RIGOR: What it IS. What is ISN'T.

A supremely popular term being thrown around in the wild world of mathematics these days is "rigor." When I interviewed for this position last year, I mentioned adding rigor to instruction. Mr. Shillings (who never misses a trick) asked me to be specific about what I meant by "rigor." GREAT question, and I think/hope I answered it appropriately, but I'm not sure I did as good a job as the following chart.

According to expert Linda Gojak of NCTM,.

Rigor is a balance between procedure, concept, and application of mathematics.

Parents, Consider Yourselves Empowered to Teach Math!

Have you ever taken a look at your child's math homework and thought, "This looks like Greek to me! What is this craziness? Why can't they just teach the way they always did? It worked for us, after all."

If so, you're not alone. I hear from parents of first graders who consider some of the 1st grade work they see coming home to be incomprehensible. It isn't that you aren't smart, it isn't that you aren't capable, it's that times have changed. The educational landscape is not what it used to be.

Whether or not our state chooses to keep or throw away the Common Core curriculum, our approach to teaching mathematics will go unchanged. We have mountains of data telling us that the old-school way of teaching wasn't working for the majority of children and that we must embrace teaching our students conceptually.

To help you, WCPSS has created some WONDERFUL documents that will take you through the basics of what you need to know about the mathematics curriculum at your child's grade level. Additionally, they have made VIDEOS to help support your learning, as well as your child's.

Let's band together and "flip" our education. We'll all be better off for it!

You can find the instructional videos HERE

The grade-level work documents can be found on the Brassfield website under Parent resources AND right HERE

Mathematically Yours,
Mrs. PF

You Can Learn Anything: Never Again Say You're Not a "Math Person"

I have a terrible habit of being overly verbose.

Not today.

Watch!

https://www.khanacademy.org/youcanlearnanything?video=main

Parents: You can now pre-order Mathbreakers for just $25!!!

This site is being released for individual subscriptions in December. I have already pre-ordered for my son, who is a 5th grader here at Brassfield.

If you are interested, here's the link: https://www.mathbreakers.com/preorder/

Enjoy!
Larissa

CALLING ALL STUDENTS IN MRS. ESTRELA'S CLASS: great news about Mathbreakers!

Go to https://mathbreakers.com/

Login using your school ID number. Estrela is the password. Press the green button to download.

ENJOY!

For my little mathematicians in Mrs. Estrela's Room

I promised some of my sweet 4th graders that I would post the 3 apps and 1 web-based math URL for them so that they can explore during track out. Here are three HIGH QUALITY apps and an AWESOME web-based game.

The Apps:

1. Wuzzit Trouble
2. Motion Math
3. Dragon Box

The URL:

Mathbreakers https://mathbreakers.com/

Have fun, kiddos! See you in a few weeks!

XO,
Mrs. PF Chang

The Stanford MOOC: EDUC-115S (How To Learn Math)

So our fearless leader, Mrs. MacWilliams, accepted my challenge to enroll in Stanford's FREE MOOC class, entitled "How To Learn Math." It is led by the world-renowned author and educator, Jo Boaler, and IT. IS. FANTASTIC. Way to go, Mrs. MacWilliams!

At one point, she interviews Sebastian Thrun. He isn't exactly a household name, but he should be.

You see, Sebastian Thrun is an amazing dude. He is credited with the invention of self-driving cars, is a VP at Google, and has lead the development of Google Glass (those funky new glasses that you can wear and record stuff just by blinking). He's also the CEO of Udacity, an online course provider. He speaks beautifully about the role of intuition in mathematics.

I was particularly struck by the following quotation, which gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it:

"Math to me is just a training course to be a citizen, how to think in the world. A world of numbers, of people, of relationships, of time and space, and so on. So if you can get people that get that feeling of how to deal with these things and empower them and take away the fear, we win."

I couldn't have said it better myself. If you have a yearning for learning, sign up for the course yourself. It's FREE. It takes fewer than TWO hours to complete. It's STANFORD. Good luck!

https://class.stanford.edu/courses/Education/EDUC115-S/Spring2014/about

In What Order Should We Teach Multiplication Facts? Does it Matter?

I received an e-mail from a fantastic third grade teacher just now. I have answered this question for teachers, students, and parents many times over the years and thought perhaps it might be worthwhile to share with all you Brassfield parents who might want to be in the know. Check out my response below...

Great questions! And YES, it matters!

First, teach the multliplicative property of zero. Go ahead and call it this because they will be hearing it more and more in the coming years. Also, it will make them feel successful because every answer will be ZERO. Hooray!

Next, teach them about the identity property of multiplication, which states that any number times 1 is that number. Again, this is an easy win for kids because they will feel so successful.

You'll want to attack the 2s next. It's just doubling, and kids love it. Take a minute or two to look at the PATTERNS formed by doubles. Kids love that. (The products will form 2, 4,6, 8...WHY?)

Now go straight to the 10s. Sounds weird, right? This is the perfect opportunity to bust out the Base Ten blocks and introduce kids to the POWER OF TEN. They need to discover on their own that multiplying any number by ten produces a product that is the initial factor with a zero at the end.

