Demystifying Elementary Math (from a Secondary Perspective)

  I ran another social media survey about math (I know, I'm a blast at parties...I swear).  This time I learned that adults - just like my students - avoid fractions! So, that got me thinking... This week's video is all about fractions (the why and how) and a little challenge to all you parents out there!  Watch and let me know what you think!! :) 

  Yet another example of adults saying "But there's a better way..."  No one would argue that you, adult, can add probably faster than an elementary school student.  We are in the process of building UP TO that speed and accuracy. By encouraging your child to imagine the groupings, you are building their imagination (draw whatever you'd like!), their math skills (count up, make 10s), and their mental flexibility ALL IN 1 PROBLEM!  Check out my NEW addition video for a little more about how this problem is VERY similar to what many adults already do! Making sense of a problem IRL isn't about having an algorithm to write out your work. Instead it's about applying what you know to a REAL situation.  This is what most adults think of when they see  an addition problem: But this is what many                                                                                             adults actually do when                                                            

How do you do mental multiplication?  Do you encourage that same thinking in your own children? 

  Tell me if you've heard this one before...              Parent and child at the table working on child's homework.               Child becomes frustrated and begins to cry             Parent becomes equally (or more) frustrated by the tears/the                      assignment/both.           Sound familiar?            It's pretty common, but let's ask a new question - what's the upstream problem?   Not familiar with the idea of "upstream problems"? It was new to me until very recently - but the best description I've heard is this:  There's a town in which every evening a child washes up on the banks of the local river. Every day the fire department rescues the child and is lauded as heroes.  One day a new fire chief takes over. After a week, he throws up his hands and just as the child washes up, he hops in, saves the child, but doesn't stay for the celebration. Instead he marches upstream.  When he's questioned on his way out of town he

  My fellow math nerds and I may be the only people who REALLY enjoyed this show, but the opening always resonated with me. "We all use math every day: to predict weather, to tell time, to handle money. Math is more than formulas and equations. It's logic. It's rationality. It's using your mind to solve the biggest mysteries we know." "...more than formulas and equations..." that couldn't be more true for our youngest learners. While they are building the skills to add, subtract, multiply, and divide their teachers are also encouraging them to be pattern recognizers. Pattern recognition leads to deeper mathematical understanding.  Recognizing repeated addition or subtraction is the first step in recognizing linear relationships. Recognizing repeated multiplication or division is the introduction to geometric sequences and exponential growth and decay.  Ask the kids in your life about what patterns they see. Ask them to predict what comes next in a li

That quote, is SPOT ON! I don't disagree in the least. (Bet you didn't expect that, did you??) However, I don't know any elementary school students who are sent to the grocery store to do the weekly shopping on a budget alone.  Number lines, hundreds boards, ten frames, algebra tiles, and all the other physical representations of math and numbers give students something concrete to set the stage for learning. We move away from each of them fairly quickly as students become more fluent in their math facts, but they provide a perfect physical and visual reminder for students to mentally refer back to as they learn and grow.  We all encourage our kids to try new things - consider adding new math strategies to that list! (And cheer them on, just like you would if they were trying a new sport or instrument.) 

It's been hard to tell where summer break began this school year (2019-2020 into 2020-2021). And with the strange end of the year leading into and uncertain new one, you and your child can be practicing math. Not with worksheets or computer programs, but in 5 or 10 minutes of conversation a day.  I bet you'll find that all those connections your student was learning at school are still there.  Fostering that learning at home will help ensure your child is safe from summer slide AND fall falter!