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Teaching math that counts to children
Teaching math that counts to kidsDate published: 1/22/2008 by Hugh Muir A kindergarten teacher holds up two playing cards, say the 6 of diamonds and the 4 of spades. "What do I have?" she asks her students. After a little silence, a small voice pipes up: "Nine!" The teacher doesn't say the child is wrong. What she does say is, "Let's count the spots." "1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10" later, with the class chiming in, everybody has the answer. This is how today's teachers teach mathematics. It's called Everyday Math and is designed to replace traditional math, which was based on algorithms, or systematic repetitive solutions to a single type of problem. The first math specialist came to Stafford schools five years ago. Widewater Elementary School got its first one this year. She is Judy Schneider, and last week she organized the school's first parents-pupils meeting to demonstrate recent techniques and explain them to everybody. "This is an opportunity to tell the parents about how math is taught differently from their day," Schneider said. "It teaches them how to work with their children at home, how to play the games." Twelve of Stafford's 17 elementary schools have mathematics specialists, as does one middle school. During an evening learning how their children learn, parents of kindergartners and first-graders often found that they, too, have to catch up with the new teaching methods. Both young students and their parents, in separate rooms, played the games, with the parents then getting a tutorial on how the games teach. Back to the deck of cards--which has no cards above 10, by the way. Teacher Bonnie Patishnock deals five cards facedown (the hole cards). Then she puts a card face-up on each one. The object is to have a pair that adds up to 10. Bonnie points to a face-up card. It is a 7 of spades. "What number are you hoping for?" she asks a student. "Three!" the 6-year-old says. The teacher turns the hole card over. It is a 5 of hearts. So the game continues. With the 5 of hearts and the 7 of spades, what total do you have? This requires more number recognition or counting ability by the student. Is the total below 10, 10, or above 10? And by how much? All the solutions are reached by addition and/or subtraction in the student's head (no pencil or paper here).
Read more stories about Stafford Date published: 1/22/2008
EM is about Thinking Mathematicslly
(posted by
adeline
, Jan. 23, 2008 11:55 am)
Games and hands-on lessons are a few of the EM strategies used for working with students to develop fact fluency and make sense of the mathematics they are learning. Student understanding is key. (As many adults will readily admit, they learned procedures for math but cannot begin to explain why those procedures work. Try asking adults why you invert and multiply when dividing fractions.) Students are more powerful mathematicians when they have have several strategies for solving problems.
I would like the FLS to do an article on EM in the higher grades...
(posted by
Nicksmama
, Jan. 22, 2008 10:00 am)
are the students still learning by games and hands-on stuff, or are they actually taught to memorize multiplication tables and learning algorithms ? I'd like to know how well prepared these EM students are for more traditional math that is currently in the middle and high schools. How do ESL students do with EM and it's focus on writing out multiple ways to solve problems? EM is being dropped by school districts throughout the county. FLS could provide a more balanced view of EM to its readership.
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