What is your goal when teaching math to students?
Is your main goal for students to pass a test at the end of the year? Or is your goal to allow students to reason about patterns and use creativity to figure out solutions to problems, setting them up to make better decisions in their life?
Depending on what your goal is as a teacher or as a parent, you will teach math differently.
If your ultimate goal is for your students to pass the end of the year test, then you will be content in just teaching your students the state math standards. But if you want more for your students, if you want to empower them to analyze and evaluate information and to have math in their toolbox of decision-making life skills, then you need to help your students see the math that is all around them.
We use mathematics to deal with problems every day, ranging from how many more minutes we will need to wait in line to analyzing data to determine the spread of an unknown virus. Math is more than numbers and formulas; math is a means by which we can reason about the uncertainty in life.
I often hear the phrase, “math is all around us.” I agree, but only with an addendum. Math is all around us, but only those who train their brains to see the math will actually notice it. Life is not a math textbook with the problems from the same concept neatly put on a page for us.
So how do we help students train their brains to “see” the math around them so that they can reason about patterns and use creativity to figure out solutions to problems?
There are several instructional activities that we can do with students that help them see the math, including certain math routines, 3-Act Tasks, and Using Real Photos.
Let’s focus on the Using Real Photos instructional strategy. It’s easy to implement but will have large gains in growing students’ mathematical thinking and reasoning.
Here are a few activities we can do Using Real Photos:
- Notice & Wonder
Show a real photo and ask students: What do you notice? What do you wonder? Let students be curious and creative. Do they see the math in the photo?
- What’s the Question
Show a real photo and have students ask a math question about the photo. Have a discussion about the math questions or students can answer each other’s math questions.
- Tell the Story
Show a real photo and have students create a story problem based on the photo. Students can solve each other’s problems.
- Here’s the Answer, What’s the Question
Show a real photo and give the students an answer. They must come up with a question or problem to get to that answer. This task challenges students more because it is not as open-ended.
- Problem Solving Mat
Students can use a real photo of a scene to act out a story problem. This task is an engaging way to help students understand the action of a story problem.
Where do we get our pictures for these activities?
- We take the pictures ourselves! Math is everywhere: When we cook, when we are outside in nature, when we are playing with toys with our children, when we are on vacation, etc.
- There are amazing free stock images you can download from https://www.pexels.com/
- You can also search in images on Google.
- You can also use pictures from friends on social media (with their permission).
Reflect on your goals for your students this year and determine what you will emphasize in math. You can still teach the state math standards, but continue to open your students’ eyes about the math around them. By helping your students train their brains to see the math in the world, you are teaching them to see patterns, reason and use creativity to figure out solutions. What is your ultimate goal for your students?
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