One of our big School Improvement Plan goals for this year is to increase students ability to express their understanding of math concepts in multiple different ways. For many of our kids, math is about getting the right answer and then moving on without really understanding why the steps they just did worked.
Through our Math Journal initiative in grades K-6 this year, we will be having students utilize multiple ways to show the same understanding with pictures, words, and numbers to represent the mind map that is in their brain for how the numbers are working together to make the final answer.
One of the most basic things we see every day especially with our upper grades kids, is counting on their fingers to figure our a basic fact like 6 +7. They are often afraid to take a risk to think differently than the old method they know will work (counting on their fingers). Or they are afraid that they might get a wrong answer. We have to encourage risk taking and our math journals are designed as a safe place for kids to begin exploring new ways of thinking with math. The goal is that they begin to piece together the many ways that numbers fit together.
This short video below explains a little bit about what I mean. You may want to expand this video to full screen to see it best.
Here are some first grade friends using objects and tally makes to build their understanding of numbers.
Here's a fourth grade friend getting her thoughts down.
Some of our 6th grade mathematicians are working together to explain their thinking.
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