This has always been one of my favorite cartoons. As I wrote in my first article, it is really sad to me when very young kids have already got it in their heads that they are “bad at math.”
Part of my job when I assess a child is to discover what their math related strengths are. Every child has them. Very often the same children who struggle with “school math” (heavy on word problems and numerical calculations) are very strong spatially and visually. I love to build on those strengths.
One of my favorite stories is of the second grader who came to me telling me that other kids said he was dumb because he didn’t know how to subtract with regrouping. I had already assessed that he had an understanding of place value (first thing I check as it is usually the root of problems with math) so I knew this was something I could teach him, and promised him I would. “First, though,” I told him, “I want you to try something else because I think you are going to be really good at this.”
I gave him tangram puzzles, an ancient Chinese puzzle that kids always think will be easy (because they look kind of like pattern blocks,) but is actually quite challenging. Most kids attempt them by moving and flipping the pieces; this boy did something completely different. He pushed all the pieces off to the side and studied them. A minute later he said, “I think I’ve got it!” and immediately moved every one into the correct place. I had not and still have never seen a child able to solve one of these puzzles for the first time completely mentally. He then sat there for an hour doing every tangram puzzle I had. It amazed me. “Don’t ever let anyone call you dumb in math again,” I said to him. And then and there I knew that I was going to use geometry to teach him operations.
For the next few weeks we worked with area, perimeter, and volume. We calculated the differences in measurement between the different shapes. We did a lot of double digit addition and subtraction but we did it using hands on materials and mental strategies.
After about a month I said we were going to get more heavily into multiplication and division and needed to make sure everyone was good on their addition and subtraction.For the first time since he had been with me I gave this boy a page of subtraction with regrouping problems. “This is so easy!” he said, and completed every one quickly and correctly. “Do you remember what you didn’t know how to do when you met me?” I asked him. His whole face lit up. “When did I learn how to do that?” he asked. By building on his strengths, we had developed his area of weakness in a stress free way.
For More Information
For the importance of teaching subtraction as difference, click here.
For more on teaching area and perimeter, click here.
For more on using tangrams, click here.
Next topic: It All Comes Down to Place Value