What is math all about?

There is a myth that there are people who are “math people” and others who just aren’t “math people”. This sort of dangerous thinking has a history of convincing millions that they just aren’t good at math, and that, is that. Most people, when they say someone “isn’t good at math” mean that that person doesn’t calculate operational answers quickly, or accurately. Most of us have been taught that that is what math is all about. Memorizing a series of steps to solve a problem, and get the known, correct answer. Luckily, all of these ideas have been proven to be not only dangerous, but wrong.

Fluency and computational accuracy are part of math, no doubt. They’re as much part of math as spelling and grammar are part of writing. In a way, they are the spelling and grammar of math. But they aren’t the language, they aren’t the poetry, and they are far, far from all that makes a mathematician. No one would seriously argue that spelling and grammar are the most important parts of writing. They’re just the easiest place for us to notice inaccuracies.

So… What makes for a mathematician?

This year in grade five we’re going to work on building the behaviours that are so key for skilled mathematicians. Computational fluency and accuracy are part of this (you do need to learn your times tables!), but what else? What other strengths do we need to build to become capable mathematicians?

To begin thinking about this, in the first week, each student has drawn and labeled a picture of what they imagine, when they think of a mathematician. We’ve seen lab coats, glasses and a whole lot of men.

Now, to push our thinking we’re going to try a problem where computational fluency isn’t going to solve things easily, or right away. We’re going to try The Locker Problem.

Note: If you watch the video be sure to stop it where indicated (around 1:56) to try to solve it yourself! Keep trying, and remember: We can do hard things.

Today your child has brought home their most recent math assessment, sharing a snapshot of their skills and understanding in multiplication of decimals, some division and interpretation of remainders, along with a reflection document they have used to better understand their work.

As mentioned earlier in the year, these assessments are being sent home primarily to enrich your conversations with your child about their learning. Please take the time to look at them together with your child, and alongside their reflection. Then, sign the assessment and return it promptly to school. Please aim to return these by Friday. If you require more time, please let me know.

A quick snapshot of this morning. As we work towards multiplication and division of decimals, we’re revisiting and expanding on division strategies. Students were tasked to work with their Math Buddies to produce a video where they explain not just how a particular strategy for division works, but why it works. Look out for the videos on the student blogs. In the meantime, here are some images… Enjoy!

IMAGES

Dear 5R Families,

During our Parent/Student/Teacher conferences just before the holidays, many of us discussed the benefit of taking time for further exploration and foundation-building in your child’s number sense.

At that time, I offered to put together a set of resources that families could use at home to help build a deep, foundational understanding of number. I also mentioned to many of you that I would prefer if the bulk of these learning experiences were interactive. By interactive I mean things that you and your child, or your child and their siblings, could do together. This is as opposed to being strictly online challenges. The idea is that you spend some time with your child, playing games and solving problems together. Enjoy!

I have begun to put together a page of these resources on our G5 Resources site, under the NUMBER SENSE tab. At the moment there are a range of articles about number sense, games to download, print and play, and games that just require a few dice and some paper. Additionally, there are a couple things that can be done independently online. I would be happy to continue adding suggestions, but would appreciate some feedback. Please let me know how these selections work for you and your child.

An excerpt from one of the articles:

What is number sense?

The term “number sense” is a relatively new one in mathematics education. It is difficult to define precisely, but broadly speaking, it refers to “a well organised conceptual framework of number information that enables a person to understand numbers and number relationships and to solve mathematical problems that are not bound by traditional algorithms” (Bobis, 1996). The National Council of Teachers (USA, 1989) identified five components that characterise number sense: number meaning, number relationships, number magnitude, operations involving numbers and referents for numbers and quantities. These skills are considered important because they contribute to general intuitions about numbers and lay the foundation for more advanced skills.

This week Grade 5 will launch our first Math Camp, an opportunity for students to review and extend upon concepts from our first unit of math study. Students were offered a range of eight choices and descriptions, offered by eight teachers. They have chosen, and been guided to choose an interesting and appropriate menu item.

For students coming to 5R, we will have an extension challenge focused on… Hot Dogs!

This morning 5R spent some time exploring the relationship between place value columns and exponential values of ten, or powers of ten.

First we looked at some visualizations of large numbers, starting here, and then continuing on here.

Then we looked at a teacher example, an earlier version of the video below, finding powers of ten in the environment. Afterwards, students for busy starting to build their own video representations of place value charts.

While the content we were exploring focused on the relationships between place value and the exponential values of ten, we were equally focusing on the research skills of finding, organizing and presenting information.

Keep an eye out for student videos, coming to their blogs soon!

Powers of Ten from ZIS Grade 5 Mr Raskin on Vimeo.