IDE ceveral years ago, Michael, one of my third graders, wrote this in his journal: “I never used to look forward to math. All we did was add and subtraci. Now I like it more. We work rogether in class, and we still learn math but in a better way.” In a sense, Michael described the challenge we face ‘as math reachersto help students become flexible thinkers who are comfortable with all the content areas of mathe- matics and able to apply their learning to problem-solving situations. I have to admit—my early teaching resembled the math class Michael described, but over time I have found more engaging and effective approaches. Here are the ten “big ideas” I now embrace for helping children learn, understand, and enjoy math class YEAS 16 mw APRIL 200: Reproduced with permission from Instructor Magazine and Marilyn Burns.SUCCESS COMES FROM UNDERSTANDING. Ser the following expectation for your students: Do only what dents see math asa collection of seeps andl tricks that ehey must lean. And this misconception leads to sacting, students will subtract the smaller from the larger rather chan regrouping; or when dividing, they'll omit a zero and wind up with an answer that is cen times too small. In these instances, students arrive at answers that make no sense, and they rarely know why, Help students understand that they should always try to: make what they do in math, Always encourage them to explain the pur pose for whae they're doing, the logic dures, and the reason bleness of their solutions. of theie prc HAVE STUDENTS EXPLAIN ‘THEIR REASONING. [e's insufficient and shortsighted to rely on quick, right answers as indications of stusents! mathematical power. During math lessons, probe children’s thinkin when they respond. Ask: Why do you think that? Why does that make sense? Convince us. Prove it. Does anyone have a different way to think about the problem? Does anyone hhave another explanation? When children explain their thinking, they are eas, They have the opportunity to develop and extend their understanding. Teachers asked to forced to organize thett i are accustomed to asking students to explain their thinking when theit responses are incorrect. ts impor tant, however, to ask children 10 explain their reasoning at all times MATH CLASS IS A TIME FOR TALK. Communication is essential for learning Having stu ints work quiet learning opportunities. Interaction helps children clatify their ideas, get feedback for their thinking, and hear other points of view. Students can Teatn from one another as well as from theit teachers. Make student talk a regular part of your lessons. Partner talk—sometimes called “turn and talk” or “think-pair share"—encourages students to voice their ideas. Giving them a minute or s0 10 talk with a neighbor also helps students get ready to contribute to discussion. Ir’s especially beneficial to students who are generally hesitant to share in front of the whole class. MAKE WRITING A PART OF MATH LEARNING, Communication in math class should include writing as well as talking. In his book Writing co Learn (Harperlnformation 1993), William Zinsser states: “Writing is how we think our way {nto a subject and make it our own.” When children write in math class, they have to revisit their thinking and reflect on their ideas. An dene writing gives reachers a way t0 assess how their stuclents are thinking and what they und ‘Writing in math class best extends from children’s talking. When part ner talk, small-group interaction, of a whole-class discussion precedes a writing assignment, students have a chanee to formulate their ideas before they're expected to write. Vary writing assignments. At the end of Tesson, stuxlents can write in their ‘math journals or logs about what they learned and what questions they have. Or ask them to write about a particular math idea—"what I know about multiplication so far," or “what happens to the sums and products when adding even and odd numbers.” When solving a problem, encourage to recon how they reasoned. prompts on the board can For studen Writ hhelp students get started writin example: Today I Iearned .. 1am still noc sure about ., I dink the answer is. [think this because. PRESENT MATH ACTIV TIES IN CONTEXTS. Real- world contexts can students access to otherwise abstract mathematical ideas. Contexts stimulate student interest and provides a purpose for leaming When connected to situations, mathe SCHOLASTIC INSTRUCTOR 4766 Pring math lessons, probe children's Dirintine Ask: ‘Why do you think that? Why does that make sense? Convince us. Prove it. Does anyone have a different way to think about the problem? Does anyone have another explanation?” Contexts can draw on real-world his money. For a ready-to-use, litera ‘examples. For example, ask students _ture-linked math lesson, see “A Step- to figure our whar you might have by-Step Lesson with Marilyn Burns ought and how