Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Picture This.

IMAGES AND VIDEO!

Image result for education with pictures
So fun, and so useful.

In the 2017-18 school year as a middle school math tutor, my mentors exposed me to visual mathematics.


IT. IS. AMAZING. Why was math ever taught any other way?

Students think it's all about memorizing formulas, when really math is about visualizing situations and playing around until you figure out the way the puzzle fits together.

None of that "don't forget to carry over the one" nonsense here.
And there's no one right way to do it! When students find their own creative ways to find answers to questions, I think they are improving their connection-building skills, which is really the point of math, not memorizing formulas.

This is why I am so excited to be a math teacher - visual math is a GAME CHANGER!

Math should be intuitive and fun for all people, not an intimidating and inaccessible mash of figures and numbers.

Image result for confused thinking gif
This is not what I want to see.

Fractions, the bane of basically all students' existence, are rendered completely intuitive and easy when you simply draw them out - including multiplying and dividing them.

Image result for visually multiplying fraction gif
I couldn't find any good gifs, but trust me it's cool!
Writing is still key, of course - we all should be able to communicate in a variety of ways. This is one area of the testing standards that I don't have as much of a problem with: Common Core focuses on students being able to explain their reasoning when it comes to doing math problems. It's not just about finding the "right answer," but being able to explain your thinking to someone else, especially if you are not in the same room as them.

I wonder when or if standardized tests would ever include students filming themselves working and collaborating with others as a form of assessment? There are a lot of possibilities to consider when we start expanding what it means to learn.
Posted by at

3 comments:

  1. UnknownJuly 17, 2018 at 12:22 PM

    I would have loved to have these visuals. It's only been within the last few weeks that math hasn't seemed so scary. I think what you want to do and how you'll incorporate tech into your math will help students to realize its not some terrifying entity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJuly 17, 2018 at 12:46 PM

    I love how you say,"Math should be intuitive and fun for all people, not an intimidating and inaccessible mash of figures and numbers." So many people have bad experiences with math, and in the elementary cohort, we have been learning that math should be approached as a giant game, puzzle, and pattern. We should not overwhelm our students with abstract formulas right away; first, we need to have them work with concrete objects and pictorial representations. I think your visual math approach will really help students understand why and how the formulas they have been taught work!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 19, 2018 at 6:37 PM

    If I was exposed to visual mathematics with models like these, math would have been so much easier for me. I like that students are allowed multiple paths to model the same solution. It takes the stigma of only right and wrong out of math for me, and could offer exceptional benefits to learners who struggle with math. This was a good post that made math a little less scary for myself reading it.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)