When Kate asked me this morning for “Spider Toast” I was stunned. What was I going to do with that request?
I pulled out some geometry and was able to convert a square into an eight legged spider!
It’s a great exercise for older kids to do for younger kids. It reinforces geometry and fractions, and everyone gets to have fun.
Start with a square — a piece of toast.
Unfortunately, bread doesn’t come in a variety of shapes. But with a knife, your’re armed to be creative with the geometry!
Toast your bread and spread cream cheese or peanut butter on it.
Use the steps below to cut out and assemble the Spider Toast.
Notice the geometry while making Spider Toast.
1. First, mentally divide the toast into thirds. Don’t cut anything yet.
2. Next, divide the toast into sevenths and cut out the shaded portions in the picture below.
In this step, you’re multiplying fractions. First we divided the bread into three pieces. Then we divided each of those into seven pieces to get 21 pieces. Each little rectangle is 1/21 of the bread.
This is a graphic representation of 1/3×1/7 = 1/21.
Make your Spider Toast face!
3. Assemble the cut-outs to be the face. If you center them just right, you’ll have 1/6 of the width of the bread left on both sides!
4. Smooth out the face so you can’t see the seams. Use blueberries for eyes and cut a crescent of cheese for the smile.
Go for it!
Make this morning nutritional, fun and educational! Add a glass of milk and a brief discussion of arachnids, and award yourself “Super Parent of the Day.”
And don’t forget to share how it went in the comments!
Children look to their parents when forming opinions — including developing anxieties. Check out this infographic to see where you might be — and how your parents influenced you.
Every parent is concerned that their children will not get what they need to be successful. Especially in math.
Instead of worrying, you can take action. And it’s not hard.
Use “big” math words.
Don’t refrain from teaching your child math words just because they’re big or seem complicated to you.
This sentence, “May I have milk, please,” has five simple words. To a grown-up.
But to a child, a five word sentence is no different than a five syllable word. Like, “parallelogram.”
In fact, if you teach your child to count to 10, it’s the same as teaching your child an eleven syllable word. (Seven has two syllables.)
To put this in perspective, the word overintellectualization has only ten syllables!
O – ver – in – tel – lec – tu – a – li – za – tion
One – two – three – four – five – six – seven – eight – nine – ten
In fact, overintellectualization is easier to say when you look at it like this.
Try some words!
Give these math words a shot with your little ones:
Parallelogram (pear-uh-lell-uh-gram)
A parallelogram is a shape. It has four sides. The sides that are across from each other are parallel to each other. Which means a square is a type of parallelogram. And so is a rectangle.
So the next time you see a square or a rectangle, say to your child, “Hey, there’s a rectangle. It’s also a parallelogram. Can you say parallelogram?”
Hypotenuse (hi-pot-uh-news)
The hypotenuse is any diagonal that you take instead of walking first to the left and then to the right (or vice versa). So the next time you walk across the street at a diagonal, say to your child, “Were walking the hypotenuse. Can you say hypotenuse?”
Coplanar (co-plane-er)
Any two things that are on the same flat surface are coplanar. Like two people standing on the floor together.
When you’re around stairs, stand on a different step than your child. Say, “Look, we are not coplanar.”
Then move to the same step as your child and say, “Now we are coplanar. We are on the same flat surface. Can you say coplanar?”
Go do it. Have fun!
You don’t have to know the formal definitions of your math words. Just know a place or two where you can demonstrate them in your own world.
This is an open letter, please feel free to share onTwitter, via a printed copy or on your favorite social media site.
Dear Mr. President and Mr. Romney,
Thank you for supporting education and for being dedicated to improving the math learning in the United States. Americans all know that we may be in trouble when it comes to competing with the world in STEM fields — now and in the foreseeable future.
I am not writing to give my method of how to fix the schools. We have plenty of those — both in theory and in action.
Instead, I am writing to ask that you direct some of your considerable support towards a mission that is in great need of it: parent involvement for positive influence in math.
WHAT’S MISSING
Consider the influence that math-anxious grownups, such as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, have on young children. Research has shown that social modeling — parents saying, “I was bad at math too, honey” — has a significant impact on the attitudes and level of engagement kids have when going into a math classroom.
All the money invested in and all the programs that we currently use are ineffective if our children see their role models openly announcing that they don’t like or do math.
What if we could get parents to notice the math that they do effortlessly all day, every day, and announce THAT to their children? Children would then see that math is something done daily — not just in a classroom with pencil and paper. Children would enter their math lessons excited to engage in the next math-related discussion. And research bears out that this engagement is what facilitates true learning.
WILL IT WORK?
We have seen this work in the literacy movement of the past decades. Reading is Fundamental, and its competitive and companion programs, have created a society where parents not only read to their children on a daily basis, but also read to their children in utero!
How ridiculous to consider that reading to a child at such a young age will help them learn to read! But what it does do — and why the practice is effective and encouraged — is turn parents into positive reading role models. We have turned a society that was once comfortable with illiteracy into a society of readers. All from positive social modeling!