much it cost if, after on page 19. paying for it, you received $0.35 change. Or ask children to figure out ‘SUPPORT LEARNING WITH how much money each of four chil MANIPULATIVES. dren would get if they shared $5.00 Manipulative materials help equally. Or ask a group of children to make abstract mathematical estimate and then figure out how ideas concrete. They give children many raisins each of chem would get the chance to grab onto mathematics if they shared a snackesire box ideas, turn them around, and view Contexts can also be created from them in different ways. Manipulative imaginary situations, and children’s materials can setve in several ways— hooks are ideal s ing points to introduce concepts, to pose prob classroom math lessons. After reading lems, and to use as tools to figure out Eric Carle's Rooste’s Off co See the solutions. I's important that manipu- World (Simon & Schuster, 1991), for —latives are not relegated to the early ‘example, ack children if they can fig- grades but are also available to older ure out how many animals went trav- students. cling. Or ask children to follow the For teachers just getting started calculations in Judith Viorst’s using manipulatives, classtoom staples Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last should include at least 400 color tiles Sunday (Simon & Schuster, 1978), (1" square tiles in four colors), three and figure out how Alexander spent to six sets of pattetn blocks (six dif 18 m APRIL 2004 ferent shapes which typically include green triangles, yellow hexagons, blue and tan parallelograms, orange squares, and red trapezoids), 500-1000 interlocking cubes (usually in 10 colors, about 3/4"), and a sup- ply of measuring tools. LET YOUR STUDENTS PUSH THE CURRICULUM. Avoid having the curriculum push the children. Choose depth over breadth and avoid having your math program be a mile wide and an inch deep. As David Hawkins said in The Having of Wonderful Ideas, by Eleanor Duckworth (Teachers College Press, 1996), “You don’t want to cover a subject; you want 10 uncover it.” There are many pressures fon teachers, and the school year pass cs very quickly. But students’ under- standing is key and doesn’t always happen according to a set schedule. cay with topics chat interest chil dren, explore them more deeply, and take the time for side investigations that can extend lessons in different directions. ‘THE BEST ACTIVITIES MEET THE NEEDS OF ALL STUDENTS. Keep an eye out for instructional activities that are accessible to students with different levels of interest and experi ence. A wonderful quality of good children’s books is that they delight adults as well. OF course, adults appre ciate books for different reasons than children do, but enjoyment and learn ing can oceur simultaneously at all levels. The same holds true for math. Look for activities that allow for stu dents to seek their own level and that also lend themselves to extensions, For example, challenge children to find the sum of three consecutive numbers, such as 4 +5 + 6, Ask them to do at least five different problems and see if they can discover how the sum relates to the addends. (The sum is always the middle num:ber tripled.) Allowing the children coset hr wm sonics ais MANO) el OL OVS] a OM Meass0] connate ese AMULET ARSC Ses ones Soe more able students to write about ‘More and more teachers are now tak- Ing advantage of math connections in favorite chitiren’s terature, Recently, used Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes (HarperCollins, 1991) to help third graders practice addition, sub- traction, and graphing skils. Here is ‘my lesson plan, step-by-step: why they think the sum is alsvays three times the middle number, or t0 investigate the sums of four consecu- tive numb CONFUSION IS PART OF * THE PROCESS. ementor | Mhile adr. sped cat that confaion and paral | Mendon musu eumbers—or——gcouytina LETTERS: Aer readin understandis O RIT er ae coment eat the book aloud, we discussed that ° the learning proce. Don't expect al the are Chryeantherum has 13 et- tore—hal 8 many eter are in the alphabet “My fet name has fever letters” 01 the enor, se To a Cchrynitansnare have than my rama? encouraged the su drt fo kwh a nalghoor abut this, and then had ther sy he expect all chil- dren to get the same message from every lesson, Although we want all students to be successful, it’s hard 10 reach every student with every les son. Learning should be viewed as a long-range goal, not as a lesson We made a sticky note graph to objective. Ie’s important chat chil answer together in a whisper voice. ‘represent how many letters are in dren do not feel deficient, hopeless, | gach of our rst names or excluded from learning mathemat- (@USING COMPLETE SENTENCES: ies. The classroom culture should ‘Attar several children explained their reinforce the belief that errors are ‘opportunities for learning and should