One of the best ways we can help our children learn mathematics (or anything else) is to always be learning ourselves.
Here are a few stories to read with your morning coffee this week:
- Pam Harris explains how to use Strategies vs. Models in helping students clarify their thinking.
“A strategy is how you mess with the numbers, how you use relationships and connections between numbers to solve a problem. A model is a representation of your strategy, the way the strategy looks visibly. Modeling your strategy makes your thinking more clear to others because they can see the thinking and the relationships that went into your process.”
—Pam Harris
Strategies vs. Models
- Do you have preschool or elementary students? Michael Minas has a great collection of games on his blog. Easy to learn and full of mathematical thinking.
- Chris Luzniak introduces us to a new type of puzzle: Venn Diagram Debates.
- Sara VanDerWerf shares her annual collection of Math Fails, along with tips on how to use them to provoke mathematical discussions.
- Sunil Singh ponders how Our Fear of Being Lost Devalues The Beauty of Mathematics.
“Doing mathematics like this deprives students of, well, let’s be honest, mathematics itself. We need to get to the answer faster. We need to move on. No time to stumble around rabbit holes. There is a curriculum to cover.”
—Sunil Singh
Our Fear of Being Lost Devalues The Beauty of Mathematics
CREDITS: Feature photo (top) by Kira auf der Heide via Unsplash. “Morning Coffee” post format inspired by Nate Hoffelder at The Digital Reader.
Denise Gaskins' Let's Play Math 