And what is lacking in our STEM education, nationwide, is this positive influence from adults towards children regarding math. But it CAN be done!
WE NEED YOUR HELP
Please integrate a parent involvement element in your education programs to help parents learn to to be a positive influence in math. We’re working at a grass roots level but we can enact this change much more quickly if we have your help. We can stop leaving the children behind if we get the parents to start exerting educational influence early.
With kindest regards, Bon Crowder, Writer & Publisher, Math Mom & Education Advocate
This is an open letter, please feel free to share onTwitter/X, via a printed copy or on your favorite social media site.
Who said it first? Maybe Jerry Mortensen. Maybe George Phillips.
But hundreds, maybe thousands, of math teachers have said it and put it on their syllabus.
Because it’s true.
But does this mean that students have to “practice, practice, practice”?
And what exactly does that mean?
Say to me “practice, practice, practice,” and I’ll growl at you.
You’d might as well say to me, “I don’t know squat about your learning style and aren’t interested in finding out. But I know that you’d better do all 50 problems or you’ll lose points on your homework grade.”
So I prefer to think of this triad mantra in three phases: Practice Phase 1, Practice Phase 2 and Practice Phase 3…
Practice Phase 1 is isolated practice.
When a student learns a new math concept, he or she should apply it a few times, by itself. This is what’s offered in the problem sets of textbooks: isolated practice of the new math skill.
This practice is also an assessment phase. At many points here, the student can ask, “Can I do this? Do I understand this?”
Regardless of the answer, the student can proceed to Practice 2.
Why “regardless of the answer”?
Practice phase 1 is what’s commonly referred to when grownups say “practice, practice, practice.” But over practicing can be detrimental.
Some kids need to nail the isolated practice before moving on.
Some kids.
And some kids will become annoyed with it and need to move on to see the value of the skill.
Refrain from giving 50 problems just because “practice makes perfect.” It doesn’t. Practice sometimes makes frustration.
Let your child move on to practice phase 2. You can even let them skip assigned problems. She or he may return to the isolated practice in phase 1 later or mentally isolate the skill within the “bigger picture” in phase 2 or 3.
Practice Phase 2 is “big picture” practice.
This practice phase helps solidify the math skill. It should teach the integration of the skill into the full toolbox of math skills.
The math skills ancillary to the main skill being practiced, are themselves being practiced (hopefully in phase 2 or 3). How fluent a student is in these ancillary skills has an impact on his or her perception of achievement of the main skill.
Textbooks offer a problem set for this phase, but it’s often disguised. It just looks like harder problems.
It’s helpful to point out the ancillary skills being practiced. This helps affirm how much a child is learning and aids in building confidence.
Practice Phase 3 is ongoing.
Real skill is realized when it’s integrated without thought. For me this was always at least six months after first learning a skill. Sometimes it happened years later.
And there are some things I didn’t “get” until decades later.
Which means that practicing a skill must be continuous – even if a student doesn’t fully understand the logic underlying the process.
Of course this phase is subtle if not completely invisible. But instructors can point out when the “old skills” come into play long after they are learned.
Example: Factoring
Skill: Use the distributive property to remove a common factor from an expression.
Practice Phase 1 – Isolated
\(3x + 3y = 3(x + y)\)
Or with letters:
\(xy + xz = x(y + z)\)
Practice Phase 2 – Big Picture
Here the skill is integrated with factoring numbers:
At some point a student might notice that combining like terms is equivalent to factoring the common term then combining the numbers, like this:
\(3x + 5x = (3 + 5)x = (8)x = 8x\)
So, really – how much practice and when?
A student should practice in phase 1 until he or she is comfortable. Remember, over practice can be annoying and seem punitive.
And punitive math is never effective.
A student should practice in phase 2 based on his or her comfort level. This is a great time for parents/instructors to notice weaknesses in other skills, too.
Practice phase 3 is, well, ongoing.
It’s really helpful to note, out loud, where old math skills come into play. Instructors should always be on the lookout for ways to do this.
Even things like long division show up in the more advanced skill of polynomial division.
Pay attention to your student.
Some kids may respond to the “practice, practice, practice” mantra. Some may get annoyed at it (like me). If your child needs and wants more top-down learning, allow it.
Don’t force phase 1 practice – offer it.
And if you see a deficiency in an ancillary skill in phase 2, bring them back to phase 1 on that one.
Math really isn’t a spectator sport. But that doesn’t mean you have to drill like crazy on it. Adjust the teaching and practicing according to the child.
There were several thoughtful and intense comments to the Sylvan commercial. As promised, here is a follow-up article based on the comments. A special thanks to those commenting on the video, as this is what keeps the math-revolution conversation going!
There is definitely a disconnect from a service or product and those advertising or making the sales. I’m sure a lot of tutors/teachers at Sylvan wouldn’t endorse the commercial or would go about it a different way.