support children raking risks without feat of failuse or embarrassment. answer, | invited students to figure out how many more letters there are i Chrysanthemums name than in their ‘own—reminding them that they would eed to be able to tell the class their answers in a complete sentence. With AB 2G, 820n chit was adie to report. Devin said, “Chrysanthemum ENCOURAGE DIF- FERENT WAYS OF THINKING. There's no ‘Students wrote thei first and last cone way to think names on sentence strips fo see has eight more letters than my name.” about any mathematical problem. which one had more letters. After children respond to a question (@FINDING THE SHORTEST NAME: (and, of course, have explained their ‘Then | challenged the students to think Does anyone have a different idea? Keep asking until all children who volunteer have offered their ideas. By encouraging participation, you'll not only leaen, ‘more about individual children’s think about who had the shortest name in the class. Together we deter- ‘mined that Made, Isak, Anna, ani Wil had the shortest names with four let- ters each. “Stand up if you have five letters in your first name,” | said. We thinking, but you'll also send eh counted five children. Then we count- message that theres more than one | "This ar graph showed how students’ _€4 fe chien with sic eters, two vay to look at any problem or situa | frst ames can be shorter longer or with seven, one with eight, and finally tion, That's when the potential for the same as thee fast. (Continued on page 60) delight occurs. SCHOLASTIC INSTRUCTOR ml 19A LESSON WITH MARILYN (Continued from page 19) ‘Annapurna, who had the longest name @SETTING A CHALLENGE: "Your chal- with nine letters lenge isto figure out how many letters are in all of our frst names together" | @GRAPHING OUR FIRST NAMES: Tho told the children. | invited them to share next step was to make a graph to show Ideas of how they might do this using this information. The children returned the information on the graph. Then | to thelr desks, As they wrote thelr first told therm that they could work with the names on sticky notes, | wrote ‘Letters other students at their table, but that in Our First Names" on the board and they each needed to write their own listed the numbers from 1 to 10.1 post- paper and explain their thinking led my sticky note as a model. Then each student came up and posted his @CHECKING WITH MANIPULATIVES: lr her name next to the correct number. To verity the answer and link the activity to place value, | puta supply of inter- @READING THE GRAPH: As a class, we locking cubes at each table and asked discussed what we noticed about our the children to each make a train of ‘raph. “The longest name has nine let- cubes as long as ther frst name. tors,” Trent sald. “There are the same umber of names in the five row and“ @ WORKING TOGETHER: | then asked the six row,” Daniela said. “I'm the only the children at each table to combine fone with eight letters," Danielle said, their trains into tens and ones and be An Innovative Route to Education Leadership! ‘At Seton Hall University educators and others in the helping professions, who already have a master's degree, can earn an advanced, executive Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) Degree and Achieve certification asa school principal/supervisor. 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Isak explained, “Ninety and one more ten is fone hundred, and one more ten is one hundred ten, plus two is one hundred ‘welve.” (@EXTENDING THE LESSON: “What about your last name?" | asked, "Are there more, fewer, or the same number of laters in your last name as in your first name?" | gave each student a2" by 11" strip of two-centimeter squares. 1 modeled for the students how to wirite thei ist name in one row and their last ‘name on the next row, and then tim the extra squares. (WRAPPING IT UP: | prepared a chart with thee columns and labeled them. | said, "You'll post your name strip to show if your frst name is shorter than, the same length as, or longer than your last name." After posting ‘my strip, the children posted theirs. | asked, “Do you think that there are ‘more letters total in our last names or in our frst names?” Most thought that there would be more letters in ‘their last names combined. To end the lesson, | said, “Tomorrow well ‘make a graph of our last names and figure it ou.” This repeat experience would provide the students with additional practice. On another day, | planned to give the students the first names from Chrysanthemums class and have them individually ‘make graphs of the names, figure out the total number of laters in their names, and compare this total with our class total, Hl arn Burs te cat ard ounce of at Sain Poles Onoomart dodcated to Imogen of 8 maranats eugh wing rr, ther ese baks vi: ‘apes audotares chiens ons, and mere st Nari on he Ue at warts cm,