It doesn’t matter what you teach or lead. We can all respond to these questions: How do you feel about math? Which quote resonates with you?
Math is the science of patterns… W.W. Sawyer
Math is a way to make the invisible visible …Keith Devlin
Wherever there is number, there is beauty… Proclus
Mathematics is the music of reason…James Joseph Sylvester
It’s Ok, I wasn’t good at math either… Soooooo many people
From the moment you get up in the morning, your brain is doing math, starting with figuring out just how many minutes you can lay in that bed and still make it to work on time. As I am writing this tonight, the news is showing a bar graph of gas prices and talking about increases and decreases. A commercial just focused on price breaks and sale percentages. The weather map shows increasing and decreasing temperatures. Math is all around us. Everyone is a math person. So, when does the disconnect happen? When do we begin to believe that we can’t do math? Why? These are important questions. Research shows, as educators, how we identify as “ a math person” or “a non-math person” can impact the way our students see themselves. It is important that we actively work to overcome the “it’s ok to not be good in math” cultural messaging. One strategy is to surround students with numbers and patterns, at the same time we are surrounding them with words so they see themselves as math people and as readers. Ask them to talk about the math they see in their world. Create math walls where they can share their own math thinking or examples that they find. Spend time on number talks in class. Math weaves through literature, science, social studies, the arts, physical education, health, family consumer science, business, languages, and technology. Just like we are all responsible for teaching students to read and write in any context, we are equally responsible for helping them to see the authentic connections to math in any context.
It is important to study the most recent neuroscience research that helps us to understand exactly how different parts of the brain work on math, how students' brains develop mathematical conceptual understanding beginning with number sense in preschool, and the most effective approaches to growing that math thinking. There is also a strong connection between language and math success. It is interesting that number words in Japanese and Chinese are shorter, and more closely aligned to base 10 counting than their English counterparts. So if you were saying 25 in Chinese or Japanese, you would be saying two ten five instead of twenty five. You can see how this would be an advantage for children who are modeling with base 10 blocks or learning to count. And, why a child might count twenty nine, twenty ten in English if they are trying to find patterns. Learning the vocabulary of math by hearing it and using it in context is important too. If we want students to communicate mathematically, they need to build their working vocabulary in math. And maybe this is where the disconnect happens. For many students, the language of math becomes a barrier, so does their inability to follow sequential directions or visualize pictures in their head. Maybe it’s their math anxiety or they need more opportunities to learn in a classroom culture based on sense making. Maybe they need more opportunities to engage in real world application of their new math thinking. Maybe they have incomplete learning. This goes all the way back to the cardinal principle - the ability to recognize that the last number counted represents the total number of objects in a group. If a child does not have this, they will struggle with addition and subtraction. David Sousa’s book “How the Brain Learns Mathematics” compiles many research studies, focusing on effective strategies for addressing incomplete learning, and the neuroscience behind the development of math thinking from birth through high school. I have included below additional resources to spark your own inquiry into the neuroscience of math and reflect on your own belief about your ability to do math.
And, remember, research has shown that we are ALL math people and ALL students can do math.
Resources To Spark Your Thinking
Ohio Dept. of Education Math Team Resource Page https://education.ohio.gov/
Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/ Mathematics/Resources-for- Mathematics Rich Math Tasks https://mathforlove.com/
lessons/rich-tasks/ Research on how the brain makes sense of math - you can try it out yourself https://ece.umd.edu/news/
story/the-brain-makes-sense- of-math-and-language-in- different-ways Your brain is calculating all the time https://www.sciencedaily.com/
releases/2016/08/160829094017. htm Using symmetry to help students make math connections https://news.stanford.edu/pr/
2015/pr-symmetry-math- schwartz-070615.html How manipulatives can enhance the perception action cycle https://blog.mindresearch.org/
blog/perception-action-cycle Yes, everyone can learn math
https://www.youcubed.org/wp-
content/uploads/2017/08/2017- Positive-Norms-Description- Paper-1.pdf Two awesome math educators host a podcast about…math.
https://podcastunfinisheds.
apple.com/us/podcast/room-to- grow-a-math-podcast/ id1566002698
Addressing Unfinished Learning In Math https://achievethecore.org/
page/3368/how-to-support- students-unfinished-learning- in-math How To Identify Where Unfinished Learning May Be For A Student https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/
misunderstoodminds/mathdiffs. html Use the coherence map to follow a continuum of math learning. https://achievethecore.org/
coherence-map Math Affirmation Cards https://makered.org/wp-
content/uploads/2021/03/ Affirmation-Cards-V2.pdf Make Your Own I Am A Mathematician Poster - this is not just for students https://www.youcubed.org/
resources/and-im-a- mathematician-k-12/
Join A Math Community
- OCTM https://www.ohioctm.org/
- Local OCTM Affiliates https://ohioctm.org/Local-
Affiliates - Crooked River Math Circle https://www.escneo.org/
crookedrivermtc_home.aspx