Kid's can go years through school without understanding numbers and their values. It is much like those students who can decode text perfectly, but have no idea what the words mean... and in math, meaning is a huge part!
When I first started teaching math, I just hoped students would figure out how to do the task. I didn't care if they understood WHY they performed a certain action, as long as they got the right answer in the end and could repeat the process again for the test. Obviously, things have changed. Now I care that my students know and understand the strategies as well as the answers. I focused much more on problem-solving and going back to the basics so students had the foundational skills covered before they moved on to the tough stuff.
I am a big fan of EASY. Don't tell my students this, because I always tell them that anything worth doing is going to be tough, but I admit, I like easy, routine things in my classroom. I love it when students can pretty much run the class on their own, and I am only there to facilitate deeper learning. That is where "Number of the Day" came in to play. I needed something that was
- something anyone in my class could do
- easy for them to understand and do without my watching their every move
- entertaining enough that they wouldn't get distracted.
So here it is, one of my favourite strategies to teach understanding of number:
1. Choose a number.
2. Students must make that number as many ways as possible. For example, if the number is 20, they could multiply 10 by 2, add 10 twice, 30 - 10, 40/2 and on and on and on. My weakest student who struggled with basic adding could still find ways. My strongest student who was well into division found ways. They all could do it!
If you want to take it a step farther, use Math Journal Number of the Day printables... there are so many out there!
I will of course promote my own (only 80 cents on the TPT store! - Click to link to source for all images):
When I first started teaching math, I just hoped students would figure out how to do the task. I didn't care if they understood WHY they performed a certain action, as long as they got the right answer in the end and could repeat the process again for the test. Obviously, things have changed. Now I care that my students know and understand the strategies as well as the answers. I focused much more on problem-solving and going back to the basics so students had the foundational skills covered before they moved on to the tough stuff.
I am a big fan of EASY. Don't tell my students this, because I always tell them that anything worth doing is going to be tough, but I admit, I like easy, routine things in my classroom. I love it when students can pretty much run the class on their own, and I am only there to facilitate deeper learning. That is where "Number of the Day" came in to play. I needed something that was
- something anyone in my class could do
- easy for them to understand and do without my watching their every move
- entertaining enough that they wouldn't get distracted.
So here it is, one of my favourite strategies to teach understanding of number:
1. Choose a number.
2. Students must make that number as many ways as possible. For example, if the number is 20, they could multiply 10 by 2, add 10 twice, 30 - 10, 40/2 and on and on and on. My weakest student who struggled with basic adding could still find ways. My strongest student who was well into division found ways. They all could do it!
If you want to take it a step farther, use Math Journal Number of the Day printables... there are so many out there!
I will of course promote my own (only 80 cents on the TPT store! - Click to link to source for all images):