Teaching Students Math Strategies

I have really struggled all week with thinking about the project based approach to math employed by the teachers of Phoenix Park. I don’t know if it is my primary teacher instinct, but I cannot get my head around teachers’ just assigning work and having students go at it with no direction, no deadlines and offering help only to those students that seem interested.

In my classroom (grade 1) I too present problems to my students, many times a day in fact. Anything I can turn into a math problem I seize the opportunity. When students attempt to solve problems I always have them share how they figured it out. I will ask students to share if they have figured it out in a different way. I think that students need to feel comfortable in being wrong, in taking time to think things through and in solving using different strategies. I also stress to my students the importance of not telling peers’ answers, but letting them have “think time” to try to solve independently.

Of course there are always students who never attempt to solve independently or contribute to math discussions. I feel it is my responsibility to work with these students to find out what they know. Lack of participation or lack of written output does not mean lack of knowledge or understanding. I work with these students, giving hints, providing manipulatives, or scaffolding the problem.

Finally, I do teach my students strategies to solve math problems. Whenever I present a problem I remind them of ways that they can help themselves to solve it. I want them to see that using strategies that work for them is the way we figure things out. I see that my little students need to develop a comfort with working out math in the way that suits them. Showing them strategies helps them with this. My young students will hide their hands under their desks if they need to count their fingers, I tell them that counting fingers is the right thing to do if that is what you need. When trying to name the next number in a sequence many students will look away from number charts because they think they should know, I tell them to use number charts if that is what works.

I use a balance of traditional and reform based teaching of mathematics. I feel it provides for optimum learning.

Thoughts on readings for week ending Oct. 5 -Forward, Introduction, Ch.2

I am very interested in reading the text and learning of the findings of the study carried out of the two vastly different schools and the different approaches to teaching mathematics.
I teach grade one and feel that my students learn best by being engaged in math activities that connect to their experiences. I encourage learning by allowing them to figure things out for themselves, by praising their mistakes and seizing moments to create more math problems to solve. I see my students learn most through interactingh with each other, playing games and exploring.
Then I come home to my children, one in Grade 8 and one in Level 3. My Gr. 8 girl (if gender has any influence) is complaining that she has a math test on Friday that she feels she will fail as her teacher stands at the board all class and puts up examples for them to copy. My son (level 3) is currently at a math tutor. He is capable, but does not listen well in class and does not practice the necessary skills (my diagnosis of his lesss than acceptable math marks). He has not provided me with much information on his math classes, but at curriculum night last week, his math teacher showed us the 300 page Practice Exercise workbook that is recommended at a cost of $25 as the text book that is provided is not adequate. The teacher also provided us with some websites where students get additional math instruction and practice. Sometimes his tutor will show him how to solve something in math but tell him not to tell his teacher that he knows how to do it this way!
Sorry if I am ranting...but there seems to be too many incongruencies between math in primary grades and math in high school. Are we creating six year old confident problem solvers who by the age of 12 are taught that there is only one correct way to do things and that they must do it over and over just like everyone else in the class????

What is math and why do we teach it?

Lakoff and Nunez (2000) refer to a romantic view of mathematics where a mathematician is someone who “is more than a mere mortal-more intelligent, more rational, more probing, deeper, visionary” (p.340). This is contradictory to the ideas on creativity expressed by Robinson when he compares the abilities of professors with those of dancers. He stresses the recognition that all people have intelligence or a talent in some areas. Not being strong at math does not make a person any less intelligent than a mathematician. It is simply their talent, or the area in which they are intelligent. Each person has the capacity to be highly intelligent in something, but not necessarily the same thing. This is an important notion for educators and something that needs to be shared with learners. My own children will often say how smart a classmate is I always correct them and restate that the person is smart in math or biology or merely more capable at studying and listening.

Despite agreeing that math is not everyone’s strength I do feel that math needs to be taught to our students, but more efforts need to be made to help them make connections to their own lives and to see the relevancy of studying math. I love to share with my little Grade One students the book Math Curse by Jon Scieszka (1995) just as an example that math is all around us and necessary to explore. We all use money, follow patterns, count, measure, compare and so on. I do not think that people connect all of this to mathematics. Students need to see these connections so that the study of math has more purpose for them. All will not become mathematicians, but all will need to use math. Musicians, actors and dancers need to keep time, carpenters must measure, cashiers must count money, etc. Davis  (1995) states that there needs to be a change in a math teachers thinking and actions from working to explain math to working at affording students experiences to interpret (p.23).

References

Davis, B.  (1995). Why teach mathematics? Mathematics education and enactivist theory. For the Learning of Mathematics, 15(2), 2-8

Lakoff, G.  & Nunez, R ( 2000)  . Where mathematics comes from. Basic Books: USA.