The Pursuit of Place Value Understanding, Part III

On May 23, 2010 in my very first blog, Teaching Math; It’s All in the Balance, I shared my view that both the traditional and reform camps have something to offer math educators. Basically, traditionalists believe skills should be taught based on algorithms, formulas and step-by-step procedures; reformists support a more inquiry-based approach that emphasizes developing

The Pursuit of Place Value Understanding, Part III Read More »

Use Angry Birds to Teach Math, Pt. 2

In the previous blog Use Angry Birds to Teach Math (see below) we shared a plan to introduce students to parabolas. Students can follow Bruner’s CRA teaching method from tossed-beanbags to the parabolas in Angry Birds to graphing-quadratic-equations in Elevated Math. The popularity of our blog post has inspired us to include an excerpt from the Elevated Math lesson.

Use Angry Birds to Teach Math, Pt. 2 Read More »

Whole Number Division with Semi-Concrete Base Ten Blocks

Helping children develop conceptual understandings, making math learning relevant, and integrating discovery and skills-based learning are all important. In the blog post The First Steps in Developing Conceptual Understanding of Place Value I shared my 2nd grade grandson’s experience in learning two and three digit addition and subtraction.  He had been learning to add and subtract digits

Whole Number Division with Semi-Concrete Base Ten Blocks Read More »

Relevance: Discovery, Skills-based, and Manipulatives

Recently I penned My Last Math Class and shared how I made math learning real for an unique group of students.  Following on its heels, I shared information on the 3 R’s —Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships— coined in 2010 by The International Center for Leadership in Education. Now I want to expand this theme into another area

Relevance: Discovery, Skills-based, and Manipulatives Read More »