twentieth century? Yuck.

The nature of the base-10 system makes for some interesting things with the number that’s just one shy of ten—nine. While learning your times tables, you may have noticed these properties of nine.

Up to 9 × 10, the digits of the products add to nine.

Again up to 10, there’s a cool bookend-reversing thing going on, as the first digits go up and the second digits go down:

09
18
27
36
45
54
63
72
81
90

A side-effect of this, along with the fact we have ten fingers, is a little trick I use with kids who still struggle to remember multiplication facts with nine. (I thought everyone knew this, but have found several adults who’ve never seen it, so I figured I’d share it here.)

Hold your hands in front of you, fingers spread. Whatever number you want to multiply nine by, count that many fingers from the left and put down the finger you land on. (So if you’re doing 3 × 9, count three fingers from the left, and put down your left middle finger.)

How many fingers are up to the left of the lowered finger? (In the example, two.) How many fingers are up to the right? (Seven.) Put those together, and you have the answer. (Two and seven … 3 × 9 = 27.)

And now, I have to go do some research on the title of this post, because I’ve always kind of wondered about that phrase.

Misleading Words

I admit it—I love words.

I loved them even before I became a writer. During graduate school, I took a linguistics class required for my degree. My professor told me I should jump ship on education and study linguistics. It was tempting, because I found it fascinating.

Words are funny things, though. They don’t always do what you expect.

Take phlebotomy for example. It’s fun to say. Go ahead, try it. But unless you have a weird fetish for blood-letting (vampires, anyone?), there’s nothing else about the word that’s much fun.

Then there’s one of my favorites: crapulous. Despite what my spell-check is telling me, it’s an actual word, but it doesn’t mean what you might guess. It’s characterized by excess in drinking or eating.

Pop Quiz: Can anyone tell me (without internet or dictionary cheating) what a clowder is?

Censorship or Audience Appropriateness?

My school has its second biannual Author Illustrator Competition coming up, and I’m on the committee. (I’m the only person on the committee who doesn’t teach English, so I don’t actually work with my classes on their stories, which makes things interesting.)

During a recent committee meeting, the issue of censorship came up, so you know that was more interesting than deciding who would go to the hobby store to get materials and who would make the certificates.

First, two things to understand. (1) Part of the plan for the event is that the books the students have made will be on display on tables in a hallway leading to the guest speaker presentation. (2) Our school is pre-K through 12th grade, with children ranging from 2 to 22.

One member of the committee noted that she has a student who’s writing a story that’s, well, more PG-13 than G. (Knowing the student, it may cross more to R, but I haven’t actually seen it yet.) So we had a discussion about whether this would be permitted in the competition.

Without getting into details, some said it was not appropriate, and the story should be revised for the wide-ranging audience. The teacher said she would not support censorship of any kind.

I got stuck thinking about it. Is this censorship? Or is it acknowledging what is and isn’t appropriate for a specific audience? If it is censorship, then is all censorship automatically a bad thing, or does some of it fall under the umbrella of respecting the rights of others not to be subjected to certain material?

You might show Schindler’s List to a high school class learning about the Holocaust. You would not show the movie at a school-wide assembly on the Holocaust (at a K-12 school like ours).

We recently had an ASL poetry/storytelling event. If I were doing poetry in a high school class, I could see allowing certain language (dropping F-bombs, for instance) if the student felt it belonged in the poem. At a school-wide event, however, this would not be appropriate.

Is it censorship? Is it something else? Where’s the line, and how do we help kids differentiate? I’d really like to hear some thoughts on this, because my mind keeps going in circles.

Impress Your Friends With Mental Math

You’ll have to take my word for it that I’m going to do this entire post without touching a calculator or scribbling calculations anywhere. I also don’t know how useful these tricks will be for you, but hey, it’s fun.

Divisibility by 3, 6 or 9

Have a large-ish number and need to know whether you can divide it by one of the above numbers? Easy. Just add up the digits. If the result is divisible by 3 (or 9), then so is the original number. If it’s divisible by 9, it’s automatically divisible by 3. If it’s divisible by 3 and is even, then it’s divisible by 6.

Example: 4,374

4 + 3 + 7 + 4 = 18

18 is divisible by both 3 and 9, so 4,374 is divisible by both. Since it’s even, it’s also divisible by 6. Go ahead and check it while I try a larger number.

Example: 5,660,193

5 + 6 + 6 + 0 + 1 + 9 + 3 = 30

30 is divisible by 3, but not 9. The original number is odd, so it’s only divisible by 3 (not 9 or 6).

Multiplying by 11

We all know that multiplying a single-digit number by 11 is easy—just repeat the number. 11 times 7 is 77, 11 times 3 is 33, etc. Multiplying by larger numbers is pretty easy, too.

The first and last digits stay the same. For the middle number(s), add adjacent numbers together.

Example: 11 × 35 = 3_5.
Since 3 + 5 = 8, that’s the middle digit.
So 11 × 35 = 385.

Bigger Example: 11 × 724 = 7_ _4.
7 + 2 = 9, and 2 + 4 = 6.
So 11 × 724 = 7,964.

What if one of those middle number sums results in a 2-digit number? Still works, you’ll just have to do a little carrying over to the next column to the left.

Example: 11 × 3852 = 3_ _ _2
3 + 8 = 11. Oops, carry that 1 over to the left, so the first digit is 4.
8 + 5 = 13. Oops again. Carry that 1 to the 1 in the 11 above. (Confusing, yeah.) Second digit is 2, third is 3.
5 + 2 = 7. Okay, nothing fancy here.
So 11 × 3,852 = 42,372.

Now go and impress your non-mathematical friends.

Yeah, I Know You’re Jealous

I have next week off from school.

That’s right. A full week break in early February for no particular reason other than that our school always has this mid-winter break. Whatever shall I do with all that free time?

I’ll tell you what. Write. Write some more. Maybe read a little. Then keep writing.

I have a shiny new work-in-progress, and I’d love to crank out at least 10k words next week. 20k would be even better. If I can finish the first draft (or nearly) by the end of month, I’d be happy-happy-happy.

You see, Mindy McGinnis is working on a revision right now, and we have plans to swap that for my completed NaNoWriMo project when she’s done. I want to make sure there’s always one more thing in the R.C. Lewis Library waiting for her. 😉

So, for the week of vacation from the day-job, I’m hoping to let the “other” job go temporarily full-time. I’ll also be visiting my family, so hanging with them and a few random appointments will fill my time on the side.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to pack.

If you had a week off from your usual job and/or responsibilities, would you buckle down and write, or go off on a real vacation? (To be honest, I don’t remember the last time I had a real vacation … maybe I need to do something about that at some point.)