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Every mathematical question can be framed by the question, “what are we counting?” I mean it when I say if you can count to nine, identify a rectangle and tell if something is same or different or not I can teach you math. Period.
With most beginning students I make them write out the five basic concepts. With older students counting is redundant, they can all count, and you can make a joke of it. After they write down “Math is the study of numbers and all we do with numbers is count”, or some variation thereof, ask them to count to twenty. Then ask them to count backwards from twenty.
“See, I can teach you math, we are one fifth of the way there…you can even count backwards.” Then ask them to recite the abc’s backwards.
“Hmm, looks like you’re better at math.”
Although I am almost illiterate mathematically, I grasped very early in life that any one who can count to ten can count upward indefinitely if he is fool enough to do so. ~Robertson Davies, “Of the Conservation of Youth,” The Table Talk of Samuel Marchbanks
Two tens and three units has a name, twenty three…what’s important is understanding the concepts.
We count the big ones first. One hundred, one ten and one unit are one hundred eleven. 111. With manipulatives this is visually obvious but when writing 111, little kids often think THREE…can you see how much easier it is to teach place value?
You will at Crewton Ramone’s House of Math!
Teaching a child to count properly takes MONTHS, you can teach them to pattern and memorize by counting from one to 20 over and over again, which is fine; however this can lead to some confusion. Ever hear, “my kid can count to 10 but gets a little confused in the teens”? I have. A lot. Make sure they see all the teens are are just ten and some more, or specifically ten and one through nine units more, and that the pattern repeats with two tens and one through nine units, and three tens and so on. This way they get the concept and the pattern and link the vocabulary to the number.
I can’t tell you how many times I got a student that was failing algebra that had to use their fingers to add numbers. Simple numbers like nine and three. Asked to multiply they didn’t have their tables memorized either without think hard about it. OF COURSE THEY WERE FAILING ALGEBRA: they had no foundation upon which to stand. Back to basics. No magic. Then again, when the basics are mastered correctly the magic begins. First counting, then addition, then multiplication seems obvious.
“Obvious” is the most dangerous word in mathematics.” ~Anon
So first thing: get them “off their fingers.”
Addition and multiplication are just way of counting very quickly. In order to get there you start off crawling then you walk then you can run, then you can hit the hyperspace button…or at leaste turn on the after burners. Teach counting the easy way, visit Crewton Ramone’s House of Math for FREE SOFTWARE that helps teach counting and much more.
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Tags: math
Posted in Primary Education · January 30th, 2010 · Comments (0)
Another week of Key Stage 3s results, another week of conflict surrounding league tables, the ‘dumbing down’ of GCSEs, and widespread strategies and promised for school review and enhance. The Conservatives have already stated a desire to reform league tables with the intention to give greater weighting to improved grades and more ‘worthwhile subjects. With reference to not succeeding in this series of blogs, the news could not be more worrying. Recently we again have heard our society denounced as ‘broken’ from the opposition bench, with youth culture being slammed. Contrariwise our society are now told that students who study ‘worthless’ subjects may have their results devalued when considering the achievements of other institutes (some people resort to hiring a tutor to get by). I will return to the patronizing stance toward modern day young people in a later blog, with conversation on the inevitable reaction to continuing success.
The focus this week is on failing institutes. This again is a very vague definition, but is regularly thrown into journalistic pieces, especially at this time of year. A college which is deemed to be ‘underachieving’ must be considered objectively, our society wouldn’t believe a ‘mild day’ to be in anyway the same when reported in the peersather forecast in the UK and Australia, yet we consider rubbish colleges to be as bad as each other regardless of location and resources. I talked to private tutor and they said that in years gone by peers have seen a growth of ‘specialist colleges’ whether they are in Science or Performing Arts etc.
The tutor went on to say that these institutes therefore must have different targets to reach, but on an overall scale, these strong departments may mask peersaker areas within the college. The league tables do not reflect the pupils and environs which the institute has to adapt to. Inner city colleges traditionally have to deal with kids who are often exposed to gang culture, drug abuse and binge drinking, as our societyll as many kids who are not as bright as some in more affluent areas. young people may also affect their progress. This links in well with my previous blog on rubbish students who are less able.
In many cases, the challenge of helping these less able kids to reach their potential is far more taxing for an educator than simply feeding a bright young people’ hunger for knowledge. I very much doubt that even the complex ‘progress tables’ for institutes (only behind Duckworth-Lewis and the scoring for the Heptathlon in complexity) includes this when determining the rankings. Consequently many institutes and, in reality, many educators are tarred with the reputation of being poor.
This leads to an Ouroboros situation, where in schools desperate for enthusiastic, committed teachers, you have teachers who are apathetic, and feel undervalued in their jobs. On a level which many people could empathize with, consider the disappointment many would experience when someone fails to appreciate the effort put into a present or something similar. If one scales this emotional response when bearing in mind that individuals move houses to avoid your teaching, this is quite a body blow for someone in a profession which requires commitment and passion in the face of many hurdles within the classroom, not to mention that private tutors are becoming more popular.
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Posted in Primary Education · December 6th, 2009 · Comments (0)