I once had a parent very upset with me because I gave her
son a math assignment to do with a partner. “Are you trying to teach my child math or are you trying to
teach them social skills?” Well,
both.
Times have changed since I was a student and since many of
today’s parents were students. It
is true that my middle school math class was silent. No talking was allowed. We all sat in rows alphabetically. I sat behind the same boy for all of 6th, 7th,
and 8th grade. I never
talked to him or any other students in class nor did we ever share our ideas in
front of the class.
If one talks to adult mathematicians, however, it is clear
that the work of a mathematician is social work. Solutions are rarely arrived at on one’s own. It is through collaboration and
discussion that solutions are found.
The new Common Core Math Practices reflect this. One of them reads: “Construct viable
arguments and critique the reasoning of others.” Students need to learn to clearly explain their thinking to
others. They also need to learn
how to disagree with and question the work of others in a tactful manner.
My husband and I recently remodeled our 50 year-old
kitchen. He was very invested in
the color of the new floor. He
really wanted a deep reddish color.
I wasn’t focused on the floor at all and was ready to go with the first
color suggested by the contractor.
I was focused on the backsplash and what kind of tiles to use there. My husband wanted the backsplash to be plain white. By bringing our two different
perspectives together, we were able to create a finished product that is more
complete and more elegant than we could have done on our own.
I know you have had this experience too. You worked on a work project, a house
project, or had a discussion with someone. By bringing your ideas together the final result was much
stronger.
A math problem flows in the same way. Yes, we can often solve a problem by
using algorithms to get the solution but another person might have a more
elegant way of getting to the solution.
Their path might take into account patterns or ways of grouping numbers
thus making the problem so much simpler than you originally thought. They might have attended to a piece of
the problem that you hadn’t considered carefully enough, making the final
solution more complete. In
addition, the sharing of ideas makes each person reconsider their perspective
in light of new information and either reject their first idea or add to it.
By talking about math with our children, we can also help
them see new connections in math and think about concepts in ways that may be
different or new to our children.
We also help them learn that math is part of the real world. It is not just something that is done
inside of a math classroom. We can
work together on sudoku puzzles on an airplane or play Blockus together in the
evening. It is more enjoyable if
it is shared.
It is funny to think back to my middle school math classroom. In addition to regular math class, I
was on the math team. The same
teacher practiced with us after school, solving complex problems together as a
group but during our regular class time we were in those rows. Why did the teacher teach the two
groups so differently? The
implication was that kids who were good at math should talk about it and those
who weren’t should listen quietly to the teacher’s ideas. Maybe those of us on the team got
better at math BECAUSE we talked about it after school.
Common Core directs all students today to be doing math like
mathematicians. We want them to
talk and share ideas and learn from each other. Not only will this prepare them better mathematically but it
will make math feel like math is a part of their whole lives, not just their
school lives.