Next, go for 5s. You can anchor this to counting by 5s AND being half the product of the 10s, which they have already learned. So, take 8 x 5. That's just 8 x 10 (80) chopped in half (40).

After that you'll want to introduce the 4s. The coolest thing about the 4s table is that it's the 2s table twice. For example, what is 6x4? Well, it's 6 x 2 doubled, or 12 x 2 = 24. Double twice!

You can probably guess what comes next: the 8s. Students will take what they know from the 4s and double it. OR, they can double thrice. For example, 3 x 8 is really (3 x 2) +  (3 x 2) + (3 x 2). Double, Double, Double.

Take on the 3's table next. Three is fun, because it's double plus one. Let's look at 7 x 3. The double of 7 is 14. Tack on another 7 for 21.

The 6's come next. Triple, then double OR double, then triple. 7 x 6 would look like this (7 x 3) x 2. Triple 7 is 21 and double 21 is 42. Voila!

Now, onto the 9's. I love the idea of promoting flexible thinking by relating the 9's right back to the 10's. For example, 6 x 9 is really just 6 x 10 with one less 6. 60-6 =54. There is a trick the kids like to do with their hands, as well, that I'm sure you know. Another possibility is multiplying the number by 5, then 4, and adding them together. Not may favorite, but it works for some.

Save the 7's for last. Yuck. 

I hope this has helped. Students who struggle can benefit greatly by creating the arrays using color tiles to make the connection to area AND to skip counting.

Mathematically yours,

Larissa

Proof of Growth Mindset in Math

We here at Brassfield have been having many, many conversations about our mindsets as educators. Each of us lands somewhere on the continuum between the opposite poles of fixed and growth mindsets. Where are you? Take this quiz to find out: Mindset Quiz

I will admit that I was raised to believe that my achievement was in direct (and equal) relation to two factors: intelligence and effort. I was told that I lucky to have been born to a father with a PhD and a mother with two M.Eds, since their intelligence was an excellent predictor of my own IQ. Luckily, both of my parents spent a great deal of time highlighting the importance of hard work and good study habits. It was not until recently that I started swaying in my belief that I was born with a certain amount of fixed intelligence. It blew my mind last week when a colleague told a group of people that I am "naturally good at math." You can tell that we have met within the last few years of my life because there is a mountain of evidence from my childhood to the contrary. I am "good at math" today because I have spent the last seven years of my life fully immersing myself in it. I have "grown," mathematically speaking. Trust me when I tell you that I was NOT born with a gift for mathematics. Just ask my parents, teachers, siblings, and the janitor in my high school who used to offer me a tissue after math class every day.

I happened upon an intriguing article this morning that I just had to share, Teaching the Brain to Learn, which focuses specifically on MATH. Here's an excerpt from the author, Greg Thompson:

These systems (the distributed neuro functional systems) are not wired at birth, and they’re not determined by our genetics. They’re profoundly influenced by the type of stimulation and activity that children receive while growing up. This neuroscience brain research point of view is consistent with the need to emphasize early developmental experiences in preschool, kindergarten, first grade and second grade.”

Flexible Minds

I spent some time in a 4th grade classroom recently and was BLOWN AWAY by how flexibly the students were able to think of a simple subtraction problem. The kids were asked to subtract 2,756 from 6,034. They worked in partners and were challenged to come up with as many varied approaches as possible. Would you believe they came up with SIX DIFFERENT WAYS? Holy smokes! Back when I was in school, there was only one method and it was the standard algorithm. No wonder we all fell asleep in class. Take a look at the pictures to get an idea of the varied ways students approached this problem.

1. Base ten blocks/place value strategy
2. Negatives method
3. Standard Algorithm
4/5. Negatives method AND expanded form subtraction
6. Number line strategy

Math Under the Radar

Howdy, Brassfield!

Just a quick post for today...

One thing I know about master teachers is that they are able to seemlessly incorporate mathematical vocabulary into the everyday lives of their students.It's so "under the radar" that the kids don't even know they are learning, but they sure are.

I saw a terrific example of this the other day in a second grade classroom. A master teacher was taking attendance and I happened to be in the room. Mind you, we are still in the first month of school, yet these kids were like little mathematical Jedi masters because they had clearly been taught to participate from the very beginning and this was all part of the routine.

The teacher said, "Table 1, I see that there are 4 of you here today. There are normally 6 of you, so how many are missing?" She continued around the room this way. Then she said, "OK, I have 4 at table one, 5 at table 2, 6 at table 3 and 6 at table 4. How many is that all together? The class took a moment to think and I observed several of them using the hundreds charts on the table, a few of them looking up at the number line posted on the wall, and still others jotting things down at their desks. The teacher then went on to remind the students that there are 24 kids in her class and asked them to determine how many students must be absent based on the total number of kids in attendance that day. This was rich, relevant, and really fun for everyone.

Just another day in the life at our AMAZING school. Go, Brassfield Bears! Keep rockin' that math!

So, how could YOU, as parents, incorporate a little math into your daily lives at home? Tweet me at @llpeluso or e-mail me at lpeluso-fleming@wcpss.net.