Our intent wasn’t to beat up on Sylvan for trying to make a buck. We wanted to bring the commercial’s message to the attention of readers more as a way of asking:
What does it say that a (probably) well paid ad dept. thinks that this would be effective (which it is)? And what does that say about us as a society (‘math stinks, it’s something to fear, I don’t even want to try’)?
How about the fear?
What you don’t know or understand is often scary.
You may have memorized some math at some point, then brain dumped it on some test. If so, do you really understand this math you “learned”?
What’s more frightening: wondering what the monster looks like, or seeing him?
So they will never show you what your “math monster” looks like.
But what if they did? Is the math monster that bad?
What would it look like to help make math less scary for parents? Could parents model this “okay-ness” to their kids? Or better yet, would they have the confidence to help little Billy with homework?
It’s not going to happen if parents really believe they are helpless and shouldn’t even try. The kids see this and do the same thing 25 years later to their kids. (Perpetual pattern?)
It’s ok, maybe even cool to say “I’m bad at math”.
This makes the commercial palatable, or even comical, to some who may relate.
But if this commercial featured a mom running away from little Billy when he asked, “Mom, can you help me with my reading?” folks would be offended!
Let’s make math okay for parents too.
I’m not saying places like Sylvan shouldn’t exist. To the contrary, actually. They provide a wonderful service.
But if parents are running – and encouraged to run – from helping their kids, they are sending a message. Kids see this and learn, “Mom doesn’t do or like math, so it’s really not that important.”
Little Billy might end up passing, even making an A, but he’ll continue the pattern with his kids.
Wil showed up at the Math Shack this morning talking about a commercial he saw on TV last night. “Wow, this is what parents are up against!” he said shaking his head.
Check it out for yourself:
We’ve been talking about it all morning. Before we post our thoughts, we’d love to have yours.
What’s the intended message?
What’s the real or perceived message?
How does it affect your view on math as a parent?
Share your opinion in the comments and let others know via twitter.
The math education revolution has been growing. Last year Salman Khan and the Gates Foundation brought Khan Academy to everyone in the world with a computer.
Dan Meyer jumped into the ring with his math class makeover. With his Any Questions? and Three Acts, he’s fighting the good fight to get kids to learn math.
Social learning math games like Sokikom, iPhone apps like Motion Math and face to face programs like Mathnasium have joined the math education revolution, too. Thousands of tutors are taking part.
Experts all over are helping kids understand that math is important, necessary and valuable to learn.
Kids still resist math homework and avoid participating in math class. Why?
Because everyone knows that math is boring, hard and has nothing to do with real life. Nobody really likes it – unless they’re an engineer or accountant.
Math teachers are mean and professors write math books just to mess people up.
Everyone knows this.
Who is this “Everyone”?
Grownups.
Yup – you and me.
When you hear people talk about math or math education, what do they say? Anything positive?
The best I’ve ever heard was, “Actually, I kinda like math.”
Which means, “I know it’s not cool, and I’m sorry for saying it, but I like math.”
Would you do something nobody liked?
No! Of course you wouldn’t. At least not on a regular basis.
If everyone you knew and respected avoided something – you would too. If all your friends jumped off a cliff – so would you.
We’re human. That’s what we do. We stick together.
So we’re losing the math education revolution.
By the very design of our society, Khan Academy, Sokikom, teachers, tutors and everything designed to help kids learn math are failures. The math eduction revolution is bust.
We want kids to learn math because it’s important. Math is necessary and valuable to learn.
But since nobody really likes math, or even does math, kids aren’t buying it.
And I can’t blame them.
Is it fixable?
At this point it’s easy to throw in the towel. Give up. Quit. Decide that the world is going to end up like that movie Idiocracy.
But we’re so close to the solution.
The solution involves something that’s very cheap – and research based!
Ready for it?
The missing piece of the math education revolution is that we need to teach parents positive influence skills to encourage math.
What? Will that work?
We have seen this happen with reading – remember the Reading is Fundamental campaign of the 80s? It’s still going strong along with other programs like the “Read 3” program from HEB. Parents are encouraged, even pushed, by teachers to read to their children every day.
These efforts have changed the culture in our world so that reading is viewed as something “everybody does.” Parents now have positive influence skills in encouraging reading.
And those skills have extended across our entire culture!
That’s the missing piece!
Parents can develop the same skills for encouraging math. And when we do, everything will change.
Just like it did with reading.
When parents start talking about math in a positive way, all of society will.
The math education revolution will succeed!
It’s your turn…
If you’re a parent, learn how to use some positive math talk. Join a program like That’s Math, read articles on Math for Grownups or any other math blog that strikes your fancy.
If you’re a math teacher, blogger, tutor or developer of math products – make something teaching parents how to talk positively about math. We’re developing That’s Math, but there needs to be more of these.
Yup – only three. Said by you, the parent and grownup. Say them loud, say them often. And contact me when you wonder where math is in your world – or leave a comment here!
